Webinar: The Health Crisis on the Northern Mexico Border – Cross-Border Implications of U.S Immigration Policies

There is a growing public health crisis at the northern Mexico border. Immigration policies instituted both before and during the COVID-19 pandemic have directly put asylum seekers and migrants at risk for poor health outcomes. As outbreaks of COVID-19 spread in communities and shelters where asylum seekers and migrants live; the key tenets to infection prevention are nearly impossible to follow. Worse so, healthcare services have been drastically scaled back, leaving minimal resources to care for this high-risk population.

This webinar brings together experts in immigration policy and public health to discuss the growing health crisis on the border. Panelists will discuss the most pressing health needs of this population; how policies and practices in the U.S. and Mexico are exacerbating health risks of migrants; and what action is needed to protect them.

At the event, we will launch a new report entitled “A Population in Peril: A Health Crisis among Asylum Seekers on the Northern Border of Mexico”, an outcome of the ‘Public Health Crisis at the Border: The Mexican Perspective’, event hosted in November 2019. It highlights key health issues faced by asylum seekers and migrants along the northern Mexico border, and culminates with a series of recommendations for addressing them.

This event is hosted by the Harvard Global Health Institute and Boston College School of Social Work.