Thread: Chicago Facing Measles Outbreak in Migrant Shelters

Chicago Facing Measles Outbreak in Migrant Shelters


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April 1, 2024









Kari Jacobson

Government Relations Associate






FAIR Take | April 2024



Measles had been virtually eliminated in the United States, but due to the sheer scale of illegal immigration from countries with little to no healthcare, the disease continues to be reintroduced by migrants settling in communities nationwide. Crowded sanctuary cities have proven particularly susceptible to serious diseases brought in by illegal aliens.

Now, recent reports indicate that Chicago is in the midst of a measles outbreak in city shelters housing more than 10,400 migrants.

So far, the measles outbreak is mostly concentrated in migrant shelters in the city but may be spreading.

In the first three months of 2024, Chicago has had 31 confirmed cases of measles, 21 of these cases in children under five years old. Even after the city administered 4,500 doses of the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccines to migrants following the first measles case in city shelters, the disease has persisted.

Many migrant children staying in these shelters are enrolled in Chicago public schools and pose a risk of spreading the disease to American school-aged children.

As of September 2023, more than 2,000 illegal aliens are enrolled in Chicago public schools, with between 40-50 enrolling in a single elementary school.

The measles outbreak has caused health concerns for city residents. Chicago health officials say that the migrant population there, mainly from Venezuela, comes largely from collapsed healthcare systems with no reliable public health data. In most cases, it is nearly impossible to determine how many, if any, aliens are vaccinated when they arrive in the United States. This puts the most susceptible populations, young children, at extreme risk of exposure to highly contagious diseases like measles.

Measles can cause serious illness, especially for children under five years old. As previously detailed by FAIR, measles infections in children can cause complications ranging from pneumonia to organ damage. In some cases, measles can even lead to death in babies and young children.

Officials at the border are also raising health concerns stemming from the influx of illegal migrants. Senior officials within Customs and Border Protection (CBP) emphasize that their processing centers are not built for the unprecedented numbers of encounters incentivized under the Biden Administration.

In particular, migrant children are exposed to an array of public health concerns while waiting amongst hundreds of other aliens to be processed. According to Dr. Theresa Cheng, an emergency room physician at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center, children are the most susceptible to the clear health and safety concerns caused by the border crisis. Cheng continued to say that, “From a public health standpoint, there are communicable diseases and outdoor exposures that would strike anyone down, much less this medically vulnerable population.”

The measles outbreak in Chicago thus exposes another cost of illegal immigration—one borne by Americans and migrants.

It further illustrates that, despite the loud cries from open-borders advocates, their policies are not humane, effective, or fair. Rather, they are designed to undermine the rule of law and dismantle the immigration system so that it works for no one.


https://www.fairus.org/state-immigra...grant-shelters

These disease infected PARASITES should not be in our country, they should not be in our shelters, they should not be in our schools, they should not be in our healthcare system! And we should NOT be footing the bill for this.

Send them back!