About Division of Global Migration Health

Our mission

DGMH's mission is to prevent, detect, and respond to communicable diseases that impact safe global movement to, from, and within the United States.

Priorities

• Protecting public health at U.S. ports of entry
• Keeping Americans healthy during travel and while living abroad
• Ensuring the health of individuals coming to live and work in the United States
• Partnering to protect the health of U.S. communities along the U.S.-Mexico border

Why it matters

Today, globalization makes it easier to move people and goods across the world in a short time. Diseases don't recognize borders.

• 1 million people travel to the United States every day1
• 28,000 flights travel into, out of, and across the United States every day2
• 410 million travelers arrived in the U.S. through more than 300 ports of entry in 20193
• Of the 410 million international travelers who entered the United States in 2019, about 190 million crossed the land border between the United States and Mexico4

Our work

We focus on activities that lessen the public health risks of global travel because diseases and outbreaks can quickly cross international borders.

• Provide guidance and oversight for medical screening and treatment for immigrants and refugees resettling to the United States.
• Partner to detect and respond to reports of ill travelers at U.S. airports, seaports, and land borders
• Provide information to help international travelers stay healthy before, during, and after travel.
• Promote the safe importation of animals and cargo that could carry diseases that can infect people.
• Respond to global public health emergencies to slow the introduction and spread of illness to the U.S.
• Use regulatory authorities to prevent the introduction, transmission, and spread of communicable diseases into the U.S.

Resources

• Border Health and Migration
• Immigrant and Refugee Health
• Port Health
• Importation
• Travelers' Health