Disease at border puts migrants at risk: 'There’s a crisis here'
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
ANIMAS, N.M. — T here is a health crisis on the U.S.-Mexico border that was deliberately covered up during a visit by members of Congress, according to the head of a sanitation company supplying outposts there.
Tricia Elbrock, the owner of Elbrock Water Systems in Animas, N.M., supplies portable bathrooms at facilities near the border. She told the Washington Examiner that after she dropped off two portable toilets near the border at the request of the Border Patrol, her cleaning staff was "overwhelmed" after hundreds of migrants used them.
“There’s a crisis here — the influx of people. These little counties and towns cannot handle that mass,” Elbrock said during a recent meeting at her business in Animas. She also fears the number of migrants using the bathrooms is a hazard. “There’s a health issue with the porta-potties."
Last month, an outbreak of Legionnaires' disease at the U.S. Customs and Border Protection's base in Antelope Wells, N.M., forced officials to close an indoor bathroom that migrants had been using. Officials allowed migrants access to that bathroom in the hopes of avoiding a bigger mess around their headquarters that would have been unavoidable had no bathroom been available.
Elbrock dropped off two portable toilets, but said two wasn't nearly enough. She said one is appropriate for 10 to 15 people and that the Border Patrol should have asked for 15 based on how they were used. "That facility can’t handle that many people. They’re gonna be overwhelmed," Elbrock said.
Four days after dropping off those portable toilets, the base asked her company for an emergency cleaning because lawmakers from Washington were coming to look at Antelope Wells and Lordsburg, N.M., the following day. The Congressional Hispanic Caucus wanted to see the conditions of facilities where a young Guatemalan girl who died of sepsis on Dec. 7 had visited.
“When they went in there to clean — they were overrun,” said Elbrock. “They just threw [toilet paper] on the floor there and piled it up. We had to go and clean it. That was a concern of ours handling the waste on that toilet paper. So we talked to the Border Patrol. … 'It's totally trash, we’re going to pull out. We’re a small, family-owned business down here and maybe they need to get someone bigger than we are.'"
Elbrock worried about putting her team's health at risk so she paid for employees to get Hepatitis shots and gave them masks, gloves, breathing devices, and suits to wear. The next week — days before Christmas — the town of Lordsburg asked her company to drop off four portable toilets.
“They have anywhere from 300 to 400 illegals [sic] that they brought in from Antelope Wells and they need porta potties. And I said, ‘Four’s not gonna do it.’ It’s like, what a nasty situation we’re gonna have here,” she said.
"Lujan came and toured it and said what deplorable conditions they are, and this and that. But he didn't go on to say that this facility can only man or handle 100 but they got 400 in there. So there is no facility big enough to handle them,” she said, referring to Rep. Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M.
Elbrock and county officials said fewer charter buses are dropping off people at the border crossing. Since late September, 100 to 300 people had been illegally entering the U.S. at Antelope Wells multiple times a week, according to County Manager Tisha Green.
Border Patrol deployed a medical personnel unit to those two bases to alleviate pressure on the county’s handful of medical personnel responsible for emergency across 5,000 square miles. But she refused to haul off the Legionnaires’-ridden water from Antelope Wells and told Border Patrol to bring in bigger forces.
“Until people live there, they don't understand why we need the wall. And most of all how there’s no wall down here. We have barbed wire fence and there's nothing,” she said.
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Since late September, 100 to 300 people had been illegally entering the U.S. at Antelope Wells multiple times a week, according to County Manager Tisha Green.
Border Patrol deployed a medical personnel unit to those two bases to alleviate pressure on the county’s handful of medical personnel responsible for emergency across 5,000 square miles. But she refused to haul off the Legionnaires’-ridden water from Antelope Wells and told Border Patrol to bring in bigger forces.
“Until people live there, they don't understand why we need the wall. And most of all how there’s no wall down here. We have barbed wire fence and there's nothing,” she said.
Same situation across the state border over here in AZ. Just another example of the crisis on the border that many progressive leftist liberals say does not exist and do not want to hear about...
