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After I posted this thread, I received a long DM from someone who works as a nurse in the children’s ward of a border-state hospital. I have received permission to share that DM with you, anonymized for the nurse’s protection.
(I have confirmed to my satisfaction that the person who wrote me is a nurse in the state in which they say they work.)
I work at [hospital] in [location]. Often enough we have border patrol bring in children who are sick. Their mothers or fathers also sick. They are dehydrated. Hungry. And dirty.
Border Patrol agents sit outside their rooms. Some kind. Some rude. Some allow them to watch TV, others angrily shut it off and tell them they’re not gonna be able to get “stupid ideas in their heads.”
When offered the chance to shower or use our Ronald McDonald room to wash their clothes they are worried.
The BP agents that sit outside their rooms talk angrily about how they get everything for free and continue on about how they’re wasting our resources.
Then they will turn around and say how they love getting called in to do this type of work because it’s easy pay, air conditioned, relaxing, they get paid overtime. Money wasted, but it’s okay because it’s for them.
I’ve had a little girl come in with a broken leg and the BP agent that sits outside said, “well, she’s going back to laying on a cement floor in a smelly room.”
The agents describe detention as hot and smelly, and say everyone is disgusting.
You’d think that it’s just the environment that’s bad, but it’s also the people who add to the pain and suffering. You see it. You see it in their faces. You see the sadness.
Like they come to the hospital and they don’t even know they can shower. We offer clothes. They look so scared.
We give free milk and food and they’re just so thankful. Sometimes they don’t even realize it’s for them.
I doubt you’ll see this but I feel like I need to keep telling this story to someone.
[Angus again: That’s it. That’s the message they sent. I’ve tweaked it a little to further anonymize it, but the content is all as it was given to me.]
