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NYC is rocked by cases of Victorian-era disease in migrant center - as critics blame Biden's porous border
New York City health officials are on high alert after detecting measles at a migrant shelter in Brooklyn.
Two people have tested positive for the highly contagious disease at the Clinton Hill shelter, which houses around 3,000 migrants seeking legal entry into the US.
Officials at the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene are coordinating with local hospitals and have quarantined the patients on a single floor of the facility.
Asylum seekers are not required to be immunized when they reach the US, meaning many may not be up to date on vaccinations the CDC considers essential.
The cases come on the heels of another in a Chicago migrant shelter in May, where a single case led to an outbreak of 57 cases in the city. Outbreaks of other diseases have also been recorded in migrant shelters across the US in recent years.
The Hall Street migrant shelter in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn, is shown. Two people there have been diagnosed with measles. Photo courtesy of Ben Fractenberg/THE CITY
The cases in New York come on the heels of another in a Chicago migrant shelter in May, where a single case led to an outbreak of 57 cases in the city. There have also been cases of tuberculosis reported in shelters across the city
Critics of the Biden administration have seized on outbreaks at detention centers to criticize what they have described as a porous southern border.
Customs and Border Protection apprehended a record 2.5 million migrants in 2023 but some estimates say more than 8.4 million have arrived since Biden took office.
The ages of the patients at the Hall Street migrant shelter in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn, have not been made public.
Measles is particularly dangerous for children, who have more vulnerable immune systems and are more likely to suffer severe effects such as brain inflammation leading to brain damage and pneumonia.
Health Commissioner Ashwin Vasan said Friday night: ‘The Health Department and Health + Hospitals are coordinating to ensure that anyone who’s been exposed gets the support and resources they need.
‘While measles may be an extremely contagious virus, the risk to the community is low as most New Yorkers are vaccinated against it.’
Asylum seekers are not required to be vaccinated against measles when they reach the US.
Most countries in Central America where many migrants originate, including Mexico, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala, and Panama have MMR vaccination rates that exceed 90 percent.
Venezuela's vaccination rate meanwhile is much lower at 82 percent.
Asylum seekers are not required to be immunized when they reach the US, meaning many may not be up to date on vaccinations the CDC considers essential
Many experts and Republican lawmakers have blamed the influx of migrants at the southern border for the spread of contagious diseases
But crowded conditions in migrant shelters are feared to be hotspots for infections.
The NYC Health + Hospitals Corporation operates the public hospital system in New York City, which includes hospitals like Bellevue Hospital and Kings County Hospital Center, located in Manhattan and Brooklyn, respectively.
Taxpayers fund these hospitals through city, state, and federal funds. The public hospital system also relies on patient revenue and government programs such as Medicaid and Medicare for additional funding.
Brooklyn City Council Member Crystal Hudson, who represents the area where the shelter is located, was outraged that the city rebuffed her efforts to provide vaccines to all shelter residents.
She said: ‘Our request for a vaccination van at an on-site resource fair organized by my office on June 1 was denied.
‘For months, I have been demanding more resources for our new neighbors at Hall Street. But refusal to provide a vaccination plan, coupled with the lack of a citywide plan to right-size shelter populations and allow shelter stays beyond 30- and 60-days has led us here today.’
Migrants pictured at a makeshift shelter in Chicago's Pilsen neighborhood, where many are being moved to. There has been an outbreak of measles and tuberculosis linked to the shelter
The two cases, which do not qualify as an outbreak, must include three cases, come amid a spike in measles in New York City, with 11 cases reported in 2024 as of July 12, according to the city’s health department.
That’s up from just one case last year, which came after three years without any cases.
The city saw a massive outbreak in 2019 mostly among ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities in Brooklyn and Rockland county. A total of 605 cases were reported that year.
Migrant shelters have also seen outbreaks of flu, Covid, and tuberculosis over the years, including several cases of TB in Chicago shelters.
Dr Vasan, the health commissioner, has said in the past that President Biden's lax border policies so far have led to an influx of migrants bringing contagious diseases including TB, polio, and Covid into the country.
Meanwhile Republicans have expressed their disdain for Biden's border policies and their perceived links to contagious diseases.
The Republican National Committee said: 'BIDEN'S AMERICA: "Chicago now has more cases of measles than the last 14 years COMBINED" amid the flood of illegals to the Democrat-run city.'
And Richard Grenell, a Republican who served as acting director of National Intelligence in 2020, said: 'Joe Biden's open border is a health crisis, too. Diseases we had under control are coming back...Tuberculosis breaks out at Chicago migrant shelters following measles cases.'
Dozens of migrant families are seen arriving from Texas at the Port Authority Bus Terminal in New York in September 2023
The US is seeing an uptick in measles cases that has concerned public health officials, especially given lagging vaccination rates among children
Border apprehensions and expulsions by CBP have soared since 2020, when they reached a record low at around 57,000. In 2023, though, that number spiked to 2.5 million.
And preliminary data from 2024 suggests numbers by the end of the year could exceed that. Already, encounters between border patrol and migrants have hit 1.8 million at the Southwest border.
The number of apprehensions reached a record high in December of 2023 with nearly 250,000 encounters with migrants crossing from Mexico, according to government statistics.
That was the highest monthly total on record, overshadowing previous peak of about 224,000 encounters in May 2022.
The surge during the Biden administration comes after the President campaigned on amnesty for undocumented immigrants, particularly those seeking asylum from gang violence and, in Venezuela’s case, an authoritarian government marked by corruption and human rights abuses.
But since voters have recoiled over what millions perceive as overly lenient, while Republicans in Congress have come to charge the Biden administration with overseeing an open border that allows migrants to enter the country unchecked.
However, illegal crossings have declined over 50 percent in the six weeks since the President used his executive authority to enhance the asylum screening process to weed out those who may pose a threat to public safety and put systems in place to quickly remove people who do not have a legal basis to remain here.
According to Troy A. Miller, CBP Senior Official Performing the Duties of the Commissioner, the executive actions have led to a 29 percent decrease in U.S. Border Patrol apprehensions from May to June, a more than 50 percent drop in the seven-day average from the announcement to the end of the month, and has doubled the rate of removing noncitizens from Border Patrol in June.