So they have porta-potties that look exactly like they do on just about every construction site in America, what exactly is that evidence of and why the need for the giant photo of it? "Border Patrol should have asked for 15 based on how they were used." So they needed more toilets, why is this supposedly big news? You do know that everybody poops, right? This is nothing but a manufactured crisis and has nothing to do with needing a wall.
Illegal US border crossings are at an "all time" low.
But we debate a 50 billion dollar wall/ slat/fence border project like the Holy Grail
and at the same time fuss about Porta Potties that rent for $175.00 a month?
I would rather keep them out than give them port potties, that is just an early cost they bring
When are people going to get it through their heads that it is the apprehensions that are low, not the number of people actually crossing and not getting caught?
I've seen the same thing at state parks and construction sites, so are they also a health hazard?
Trump just caved.
Well gee 1st, WTF is Trump DOING about it?
Your seed headline cites 'disease at the border' yet only cites issues with a lack of toilet facilities and an obvious ignorance of culture. If there has been a 'toilet crisis' since late September and since Trump is all about the military, he should have sent them in to dig some latrines in October.
There's a porta potty problem at the border! Rump should declare a National Emergency!
So taxpayers have to pay for porta potties, too
And the medical for the Illegal Aliens while at the holding stations.
It'd be best to process them and get them out into the work force asap while their case moves through the system.
How cool is it that you are now going to break your back everyday picking melons.
then melon picking machines will be built
Catch a few and turn them loose in the Speaker's office
Looks like US taxpayers also need to provide funding to teach these migrants fundamental bathroom hygiene along with everything else we give them.
All granted assylum in the US are at risk of getting measels from US antivaxers...
I guess none of the super clean Americans have ever been in a porta potty at a concern/construction site/etc etc.
What a lame ass article.
Here is a porta potty at the NC State Fair...is NC a border state...
This is cultural. Only the USA, UK and most western European countries have modern, robust plumbing codes to accept flush able toilet paper.
Most South and Central American countries, Western Europe, Caribbean Islands and Asia keep a separate trash bin in the loo for soiled toilet paper.
Really? I've traveled in Central and South America, Western Europe, and Caribbean Islands and never saw "a separate trash bin" in bathrooms (private homes and hotels) for used toilet paper.
Yes really,
I'm sure, with the search engine of your choice you can easily verify this.
I know major tourist centers and major hotels and home rentals are usually better equipped.
Maybe XDM9mm can verify that from his trips to Iraq where it's squat & wash, paper (if you have it) in the bin, (off base of course).
The vendor who deals in human waste by renting Porta potty's is complaining?
That's rich.
Almost as funny as a people working a honey dipper complaining about what a shitty job it is cleaning septic tanks.
Man up, put on your gloves and clean the shit house.
As I see it, the PP owners have 3 choices
Get out of the business alltogether
Don't rent to the government
or put a sign and a trash bin in the porta potty
- if they were smart enough to travel several thousand miles, they can learn to adapt their toilet etiquette pretty easily.
Now that funny...Look at the photo above that I posted...It's the State Fair in NC, we don't need to lower anything, we are already there...
Your assumption that I only stayed at "major tourist centers and major hotels and home rentals" is incorrect. Although I have stayed at major resorts and hotels in foreign countries, I did say that I stayed at my family's privately-owned homes and hotels during my visits. All bathroom facilities offered exactly the same comforts that we have in the USA.
Instead of continuing your tit-for-tat regarding my foreign travel experiences, let's focus on the message of this seed.
The topic isn't private homes or hotel facilities.
The multiple times I was in Tijuana and Baja I never saw a public flush toilet. Quite a few had no running water at all. Along the coast in Baja, you pay an attendant a quarter [the 80's] and they throw a bucket full of water on the walls and floor before you go in. Hole in the floor, paper on a stick, garbage can for used paper.
It seems that you stayed in some Mexican shitholes. From the 1960s - first decade 2000s, I visited Guadalajara, Puerto Vallarta, and Mexico CIty, Taxco, Cuernavaca many times and never saw what you described. One gets what one pays for, whether in the USA or abroad.
When was the last time that these people were at concerts and sporting events? Woodstock '99 and Lollapallooza were much worse.
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I described a PUBLIC facility, you know, like the ones that are the topic of the seed. I actually traveled to a friends family owned motel on the beach north of Ensenada many times during the 80's. Along the coast road there are tamale stands with the best tamale on the planet.
