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 about 3,000 migrants seeking legal entry into the United States.
New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene officials are coordinating with local hospitals and have quarantined patients on a single floor of the facilities.
Asylum seekers are not required to get vaccinated when they arrive in the U.S., meaning many may not be up to date on the vaccines the CDC considers essential.
The cases come on the heels of another at a Chicago migrant shelter in May, where a single case sparked an outbreak of 57 cases in the city. Outbreaks of other illnesses have also been reported at migrant shelters across the United States in recent years.
Pictured is the Hall Street migrant shelter in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn. Two people there have been diagnosed with measles. Photo courtesy of Ben Fractenberg/THE CITY
Asylum seekers are not required to get vaccinated when they arrive in the U.S., meaning many may not be up to date on the vaccines the CDC considers essential.
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 serious effects such as brain inflammation leading to brain damage and pneumonia.
Health Commissioner Ashwin Vasan said Friday night: ‘The Department of Health and Health + Hospitals are coordinating to ensure that anyone who has been exposed receives the support and resources they need.
‘While measles can be an extremely contagious virus, the risk to the community is low since most New Yorkers are vaccinated against it.’
Asylum seekers are not required to be vaccinated against measles when they arrive in the United States.
Most Central American countries where many migrants come from, including Mexico, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala and Panama, have MMR vaccination rates above 90 percent.
Meanwhile, Venezuela’s vaccination rate is much lower: 82 percent.
But there are fears that overcrowded conditions in migrant shelters could become hotbeds of infection.
NYC Health + Hospitals Corporation operates New York City’s public hospital system, which includes hospitals such as 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.
Many experts and Republican lawmakers have blamed the influx of migrants at the southern border for the spread of contagious diseases. Pictured here, men seeking asylum are detained by border control agents after illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border last week
Migrants from South and Central America look toward the United States through a gap in the border wall
Migrants at a makeshift shelter in Chicago’s Pilsen neighborhood, where many are being moved. There has been an outbreak of measles and tuberculosis linked to the shelter
Brooklyn City Councilwoman Crystal Hudson, who represents the area where the shelter is located, was outraged that The city rejected their efforts. Provide vaccinations to all shelter residents.
She said: ‘Our request for a vaccination van at an on-site resource fair hosted by my office on June 1 was denied.
“For months, I have been demanding more resources for our new Hall Street neighbors. But the refusal to provide a vaccination plan, coupled with the lack of a citywide plan to properly size shelter populations and allow for shelter stays longer than 30 and 60 days, has brought us here today.”
The two cases — which do not qualify as an outbreak, should include three cases — come amid a surge in measles in New York City, with 11 cases reported in 2024 through July 12, according to the city’s health department.
This represents an increase from just one case last year, which came after three years without any cases.
In 2019, the city suffered a massive outbreak, primarily among ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities in Brooklyn and Rockland County. A total of 605 cases were reported that year.
Migrant shelters have also suffered outbreaks of flu, Covid and tuberculosis over the years, including several cases of tuberculosis in Chicago shelters.
Dr. Vasan, Health Commissioner, has said in the past that the lax border policies implemented so far by President Biden have led to an influx of migrants bringing contagious diseases into the country, such as tuberculosis, polio and Covid.
Meanwhile, Republicans have expressed 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 measles cases than in the last 14 years COMBINED” amid flood of illegal immigrants into Democrat-run city.’
And Richard Grenell, a Republican who served as acting director of national intelligence in 2020, sayingJoe Biden’s open border is also a health crisis. Diseases we had under control are coming back… Tuberculosis spreads in Chicago migrant shelters after measles cases.
Dozens of migrant families are seen arriving from Texas at the Port Authority Bus Terminal in New York in September 2023.
The United States is seeing a rise in measles cases that has public health officials concerned, especially given low vaccination rates among children.
Border apprehensions and expulsions by CBP have skyrocketed since 2020, when they hit a record low of around 57,000. In 2023, however, That number skyrocketed up to 2.5 million.
And preliminary data for 2024 suggests that numbers by the end of the year could exceed that figure. There have already been 1.8 million encounters between Border Patrol and migrants on the southwest border.
The number of apprehensions hit a record high in December 2023 with nearly 250,000 encounters with migrants crossing from Mexico, according to government statistics.
That was the highest monthly total on record, eclipsing the previous peak of around 224,000 encounters in May 2022.
The surge under the Biden administration comes after the president campaigned on amnesty for undocumented immigrants, particularly those seeking asylum due to gang violence and, in the case of Venezuela, an authoritarian government marked by corruption and human rights abuses.
But voters have since been reluctant to accept what millions see as an overly lenient measure, while Republicans in Congress have gone so far as to accuse the Biden administration of overseeing an open border that allows migrants to enter the country unchecked.
However, illegal crossings have decreased by more than 50 percent in the six weeks since the President used his executive authority to enhance the asylum screening process to remove those who may pose a threat to public safety and establish systems to expeditiously remove individuals who have no legal basis to remain here.
According to Troy A. Miller, senior CBP 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 through the end of the month, and a doubling of the Border Patrol’s noncitizen removal rate in June.
