As families deal with a shortage of baby formula across the United States, a Florida Republican lawmaker has shared photos showing dozens of boxes of the coveted product at a migrant processing facility near the US-Mexico border.
Rep. Kat Cammack took to her social media pages, Twitter and Facebook, to share images of “pallets” of infant formula at the Ursula Migrant Processing Center in McAllen, Texas on Wednesday.
“The first photo is from this morning at the Ursula Processing Center at the U.S. border. Shelves and pallets packed with baby formula,” she wrote in a tweet accompanying side-by-side photographs of full and bare shelves. “The second is from a shelf right here at home. Formula is scarce. This is what America last looks like.”
“I don’t know about you, but if I am a mother anywhere, anytime in America, and I go to my local Walmart or Target or Publix or Safeway or Kroger or wherever it may be that you shop and you are seeing their shelves and you are seeing signs that you are not able to get baby formula,” Cammack said. “And then you see the American government sending, by the pallet, thousands and thousands of containers of baby formula to the border, that would make my blood boil.”
The images of the infant formula come as Americans face a nationwide shortage stemming from February complaints of bacterial infections from infants who consumed the products — which reportedly resulted in at least two deaths and four illnesses.
Currently, the company is working to reopen the facility to alleviate the shortage.
“We understand the situation is urgent – getting Sturgis up and running will help alleviate this shortage. Subject to FDA approval, we could restart the site within two weeks,” they said. “We would begin production of EleCare, Alimentum and metabolic formulas first and then begin production of Similac and other formulas. From the time we restart the site, it will take six to eight weeks before product is available on shelves.”