And yes, the PUBLIC toilets are shitholes, literally. But hey, tamales and beer add up...
SP - the VOLUME is overwhelming due to the huge influx of Illegal Aliens.
Were it just the normal operating conditions, don't think, as they say in the thread, they'd have much of an issue.
Dulay - this facility is not a PUBLIC facility. It is used for operational business and not the GENERAL public.
Is there something wrong with having good plumbing? Should we accept unsanitary, smelly practices that draw flies?
It's a nothing burger. Has nothing to do with anything.
Explain why it's a "nothing" burger.
and if they had stayed where they belonged, several thousand miles away, this would not be a problem
I've seen the same at highway rest stops, McDonalds, and Burger King all over the USA. Other than pointing out the obvious that people of ALL races can be bathroom pigs ... what's your point?
My point is that the photo is the article is simply a way to try to make the immigrants to something less than human and my posting of the the photo of the State Fair in NC is an example that if they are something less than human so are a hell of a lot of Americans.....
At this dive shop in the Caribbean, you must use the bathroom before diving,
(the dive master actually encourages peeing in the ocean as it supposedly is a decent shark repellent).
because he doesn't recommend pooping underwater, it goes against a life time of training and actually attracts too many fish, he says, lol, more so than the dog food they hand out for feeding the Sgt majors et al,
He's a rather crude unshaven, tan fellow with a limp and an unusual accent who threatens us to read the signs in the bathroom and put the paper in the bin, or else,
no dive for you!
It causes the loo to overflow. Can't have that as there is one loo for the regular dive instructors and the 12 guests, several times a day.
He's more bark than bite, but the instructors repeat the warnings before they let us in the water, reminding us that we are guests in a foreign country.
Another true fish story,
!
Those who think theirs don't stink tend to complain that other's stink...
That's what they're best at, portraying these immigrants as disease carrying vermin. Some even refer to them as feral cats. SAD
Guess they don't know about the three seashells.
I still wanna know how those work.
In other words the health crisis is due to our poor management of the situation.
Lol. No.
All the seed says is that we haven't committed the required resources. So it would seem to me that that is the crux of most of the problems we are having.
why should USA taxpayers be required to provide any resources?
EXACTLY! WHY does Trump want 5.7 Billion when he promised that Mexico would pay for his wall.
After he builds the big beautiful wall
he gets to shrink government by laying off most of the CBP behind it ?
Win - win ? /s
if it had been built when it should have been, which was long before Trump, we would not have to worry about porta potties, litter, or giving away anything and it would have been cheaper. Also those on other side would have known not to come
Whoosh! Right over your head...
Whooosh right back at you, IF foreigners were not illegally crossing our border there would be no problem
How can they be crossing illegally if they were allowed in by the CBP?
I think we are assuming that these people were accepted for asylum processing.
Everyone and I mean everyone, including reporters and members of Congress,
is stopped on the Mexico side and either turned away or allowed into the Port of Entry.
so why are they our problem and why should taxes that I had to pay be spent on them?
Do we get to pick and choose where our tax $$ go?
I choose that our money be prioritized to helping Americans rather than opportunistic border jumpers.
It is better to try to do something worthwhile and make a mistake than do something that has no upside like letting people freely cross the border and act like they belong here and are to be given free stuff. These foreigners will end up costing much more money and will cause other problems that are completely avoidable if they are kept out.
the removed solar panels have some value and can be used somewhere else
The engineers should have seen this potential problem and it should be part of the lessons learned going forward with solar panels. The problem of not securing the border is too obvious to over look.
Right, drug abuse and crime would stop instantly. /s
you got that right
We should not even have to manage the situation, they should not be our problem
Suspected outbreaks of Legionnaires must be reported to and verified by the CDC. Currently there is no such CDC report.
That has not been verified and the only source for this information on the whole internet is the Washington Examiner in this very article.
The needs and wants of American Citizens need to be taken car off before any more foreigners can come in.
Well then shut down the all of the international airports and shipping terminals.
Close off the rail lines to Canada and Mexico too.
Seriously, where do you draw the line?
when they stay longer than they are supposed to.
