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Thousands More Migrant Children Were Probably Taken From Families Than Reported

The government has reported about 2,700 migrant children separated from their families at the border last year. But the removals may have involved thousands more.

www.nytimes.com

As of December, the department had identified 2,737 children who were separated from their parents under the policy and required to be reunified by a federal court order issued in June 2018.

Ann Maxwell, the Health and Human Services Department’s assistant inspector general for evaluation and inspections, said the separations appeared to have been occurring for a full year before the court issued its order.

“The total number is unknown,” she said. “It is certainly more than 2,737, but how many more, precisely, is unknown.” Moreover, that number may never be known: Department officials, she said, had told her office that there were “no efforts underway to identify that. It would take away resources from children already in care.”

In an email after the call, Ms. Maxwell’s spokesman confirmed that inspectors believed the number of separated children may be “thousands” more than the 2,737 reported to the court.

Thus, the total number of children separated from a parent or guardian by immigration authorities is “unknown,” because of the lack of a coordinated formal tracking system between the Office of Refugee Resettlement, the arm of Health and Human Services that takes in the children, and the Department of Homeland Security, which separated them from their parents.

Lee Gelernt, who challenged the policy in court on behalf of the American Civil Liberties Union. “We will be back in court and ask the judge to order the government to explain these numbers,” he said.

More than 14,000 immigrant children are in U.S. custody, an all-time high

WASHINGTON — The number of undocumented immigrant children in government custody has topped 14,000 for the first time, a rise that shows no signs of slowing as the Trump administration enforces policies that are keeping them in government facilities longer.

www.sfchronicle.com

• The cost of holding migrant children who have been separated from their parents in newly created "tent cities" is $775 per person per night
• It costs $256 per person per night to hold children in permanent HHS facilities like Casa Padre in Brownsville, Texas 

There were 14,056 unaccompanied immigrant minors in Department of Health and Human Services custody on Friday, according to a government source familiar with the number. A spokeswoman for the Department of Health and Human Services confirmed that the total had reached approximately 14,000.

That number tops records set just two months ago, putting further strain on an already overburdened system.

The revelation that ICE was arresting undocumented potential sponsors of children has prompted legislation to try to block the practice.

Sen. Kamala Harris, D-California, co-sponsored a bill this week that would bar the government from using information it collects in the process of resettling children to arrest immigrants. It would also divert funding from ICE to pay for Health and Human Services care.

“Right now, unaccompanied children are being held in detention facilities or living in tent cities due in part to potential sponsors’ fear of retribution from ICE for coming forward,” Harris said in a statement. “This is an unacceptable obstacle to getting these children into a safe home, and we must fix it.”

More Millennials Are Having Strokes

A Scientific American analysis finds this trend differs based on where one lives

www.scientificamerican.com|Dina Fine Maron

But an analysis by Scientific American has revealed significant differences in where these strokes are occurring, depending both on region and whether people live in rural or urban settings. The investigation, which used data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), was reviewed by five stroke experts and found that the West and Midwest have seen especially worrisome increases among younger adults. Moreover, large cities appear to have seen bigger increases than rural areas. The analysis employed hospital discharge data from 2003 to 2012 from the AHRQ’s Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP) database.

Younger adults, for example, saw statistically significant increases in stroke rates in the Midwest and West. This is somewhat at odds with regional risks in the broader population, which are more concentrated in the southeastern U.S. In western cities with more than one million residents, for example, the analysis found strokes increased about 85 percent during the 2003 to 2012 time period. In the West as a region, strokes rose 70 percent at the same time. Across the Midwest they increased 34 percent. But in the South the relative increase was smaller and, unlike the spikes in other mentioned areas, this jump did not appear to be statistically significant.

Experimental stem cell therapy helps paralyzed man regain use of arms and hands

The 21-year-old who suffered a cervical spine injury in March gains significant improvement in his motor function at Keck Hospital of USC.

news.usc.edu

Keck Medical Center of USC today announced that a team of doctors became the first in California to inject an experimental treatment made from stem cells, AST-OPC1, into the damaged cervical spine of a recently paralyzed 21-year-old man as part of a multi-center clinical trial. 

Leading the surgical team and working in collaboration with Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center and Keck Medicine of USC, Charles Liu, MD, PhD, director of the USC Neurorestoration Center.

Two weeks after surgery, Kris began to show signs of improvement. Three months later, he’s able to feed himself, use his cell phone, write his name, operate a motorized wheelchair and hug his friends and family. Improved sensation and movement in both arms and hands also makes it easier for Kris to care for himself, and to envision a life lived more independently.

“As of 90 days post-treatment, Kris has gained significant improvement in his motor function, up to two spinal cord levels,” said Dr. Liu. “In Kris’ case, two spinal cord levels means the difference between using your hands to brush your teeth, operate a computer or do other things you wouldn’t otherwise be able to do, so having this level of functional independence cannot be overstated.”

The pioneering surgery is the latest example of how the emerging fields of neurorestoration and regenerative medicine may have the potential to improve the lives of thousands of patients who have suffered a severe spinal cord injury. 

“I couldn’t drink, couldn’t feed myself, couldn’t text or pretty much do anything, I was basically just existing. I wasn’t living my life, I was existing,” Kris said as he recounted the bleak days following his traumatic injury.

“Now I have grip strength and do things like open a bottle of soda and feed myself. Whereas before I was relying on my parents, now after the stem cell therapy I am able to live my life.”