Make America Cruel Again: Deporting a U.S. Citizen — a Child with Brain Cancer
This headline will haunt me for the rest of my life:
“U.S. citizen child recovering from brain cancer deported to Mexico with undocumented parents”
The reporting from Nicole Acevedo tells the story of a 10-year-old Texas girl who was being treated for brain cancer in Houston. Her parents frequently traveled with her through immigration checkpoints from their home in Rio Grande City, always being let through with letters from her doctors… but this February they were arrested for being unable to produce proof of legal immigration, even though their ill child is an American citizen.
Prior to this incident, the checkpoint had accepted their doctors’ notes as sufficient documentation to pass. According to The Houston Chronicle, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol officials changed that stance and deemed the documents “insufficient”.
They then deported them, with their sick daughter.
As a pediatrician this is unconscionable. This family was traveling to get their daughter medical care, and our government targeted and deported them.
And you know what? I feel it would be just as horrifying if that little girl weren’t a US citizen!
Who are we as a nation when our tax dollars are funding the deportation of hard-working immigrants who came to this country trying to save their daughter‘s life?
Undocumented immigrants in the United States face significant barriers to healthcare access. They are largely ineligible for federal healthcare programs like Medicaid and Medicare, limiting their options primarily to emergency medical services. This exclusion contributes to a high uninsured rate among undocumented immigrants, estimated at approximately 46% in 2019.
Aggressive immigration enforcement policies have already led to a “chilling effect” across the country, deterring undocumented immigrants and their families from seeking medical care, and stories like this will only lead to more fear — though it seems that fear is certainly quite warranted.
Republicans love to clutch their pearls and pretend they want to protect children, but where are they now when this 10-year-old US citizen has just been removed from the country and has lost access to her life-saving healthcare?