Illegal immigrants stopped by U.S. Customs and Border Protection are coming sick and potentially diseased, as 2,224 have required hospitalization in the past month, including one with with flesh-eating bacteria, according to reports.
A man detained in a remote New Mexico border area, diagnosed with necrotizing fasciitis, a potential fatal infection, was among the thousands requiring hospitalization after being stopped at the border by CBP since Dec. 22.
The 2,224 sick – representing 5.3 percent of those detained at the U.S.-Mexico border in that time – were treated for the flu, parasites, tuberculosis, and pneumonia, according IJR.com.
Nearly 10,000 migrants have been detained at New Mexico's three Border Patrol stations since Oct. 1, officials said. There were 12,800 detentions at the three stations from October 2017 through September 2018.
The sick do not just require time and resources from local hospitals, but CBP agents spent 19,299 hours driving attending to sick migrants, according it IJR.
"This means there are less agents performing border security duties," a CBP spokesperson told IJR.
Not only are the migrants coming sick, but they are also not vaccinated in many cases, according to the Washington Examiner.
"The biggest concern that I've heard about is not that they're disease-ridden, but the fact that they don't vaccinate," Hidalgo County manager Tisha Green told the Examiner. "I mean, it would become a county epidemic."