Feds Change Migrant Kids Health Screening After ABC News Exclusive

A young boy awaits medical treatment as he sits outside his holding area where hundreds of children are being processed and held at the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Nogales Placement Center, June 18, 2014, in Nogales, Arizona. Credit: Ross D. Franklin/Getty Images

In response to an ABC news exclusive on the breakdown in medical screening of unaccompanied migrant children along the southern United States border, the government agency in charge of housing the children announced "additional measures" including physically taking the temperature of each child before he or she boards a government plane to housing facilities across the country.

The new measures, announced today by the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) at HHS, are designed to make sure the children screened and medically cleared while in the custody of CBP (Customs and Border Protection) have "not fallen ill while pending transport to Unaccompanied Alien Children program facilities."

"CBP (Customs and Border Protection) medical providers already check flight manifests against children who were identified as sick overnight; if there are any concerns, children destined for a DoD (Department of Defense) installation are pulled from the flight," ACF statement read. "Under the updated protocol, our staff also take the children's temperatures shortly before flights. Any child with a fever and cough or sore throat is pulled from the flight, isolated from others and seen by a medical professional."