"No more burritos," advises Casa Alitas, a migrant support center in Tucson, Arizona, which claims that the food provided by the Department of Homeland Security to undocumented immigrants at the border is making them sick .
Half of the migrants served by this organization have suffered “ burrito disease ”, as those affected informally.
"At least one person per family said they feel bad after eating the burrito, or they say they couldn't eat it because of how bad it was ," Dr. Timothy Domer told the Phoenix New Times.
"A quarter of the families [attended], and a few more days, complains of gastrointestinal discomfort associated with the food they receive at the place of detention," added endocrinologist and university professor Stephen Thompson.
In the detention centers where migrants are housed after being intercepted at the border, the Border Patrol provides them with three hot meals .
The doctors of Casa Alitas, who are the first to attend to the migrants after being released, have ruled out that the inconvenience comes from the lack of food , but from the burritos, a dish that is never lacking in those centers.
The discomfort disappears after a few hours, especially if they are treated and the affected person can take another fed, such as chicken or watermelon soup .
“We always want those who have suffered inappropriate behavior by our staff to let them know, we take all complaints seriously,” said Meredith Mingledorff, spokeswoman for the Office of Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
The food questioned is provided, frozen, by a Tucson food supplier called Malone Meat and Poultry, which has refused to respond to this complaint, according to the daily cited.
The CBP has a one million dollar contract with this company for the period 2018-2019, which has been extended for this year for a similar amount, according to the official data detailed on the public website USAspending.gov.
According to the doctors at Casa Alitas, the problem may be how the Border Patrol prepares the burrito before serving it, and not so much in the quality of its ingredients. "According to what migrants tell us, it is still frozen or cold " when it is served, says Thompson.
"There are heated accordingly. And who knows where they are stored when they are defrosted, ”asks Susan Thompson, another doctor who works with the organization.
“If the agents are not heating the food properly, it is something that we have to solve, ” the CBP spokeswoman acknowledges, “there should be no excuse about it. If it happened, I personally apologize to those who were in our facilities and I promise to work to make things better. ”
This, however, is not the first case of complaints against food at border patrol facilities. Migrants who were held in a center in Texas, claimed in mid-2019 that they were fed frozen sandwiches and cold burritos, according to the Bloomberg news agency.
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