{"id":674385,"date":"2019-02-03T20:00:05","date_gmt":"2019-02-04T03:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=674385"},"modified":"2019-02-05T03:12:30","modified_gmt":"2019-02-05T10:12:30","slug":"southern-nm-medical-facilities-strain-to-meet-needs-of-vulnerable-migrants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2019\/02\/southern-nm-medical-facilities-strain-to-meet-needs-of-vulnerable-migrants\/","title":{"rendered":"Southern NM medical facilities strain to meet needs of vulnerable migrants"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_674392\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 771px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-674392\" src=\"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Border_Patrol_photo_306_migrants_Jan25-771x488.jpg\" alt=\"Migrants\" width=\"771\" height=\"488\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Border_Patrol_photo_306_migrants_Jan25-771x488.jpg 771w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Border_Patrol_photo_306_migrants_Jan25-336x213.jpg 336w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Border_Patrol_photo_306_migrants_Jan25-768x486.jpg 768w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Border_Patrol_photo_306_migrants_Jan25-1170x741.jpg 1170w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Border_Patrol_photo_306_migrants_Jan25.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 771px) 100vw, 771px\" \/><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">U.S. Border Patrol<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">A government photo showing a group of 306 migrants at the Antelope Wells border crossing in the early hours of Jan. 25.<\/p><\/div>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">ANTELOPE WELLS \u2013 Half a dozen children gazed up at the camera, their eyes wide beneath hats and hoodies, hands buried in their pockets or nuzzled in the necks of their mothers. Floodlights illuminated some faces and left others in darkness. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">It was after midnight in New Mexico\u2019s remote Bootheel region, and with the temperature hovering near freezing, a Border Patrol agent snapped the photo. Nearly 150 miles away, the tiny emergency room of the Gila Regional Medical Center in Silver City \u2013 the nearest 24-hour hospital \u2013 was on notice. Some of the children would need medical care for illness, others for injury. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">\u201cThe Border Patrol has been very cooperative in giving us advanced warning,\u201d said Doug Oakes, director of marketing for GRMC. \u201cThere are just so many. They are dehydrated. They are often sick.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">As the Trump administration shifted tactics to deter asylum seekers from crossing the border, authorities in New Mexico say the humanitarian needs have only grown.<\/span><\/p>\n<aside class=\"module align-left half type-aside\">\n<h3>About this article<\/h3>\n<p>This article comes from\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/searchlightnm.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Searchlight New Mexico<\/a>, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization dedicated to investigative journalism. Support its work\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsmatch.org\/organizations\/searchlight-new-mexico\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">The most pressing concern is health care, especially for kids. Two Guatemalan children died in Border Patrol custody in December, underscoring the extreme risks the youngest migrants face on the arduous, more than 2,000-mile journey.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">Hospitals and clinics from Silver City to Deming, Lordsburg, and Alamogordo have treated children for flu, dehydration, rashes, scabies, sprains and other ailments. Border Patrol reported that one of the adults in the group of 306 that arrived recently was suffering from a \u201cflesh-eating bacteria,\u201d or necrotizing fasciitis \u2013 an infection that rarely spreads person to person. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">Dehydration, poor nutrition and harsh weather leave migrants susceptible to stomach viruses and the flu, and then there is the emotional trauma of leaving behind family and country. For the kids, \u201cthe risks are enormous,\u201d said Marlene Baska, a physician assistant who runs a clinic in Animas \u2013 a Bootheel ranching town with a population of 267 \u2013 that sees children in Border Patrol custody. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">While overall apprehensions remain near a 40-year low, there has been an uptick in family arrivals \u2013 especially in the state\u2019s remote southwestern corner.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">The large numbers of single parents traveling with one child is a signal, CBP officials say, that migrants recognize the value of traveling with a child. A 1997 court order bars the holding of children in immigration detention facilities for more than three weeks. The order was reaffirmed after the Trump administration separated thousands of migrant parents from their children last summer.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">Immigrant advocates also point to what are called push factors \u2013 the very real forces of poverty, political strife and gang violence that have engulfed Central America. Whatever the reason spurring parents to travel with children, it has spelled crisis for Hidalgo County, which encompasses the Bootheel.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">On Dec. 26, Hidalgo County Manager Tisha Green fired off \u201can urgent request\u201d to then governor-elect Michelle Lujan Grisham and the state\u2019s congressional delegation pleading for assistance.<\/span><!--more--><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">\u201cOur Hidalgo County Emergency Medical Services team consists of seven full-time employees and five volunteers\u201d who cover 5,000 square miles, she wrote. \u201cAt the very least we can say they are stretched very thin. Please send emergency medical services to assist us with the overwhelming number of immigrants coming in daily.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">Since October, at least 26 groups of more than 100 people have crossed near the tiny Antelope Wells port of entry \u2013 a more than 200 percent increase from the eight large groups reported in<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>fiscal year 2018, according to Border Patrol. Among the largest groups were two in January, of 247 and 306 people, that swamped the few agents on overnight duty at a forward operating base at the crossing.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">Antelope Wells is hardly a place, other than for port infrastructure at the terminus of State Road 81. Ranch land sprawls to the Hatchet Mountains to the east and the Animas Mountains to the west. Winter nights out here are dark, starry and dangerously cold. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">Hidalgo Medical Services chief executive Dan Otero says the nonprofit\u2019s clinics have seen an average of 30 migrants a month for the past four months \u2013 six times the usual rate.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">Meanwhile, the volume of ambulance runs by Hidalgo County Emergency Medical Services has jumped threefold, according to director David Whipple. When the group of 306 arrived at Antelope Wells, his six-person team transported three patients to hospitals. One run \u2013 from Lordsburg to the border crossing to Deming and back \u2013 took six hours.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">\u201cBorder Patrol needs more than EMTs,\u201d Whipple said. \u201cThey need an RN or PA or someone of a higher level, so people get proper screenings. But they are not set up for it. They were never set up for families coming across.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">In December, after the deaths of the two Guatemalan children, Department of Homeland Security Sec. Kirstjen Nielsen issued a directive that all children under the age of 10 be screened by a medical professional. Since then, DHS has brought in medical personnel and, according to Border Patrol, will provide 24\/7 medical service at the Lordsburg station beginning Feb. 1.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">But local hospitals and clinics are likely to continue to see migrant patients needing acute care.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">Unlike the churches in Do\u00f1a Ana County sheltering migrants released by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the hospitals expect to be reimbursed for the health care they provide. Annually, ICE spends more than $250 million on health care for detainees, according to an agency spokesman. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">The funds have been slow to be disbursed. As of December, Hidalgo County had recovered just 40 percent of claims submitted to the federal government \u2013 a financial strain on a sparsely populated county that is perennially short on cash. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">With fewer than 5,000 residents, \u201cwe have a very low tax base,\u201d Green said. \u201cOur revenues are very limited. Our ambulance fund should be self-sufficient, but it is supported by county fund dollars.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hospitals and clinics from Silver City to Deming, Lordsburg, and Alamogordo have recently treated children.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":674392,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[3726,3724,140,117,3725],"class_list":["post-674385","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-animas","tag-antelope-wells","tag-border-and-immigration","tag-health-care","tag-hildalgo-county"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/674385","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=674385"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/674385\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":674395,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/674385\/revisions\/674395"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/674392"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=674385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=674385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=674385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}