Health Inequities Stemming from US Imperialism

I know that this post will upset some people. It looks like I'm a bleeding heart liberal blaming the United States for the people seeking asylum along our southern border. I know that the US isn't the only player in this mess. We would not have been be able to do what we did, and are continuing to do, without the destruction of societies that began with the colonization of the Americas. It is a long arc to get where we are today and I'm only addressing events after World War II to current day. 

Summation of Actions and Ensuing Health Inequities

The United States has a long history of intervening in the affairs of other countries. The official message is that we are the world police, looking to restore order to these destitute places and preventing corrupt governments from swindling their people. In reality we are looking out for our own best interest. Maybe our best interest is in controlling the Panama Canal, taking care of obstacles for large corporations like United Fruit Company which benefits a few very powerful Americans. We fight for policies that lower the price of the consumer goods we purchase, that give our exports the best rates. We also cause our manufacturing jobs to migrate south in a race to the bottom – who is willing to work for the least amount of money and give the least amount of resistance? As manufacturing costs go down, profits for shareholders increases.

While we do have, at long term cost to job stability, benefits from NAFTA and CAFTA, we inflict great harm on Mexico and Central America and we also hurt ourselves by allowing manufacturing jobs to go off-shore.

Because of our many interventions and free trade agreements people are coming to our southern border who are fleeing violence and destitution that, while not 100% the fault of the US, we bear a great responsibility for the instability of our neighbors to the south.

For over one hundred years the US has been actively meddling in the politics of Latin American countries after they gained their independence from their colonizers. Instead of assisting the people in rebuilding their countries, we assist in the destabilization of their countries through our fear of the spread of communism, through our belief in Manifest Destiny, through our belief that we are better.

When these citizens of central American Countries flee the violence of their homes for which we laid the groundwork, they are met with open hostility at our borders. The Trump Administration is slowing the asylum seeking process which is causing a bottle neck at the checkpoints which leave migrants susceptible to criminal elements who prey on the vulnerable.

Immigrants who cross the border and detained are treated inhumanely. Children are torn from their parents. Parents are being tricked into signing away their right to be reunited with their children. Babies and toddlers have court hearings without legal representation. The chain of custody is broken and the link to the parents is lost – children are put in foster care and some are at risk of being adopted to American families.

The trauma of being separated from caregivers and being denied comforting touch causes a sequence of events to unfold that lead to many poor health outcomes. These traumas are called toxic stress. Toxic stress leads to increased inflammatory processes and immune system changes. These adverse childhood events (trekking hundreds of miles in a hostile environment, being separated from parents, being caged like animals) are all adverse childhood events which lead to a 3x risk for developing lung cancer, 3.5x risk for heart disease and up to a 20-year reduced life span.

To make matters worse, the children who experience these traumas and develop these diseases and suffer from poor mental health perpetuate the cycle when they pass on their trauma to their children.

As these groups of people are vilified in the media, by our leaders in government, it leads to strengthen structural racism against immigrants that further leads to their devaluation and poor treatment which further impacts social determinants of health that continue to drive inequality.

Primary Care Providers in Massachusetts noted an adverse effect of ICE on immigrant health and noticed that a theme of fear emerged. Fear of deportation impacted: emotional health, interrupted care, familial separation due to detention/deportation, and perceived barriers to access.

A 2017 study of detention centers in the New York City area found ICE denied medical treatment for serious conditions like dialysis. People needing surgery faced unreasonably long delays and requests for medical care stemming from serious health complaints were ignored. Denied and delayed care often led to greater interventions being taken later: delayed cancer diagnosis, emergency surgery for malfunctioning pacemaker and emergency surgery to take care of gallstones.

Government lawyers argue soap and toothbrushes  should not be mandatory for immigrants in detention facilities. In some detention facilities  that hold 300 children to one cell there are flu outbreaks, lice infestations, no diapers with children sleeping on the floor. The Customs and Border Patrol, who run detention facilities have no plans to administer flu vaccines. A group, Doctors for Camp Closures, offered to give the vaccines to the detainees free of charge  – there would be no cost to CBP – but were ignored.

Children are being kept in squalid conditions in many facilities. Too little food that is not nutritious, lights on 24/7, sleeping on the ground in frigid temperatures with no blankets.

There are two policies aimed at deterring immigration. One was declared an official policy by Trump and his then Attorney General, Jeff Sessions: family separation. They asserted that by separating children from parents that parents would not make the dangerous journey to reach our southern border.

The other, unofficial policy to deter immigration appears to be standard operating procedure: keeping migrants, children and adults, in squalid living conditions.

We have a moral obligation to help people fleeing the violence and destitution because it is our imperialistic hands of interventions, our meddling, our trade agreements that helped to destabilize their homes. Our policies, official and otherwise, helped corrupt governments take hold. It was our fear of communism that lead to the scorched earth campaigns that played into the devastation of whole societies through guerilla warfare and civil wars.

We must face our role in the influx of asylum seekers. Until we see what led to this situation, we will continue policies that perpetuate corruption and power imbalances that leave the average citizen of these countries in dire circumstances, looking north to the land of opportunity for help.