Concerns are growing about the health of migrant children in outdoor detention facilities
For Dr. Theresa Cheng, the scene was “apocalyptic.”She had come to Valley of the Moon, an open-air detention site in rural San Diego's Mountain Empire, to provide voluntary medical care to asylum seekers who had breached the U.S.-Mexico border wall and were waiting to be arrested by the American authorities.Among the crowds at this and other sites, he found children with deep lacerations, broken bones, fever, diarrhea, vomiting and even seizures. Some hid in overflowing dumpsters and porta-potties. An asthmatic boy without an inhaler panted in acrid smoke from brush and garbage fires, which had been lit for warmth.With immigration processing centers at capacity, migrants, including unaccompanied minors, wait for hours – sometimes days – in outdoor holding areas, where housing, food a...