ICE Detention Facility
An experienced doctor in Southern California, who spoke to The Epoch Times on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation, said the influx of illegal immigrants to San Diego and Imperial counties is “just outrageous” and that the burden of care on hospitals is “overwhelming.” …
Amid a statewide shortage of primary care doctors and nurses, three nurse practitioners whom he trained at his practice were recruited with better pay and benefits to work at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention center in El Centro, California, he said.
“It’s a huge place, and so there are lots of resources being used at that facility. A lot of nurse practitioners are being pulled from us,” he said. “It’s really hard to get doctors out in our area, so we have a lot of nurse practitioners who help physicians in the community because they can see patients and prescribe medications.” …
“Border cities are having to deal with the influx without having the resources. When you take from the resources that are currently available, you’re depriving the community of those resources. The unintended result is it backs up the system.”
Disease and Injuries
Tuberculosis (TB) patients, for example, can tie up hospital beds for months, depending on the severity of infection, the doctor said. …
Aside from TB and measles, sexually transmitted diseases such as gonorrhea, syphilis, measles, and AIDS are on the rise, the doctor said. …
Illegal immigrants also need treatment for injuries from lacerations from razor wire, the doctor said.
“They cut their hands and legs when they’re jumping the fence. They usually put a jacket or something over the razor wire, but sometimes, it comes through,” he said.
Because so many medical professionals and resources have been tapped to treat illegal immigrants, American patients, including military veterans, have been neglected, the doctor confirmed.
“It takes forever for these VA patients to get seen at the clinic. It takes months to get an appointment. There is very limited care for the veterans out here,” he said. “The VA program has been neglected as a result of having to put more money into funding for the ICE detention centers.”
Toll on Border Patrol Agents
The doctor, who also treats Border Patrol agents, said that agents’ job-related injuries “have gone through the roof.” He has also noticed an increase in the number of agents with mental health problems related to stress and anxiety.
Many agents say they’ve been taken out of the field to act as illegal immigrant processing clerks rather than doing what they were trained to do: patrol the border, he said. …
The agents also witness the aftermath of heinous crimes, including the abuse and rape of women and girls at the hands of Mexican drug cartels. …
Suicides among agents have also increased. In 2022, 14 agents took their own lives, more than in any other year since U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) began tracking these deaths. …
Between 2007 and 2022, CBP lost 149 people to suicide, which is “among the highest rates compared to other law enforcement agencies.”
Costs of Illegal Immigration
According to the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), a nonprofit organization that pushes for changes in immigration policy, the cost of health care for illegal immigrants in California through Medi-Cal was approximately $4.8 billion per year in 2022.
FAIR estimated the total federal medical costs for illegal immigration at more than $23.1 billion in 2022 and pegged the costs to cover unpaid hospital bills for uninsured illegal migrants at about $8.2 billion.
The total cost of illegal immigration in California was about $22.8 billion annually for education, health care, law enforcement, criminal justice system costs, welfare, and other expenditures. By comparison, the annual cost of illegal immigration in Texas in 2022 was $9.9 billion. In California, the taxpayer cost per illegal immigrant in 2023 was $7,074, compared to $4,466 in Texas.
The FAIR study estimates that the gross cost of illegal immigration in the United States is $183 billion annually, an increase of more than 35.7 percent since 2017. The cost incurred for each illegal immigrant, including their U.S.-born children, has increased to $8,776 annually. …