U.S. offers flu shots to migrants in border custody, reversing long-standing policy

For the first time in its history, the U.S. government is offering flu vaccines to migrants in federal custody along the southern border, reversing a long-standing policy decried by public health experts, the top doctor at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) told CBS News.

Since Sept. 28, when DHS started the influenza vaccination effort, more than 24,000 migrant adults and children have received a flu shot while in the custody of Customs and Border Protection (CBP), which processes unauthorized migrants and asylum-seekers, according to unpublished government data.

Public health experts have long called on U.S. border officials to offer flu vaccination to migrants, a demand that intensified during the Trump administration, when three migrant children died in federal custody due to influenza-related infections. At the time, the Trump administration rejected recommendations to vaccinate migrants in CBP custody, arguing the proposal was not operationally feasible.