National Nurses United

The Guatemalan mother Rojas found sobbing was one of hun- dreds of patients that RNRN registered nurse volunteers have lis- tened to, treated, and cared for both physically and mentally as the border crisis has unfolded. Since the crackdown on migrants and asylum seekers began last year on our Southwest borders, National Nurses United (NNU) RNs have been protesting in solidarity with local communities, speaking out, and standing up to help care for those impacted by this humanitarian and public health crisis. From late February through May, RNRN, a disaster-relief project of the California Nurses Foundation and NNU, has deployed two-to-three- person teams of mostly Spanish-speaking nurses and nurse practi- tioners to staff the Tucson shelter every weekend, 24 hours a day, and will continue to do so through May. "Working with RNRN has been an amazing gift," said Teresa Cavendish, director of operations for the Casa Alitas program. "The compassion, the understanding, and the empathy of the nurses, accompanied with the consistent, high-quality, round-the-clock nursing care they provide when they are with us, is more than we ever expected." RNRN deployments often profoundly change a nurse's outlook on their work, said Cathy Kennedy, a registered nurse in Sacramento who is an NNU vice president and made the initial trip to Tucson to evaluate the need for nursing care. "It changes the nurses' perspec- tives on health care, and society and humanity," said Kennedy, who volunteered in Puerto Rico following Hurricane Maria. "They come back a different person. I came back a different person." Nurses can certainly attest to that transformation. Their migrant patients' health conditions revealed so much about their arduous escapes from their home countries, and the poor conditions under which they were kept while in federal detention. RNRN nurses who returned from Tucson said many patients show signs of PTSD, trau- ma, dehydration, and exhaustion, as well as cold and flu symptoms. Nurses have treated migrants for a variety of illnesses, including sprained ankles, broken bones, chicken pox, colds, viruses, and respi- ratory illnesses. The RNs also identified more serious conditions that needed hospital-level care. As of late May, news organizations are reporting that five children have died within six months while in immigration custody. Simply put, migrants were not housed, fed, and treated humanely in federal detention. For Mallory Carellas, a registered nurse from Baltimore and RNRN volunteer in Tucson, a torn strip of mylar sheet used to tie back a young girl's ponytail raised serious questions about the treatment migrants face in detention. Why did they have to give up their hair ties and shoes laces? Why were they left without enough clothing to keep warm, and given just a thin mylar sheet as bedding? Video of detention facilities released in June 2018 by the Customs and Border Patrol show concrete cages where migrants and asylum seekers are held. These rooms are reportedly so cold that they are referred to by migrants as hieleras, the Spanish word for icebox. "My understanding [from talking to the patients] is when you go into detention, you take off your clothes, and you can only wear one layer in, so everyone picks a jacket, but then you don't have an under- layer to hold the warmth in, so everyone said it was very cold," said Carellas. "Every single person comes in [the shelter] with some kind of a cold, runny nose, sore throat," said Jessica Rose, a Tucson-area nurse who has gone on two RNRN border deployments. "Every single per- son is sick. I mean seriously, why?" Migrants said they were often not able to take care of basic hygiene needs, such as getting diapers for their children and shower- ing which, in some cases, exacerbated skin rashes and infected wounds. Nurses at the shelter are now seeing cases of chicken pox every week, and they worry about the spread of diseases within the detention facilities. When infectious diseases are present, not being able to meet basic hygienic needs becomes a very serious public health risk. Nurses said they were shocked to discover the poor nutrition their patients suffered; many migrants families and asylum seekers were dehydrated and given very little food or water while in detention. Some migrants said they were offered uncooked frozen burritos once a day, but they were not warmed, just left out on a table to thaw. Oth- ers told the nurses they were given one or two crackers per person a day, and that parents would give children their own rations. "They are clearly hungry," said Carellas. "It was heartbreaking." Rose, who lives in the area, said Tucson's tap water tastes bad and is often murky and full of debris. The nurses were told that clean, drinkable water was hard to come by in detention. One mother with J A N U A R Y | F E B R U A R Y | M A R C H 2 0 1 9 W W W . N A T I O N A L N U R S E S U N I T E D . O R G N A T I O N A L N U R S E 13 "[An RNRN mission] changes the nurses' perspectives on health care, and society and humanity. They come back a different person. I came back a different person."

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