Christmas Eve 2018 was the day 8-year-old Felipe Vasquez died from flu complications in U.S. Customs and Border Patrol custody. Since then, two more children have died from flu complications in CBP custody, and Doctors for Camp Closure are still trying to make sure they are the last to die from what could have been prevented with a $10-$15 vaccine.
D4CC is a non-partisan organization that was founded in October and consists of more than 2,000 physicians and healthcare professionals who oppose the inhumane detention of migrants and refugees who are attempting to enter the U.S., according to their website.
After privately funding the purchase of 120 flu vaccines, gathering consent forms in multiple languages and finding 20 licensed California physicians that were available, D4CC organized a time to show up at the CBP detention facility in San Ysidro and request access to administer vaccines Dec. 10.
Their efforts follow the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommendation that migrants who are 6 months or older be vaccinated for the flu at the earliest point of entry.
“We put everything into place to provide what would have essentially been pilot flu vaccination program so that we could show them how that would work, because we keep hearing this excuse about feasibility,” D4CC co-founder and New York pediatrician Dr. Danielle Deines said.
After border patrol agents were unresponsive to their request at the San Ysidro facility, Deines said she and Hannah Janeway, an emergency medicine physician and D4CC member, met with five border patrol agents, including the Chief Border Patrol Officer at CBP headquarters in Eastlake the next day.
The meetings ultimately resulted in them being denied access to administer vaccines. The licensed physicians along with immigrants advocates proceeded to protest outside the facility, which resulted in six people, including at least two doctors, being arrested by federal officers.
Those who were arrested were released with a citation for failure to comply with directions of a federal officer and a notice to appear in court, according to reports by The San Diego Tribune.
In an official statement sent to The Star News a CBP spokesperson said it has never been a CBP practice to administer vaccines and individuals should generally not be held for longer than 72 hours in either CBP hold rooms or holding facilities.
“As a law enforcement agency, and due to the short term nature of CBP holding and other logistical challenges, operating a vaccine program is not feasible,” the statement reads.
According to a 2019 report by the United States Immigration Policy Center, for asylum-seeking heads of households, the average length of time spent in immigration detention was 3.4 days and 8.3 percent of asylum-seeking heads of households reported spending five days or more in immigration detention.
A CBP spokesperson also said that “individuals with the flu are handled as appropriate depending on the specific circumstances” and migrants with the flu may be diagnosed and treated on site by CBP medical personnel or referred to the local health system for diagnosis and treatment.
But Deines said with kids, it can be a matter of hours between seeming okay and dying from the flu — and rather than treatment after the fact, CBP needs to take preventative measures.
“Kids under five and adults over 65 are the most at risk but when you put people into a detention center kind of situation where they’re in really crowded spaces and really poor hygiene because they’re not being given access to soap and ways to keep their hands clean, the flu is just an epidemic waiting to happen,” Deines said.
Approximately 40 percent of the asylum-seeking families that the San Diego Rapid Response Network assisted were traveling with children five years or younger, according to the USIPC report. One in three asylum-seeking heads of households reported issues related to conditions in immigration detention, their treatment in detention or medical issues.
Despite CBP’s refusal to allow doctors to administer flu vaccines, Deines said D4CC is determined to implement a pilot vaccine program and their next step is trying to reach David Tarantino, the senior medical advisor for CBP.
She estimates that she and the other D4CC co-founders, Bonnie Arzuaga and Marie DeLuca, dedicate 30 hours a week to D4CC outside of their full time careers as doctors.
“At this point I couldn’t really fathom not keeping going because seeing how these kids died, I’ve seen how much risk we’re intentionally putting people at and I can’t live with that. I can’t just sit back and complain about it on Facebook or something like that, I can’t,” Deines said
