Fast Facts: First Edition

Time for some quick learning!

There are some debates I see taking place that don’t really have enough juice to squeeze a whole post out of (or are so easy to disprove it’s not worth it) but are still important enough for me to research. In this first edition Fast Facts post, I’ll lay out the myth vs. the reality of two of these examples.

Myth: Somali people are here illegally

The Somali people here in the states are primarily either here as 1) Refugees, meaning they applied for acceptance into the U.S. to escape persecution or war, or 2) children of refugees born here in the states.

According to the 2024 Census data, an estimated 193,061 ± 21,335 Somali individuals live in the United States. Of these, 95,332 ± 9,616 are foreign-born, and 97,729 ± 14,197 are native.

An estimated 78,253 ± 9175 out of 95,332 ± 9,616 are Naturalized U.S. Citizens. Doing that math using the base numbers without the plus/minus, that means an estimated 17,029 foreign-born Somalis are not Naturalized, while ~82.1% are. Of the remaining Somali non-citizens, it’s estimated that the majority are Green Card holders. In order to apply for Citizenship, an immigrant must hold their Green Card for 5 years, as well as go through the entire 10-step naturalization process.

Tl;dr: Somali people, by and large, are naturalized citizens or working toward it.

Myth: The recent Measles Outbreaks are from Illegal Aliens who aren’t vaccinated

Three parts to this:

The first is vaccination coverage in Mexico. Comparing Measles coverage in Mexico to the coverage here in the states from 2000-2008, it doesn’t look a whole lot different. I chose 2000-2008 as people between 18-26 years old are likely border crossers. If we look at the last 5 years of vaccination for measles in both places, we can see that Mexico does lag behind the U.S. Still, the 5-year average for the 1st dose for Mexico is 89% and the second is 81%. Meaning, if you were to encounter an adult undocumented immigrant between the ages of 18-26, there’s about an 89% chance they have received both MMR vaccines. If you encounter their child, the chances are about 81%.

The second part is the actual origin of the Measles cases that are in the news. It’s very difficult to trace an infection back to it’s roots. In the case of Texas, they were able to trace the origin to a West Texas Mennonite community with very low vaccination rates. In South Carolina, the origin is still being investigated, but the outbreak has been worst among students of a select few elementary and intermediate schools. In the case of Utah, the first case was, “…an adult from Utah County, the Department of Health and Human Services reported Friday. The person, who was not further identified, is unvaccinated and had no out-of-state exposures, indicating the infection was transmitted within Utah.

The third part is what eradication/eliminated means, if the individuals infected were vaccinated, and how the disease is transmitted. Measles was considered “eliminated” in the U.S. as of 2000, according to the CDC. This means, “reduction to zero of the incidence of infection caused by a specific agent in a defined geographical area as a result of deliberate efforts; continued measures to prevent re-establishment of transmission are required. Example: measles, poliomyelitis“, according the MMWR definition. It’s also important to note that only 4% of the reported measles infections have been in people who have received both doses of the MMR vax. In 2026, 95% of the cases of Measles were from people who were unvaccinated or whose status was unknown. Vaccines work, yo! Finally, it’s important to note that Measles as a virus doesn’t ever go away. It lives on surfaces, lurks in dark corners and is always around. The people who get infected by it are the people who aren’t vaccinated against it.

So, there is a small amount of truth showing the our Southern neighbor has less of a track record with vaccination, but there’s no truth that I can find showing these cases are their fault.

Thanks for reading, ya’ll!