Surge in Migration Leads to Surge in TB Cases, Finds a New Research Report by FAIR

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Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR)

Oct 23, 2024, 10:14 ET

WASHINGTON, Oct. 23, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Tuberculosis rates have rebounded after decades of decline thanks to open borders. Rates of infection of the potentially deadly disease began to steadily increase in 2021, and have been climbing ever since. The resurgence of tuberculosis in the U.S. coincided with record levels of illegal immigration, touched off by lax border enforcement and flagrant abuse of parole authority by the Biden-Harris administration.

There is direct cause-and-effect between unprecedented levels of people who are poorly screened for the communicable disease -- or not screened at all -- and the spread of that disease, finds a new study by the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR). The report, Tuberculosis: Mass Migration Drives its Prevalence in the United States, concludes that the resurgence of TB cases in the U.S. is caused, in large measure, by unprecedented numbers of aliens from TB-prone nations arriving in our country.

Many of the estimated 10 million illegal aliens who have been encountered entering the country since 2021 arrived from countries with high rates of TB infections and poor to nonexistent health care systems. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the rate of TB in the top countries of origin for illegal aliens is between two and 60 times higher than the rate in the United States. Many of the migrants are not screened at all for the disease, while others who are found to have latent forms of TB are released into the country anyway because latent TB is not considered grounds for inadmissibility.

"As migrants move into communities all across the United States, unsuspecting Americans are exposed to a potentially deadly disease. Of acute concern to many Americans is the risk posed to their children who may find themselves in classrooms with recently arrived migrants who are infected with TB. TB is not only a highly communicable disease, it is also one that poses long-term health consequences to those who contract it," commented Dan Stein, president of FAIR.

"The arrival of TB-infected migrants is also straining public health resources in communities with high concentrations of recent migrants. The cost of treating each case of TB is not trivial, sometimes exceeding $500,000 if the case is extensively drug-resistant," Stein added.

Among the key findings of FAIR's Report:

Nationally, 76 percent of TB cases in 2023 occurred in foreign-born patients.
Counties, states and metropolitan areas with high foreign-born populations have higher TB rates than those with lower foreign-born populations.
The government's health screening for TB in potential immigrants is deficient; some categories of aliens do not undergo health screening at all.
Latent TB is not grounds for inadmissibility, even though the progression of latent TB accounts for over 80 percent of active TB cases in the U.S.
The TB infection rate in the U.S. increased by 34 percent between 2020 and 2023,
Some U.S. border counties have TB rates exceeding rates in high-risk countries such as Afghanistan, Iraq, and Lebanon.

"Legal immigrants to the United States have long been required to go through a health screening process, precisely to prevent the spread of communicable diseases. But even legal immigrants who test positive for TB are not barred from entry. Public health is one more casualty of the Biden-Harris administration's relentless effort to open our borders and flood the country with as many immigrants, legal and illegal, as possible. There is apparently no threat to national security, public safety or public health that this administration is prepared to impose in pursuit of open borders," Stein concluded.

The full text of the report, Tuberculosis: Mass Migration Drives its Prevalence in the United States, can be found on FAIR's website, www.fairus.org.

Contact: Joey Chester, [email protected] or 202-740-7355

SOURCE Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR)