Henrique Jaime, MD: Christiana Care, Family Medicine, Faculty

Mexico: June 2025

 My second trip with Refugee Health Alliance at the Mexico-USA border differed significantly. Recent impacts on immigration have slightly reshaped the migrant population. My previous experience saw a high flux of migrants waiting for asylum or refuge into the US. Most of the patients we saw had been residing in Tijuana for months to years at this point. The Haitian population that initially came to Tijuana as a temporary stay are now staying and having families.

  For Saturday outreach, we went to two shelters where we evaluated residents for various needs. We saw a total of 50 patients among 4 providers. During the weekday clinic, I mostly supervised and helped interpret, intermittently seeing patients to help with the flow and when a male provider was needed. With even more limited resources, we mostly evaluated patients’ acute and chronic needs, provided medication, and referred them fo further care. Many patients required direct wound care while others just needed maintenance of their diabetes and hypertension. We also provided prenatal care.

  During the experience we witnessed the toll of current events. Thankfully organizations like RHA help provide medical care as well as human care with daily lunch and access to showers, restrooms, and laundry machines for the current population at the border.