An increasing number of immigrant children sick with fever, chickenpox and even tuberculosis are being sent to shelters in Chicago, ProPublica Illinois is reporting.
The news outlet attributed the information to Heartland Human Care Services, one of the nonprofit organizations caring for the children.
ProPublica Illinois said many of the children also are arriving traumatized after spending a week or longer in overcrowded U.S. Border Patrol facilities. Heartland officials told the news organization that the children are exhibiting “behaviors consistent with trauma and heightened anxiety and fearfulness.”
And they said the children described “horrible and inhumane conditions” at border facilities.
ProPublica Illinois noted that Heartland officials claim some of the children, who range from toddlers to teenagers, also were separated from their mothers and fathers at the border.
About 15 of the 400 children being house in Heartland shelters were torn from their parents, the news organization said.
And Heartland officials say the increase in contagious diseases they are now seeing is unlike anything they’ve experienced before.
“Historically, we have seen intermittent cases of TB and chickenpox,” Heartland officials said. “However, lately, we are seeing them come in clusters.”
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