Do you think the purpose of the US government is to cater to foreigners or American citizens?
The Mexico and the Central American countries with the most 'sneaking' have basically the same vaccinations that we do.
"Half of everyone that’s here illegally (in the US) came here legally on a visa and have overstayed their visa," McCarthy, a Republican from Bakersfield, said at a Public Policy Institute of California event in Sacramento on Aug. 15, 2018.
What about the 45% of 'illegal aliens' now here that overstayed their Visa?
Yet a certain poster states that an impoverished nation wouldn't vaccinate their citizens. How stupid.
When it's the moron anti-vaxxers who put us at risk.
catch them and kick them out
and while those visa violators are "caught" and being processed for deportation,
will you have our government deprive them of food, water, and bathrooms?
Sounds like a violation of international protocols.........humanitarian crimes...
you want them to be put up in fine hotels?
Right, Trump will get on that right AFTER he builds his WALL.
Why the strawman?
Because that's all he's got?
what strawman?
Build the wall first because it will make it harder for them to get back in here, where they do not belong
It's easy to consider them less than human when some see them as disease infested vermin or feral cats.
'Kick them out!'
How humane.
The one you posted.
So you don't want Trump to do anything about the millions that have overstayed their visas.
Tessy - if you can, take the time to read the following link regarding the diseases coming across the border.
Since Oct. 1, 2018, the Border Patrol, which works in rural areas between border crossings, has “seen an increase in the numbers of apprehended individuals requiring medical assistance.”
A total of 2,224 migrants, primarily from Guatemala and Honduras, have been hospitalized due to health issues that could not be treated on site in the last month alone, according to a CBP statement.
The department said the spike in illnesses among migrants is forcing federal law enforcement to spend less time focused on serious threats because they are facilitating hospital and urgent care trips. It’s also affecting communities that are trying to help with medical emergencies but are severely short-staffed.
For example, Hidalgo County, located in the southernmost part of New Mexico, is comprised of fewer than 5,000 residents. The average resident makes $32,000 a year, and the low incomes mean the county has less money to use. Its general budget is just $1.7 million.
Two county officials who spoke with the Washington Examiner during a recent meeting said they have seen massive groups of migrants, daily, from 100 to 300 people each, getting dropped off in the county. The high number of arrivals wasn’t a problem at first, but by November and early December, it became a problem when many people began showing up sick and in need of professional care.
“For a while there, we were being called every day. They [Border Patrol] wanted us to do their screening because they had a lack of medical personnel,” said Hidalgo County Emergency Medical Services Director David Whipple.
I SAID KICK THEM OUT
Calling a good point you can't answer a strawman does not make the point any less valid,
I am more concerned with American citizens and overpopulation of this country than about foreigners.
Actually you said:
CATCH THEM AND KICK THEM OUT
Yet Trump isn't doing that...he is all about the Mexican border.
You seem confused about the definition of a strawman. Here let me help.
SP asked:
Instead of answering the question, you replied with your own:
A strawman fallacy: Substituting a person’s actual position or argument with a distorted, exaggerated, or misrepresented version of the position of the argument.
BTW, you didn't make a 'good point'. You didn't make a point at all.
is it against some rule to ask a question about a question?
by asking if he wanted them" put up in fine hotels" I made my point. I really think jails are where they should be kept, they have food water and bathrooms and we will know where they are
calling it a strawman just proves I was right
have to catch them before you can kick them out,
if you have a flooded basement don't you need to stop the leak before pumping the water out or it will fill back up? Is that a strawman because I phrased it is a question?
By your definition, that seems like some kind of strawman thing
strawman fallacy: Substituting a person’s actual position or argument with a distorted, exaggerated, or misrepresented version of the position of the argument.
If digging a moat and building a dirt wall make illegal entry harder I'm all for it. Is what that little fellow is doing?
Again, Trump is NOT doing that.
The vast majority of people that have overstayed their visas arrived here via PLANE. Those that DO cross the border are mostly from Canada. Trump hasn't asked for a dime to secure the northern border. About 7 BILLION nonimmigrant visas are issued every year. How do you intend to plug that leak?
I posted the definition. Still confused?
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