Advocacy Toolkit
Use our Advocacy Toolkit to learn how to respond effectively to scaremongering about migrant children. The toolkit includes a video featuring experts and advocates on immigrant health:
Migrant Children and Health in the News
PolitiFact, “Rep. Phil Gingrey says migrants may be bringing Ebola virus through the U.S.-Mexico border,” July 18, 2014
NPR, ” The Immigrant Kids Have Health Issues — But Not The Ones You’d Think,” July 22, 2014
MSNBC, “GOP making alarmist claims against migrant children,” July 15, 2014
NBC News, “Vectors or Victims? Docs Slam Rumors That Migrants Carry Disease,” July 9, 2014
NY Post, “Border-Kid Bashing: Stop the Fear-Mongering,” July 25, 2014
The Colbert Report (6:30 – end), “Questionable Compassion for Child Immigrants,” July 17, 2014
Additional Resources
Immigration:
UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR):
American Immigration Council:
Center for Asian American Media:
Premiered at the 2014 PBS Online Film Festival, this film documents the experience of three young New Yorkers growing up without legal immigration status. Director: Brian Redondo.
Immigrant Health:
American Academy of Pediatrics:
- Policy Statement (June 2013): Providing Care for Immigrant, Migrant, and Border Children
CDC U.S. Border Control Statistics
- Breakdown of border apprehensions by geographical sector, juveniles, gender and apprehension/seizure type (drugs, guns, etc).
Political Scaremongering:
In letters to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Georgia’s 11th District representative Phil Gingrey expressed concerns about public health risks posed by the influx of unaccompanied migrant children across the Southwest border. Listed among his concerns were the potential spread of infectious diseases such as swine flu, dengue fever, tuberculosis, and most recently, Ebola virus.
Gingrey Letter to CDC and Secretary of Homeland Security, 2007
