Four toddlers were so severely ill and neglected at a U.S. Border Patrol facility in McAllen, Texas, that lawyers forced the government to hospitalize them last week.
The children, all under age 3 with teenage mothers or guardians, were feverish, coughing, vomiting and had diarrhea, immigration attorneys told HuffPost on Friday. Some of the toddlers and infants were refusing to eat or drink. One 2-year-olds eyes were rolled back in her head, and she was completely unresponsive and limp, according to Toby Gialluca, a Florida-based attorney.
She described seeing terror in the childrens eyes.
Its just a cold, fearful look that you should never see in a child of that age, Gialluca said. You look at them and you think, What have you seen?
Another mother at the same facility had a premature baby, who was listless and wrapped in a dirty towel, as HuffPost previously reported.
The lawyers feared that if they had not shown up at the facility, the sick kids would have received zero medical attention and potentially died. The Trump administration has come under fire for its treatment and its alleged neglect of migrants who have been crossing the southern border in record numbers. The result is overcrowded facilities, slow medical care and in some instances, deaths.
Immigration authorities say theyre overwhelmed; activists say theyre not trying hard enough.