Trump administration: Immigrants who need life-saving medical care can no longer get it here

The Trump administration is taking another step to harm immigrants. This time, it’s by cutting off their access to life-saving medical care. It’s a breathtakingly cruel move, but it’s also the sort that has become routine under this administration.

Up until earlier this month, immigrants who might otherwise be deported were able to stay in the country if they or a relative were receiving life-saving medical care. It’s really the bare minimum of human kindness a country could extend, not ripping people away from medical care or from their family members receiving medical care. But this administration can’t even do the bare minimum.

What this means is that migrants may receive inferior treatment in their home country or no treatment at all. In other words, for some people, it’s likely a death sentence. Often, migrants have come here just so that their children could receive vital care. The Associated Press reports that in Boston, the administration’s decision will affect 20 families with children fighting “cancer, HIV, cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy, epilepsy, and other serious conditions.”

There are no exceptions, save for military families. So, people who had pending requests or renewals are out of luck, even if they are mid-treatment.

When contacted by the AP, a Citizenship and Immigration Services spokesperson said that people could seek deportation deferrals from ICE instead. However, that isn’t what they told the people they’re trying to deport. Instead, the letter sent to applicants ordered them to leave within 33 days or be deported.

This action is well in keeping with the rest of the administration’s behavior when it comes to migrants. They want to jail innocent migrant children for longer and longer. While confined, those children have been drugged and starved. The administration let numerous children die in custody. They’ve made it harder for asylum seekers to get work permits. They’ve eliminated the possibility of asylum for those fleeing gang and domestic violence. Now, they’re ripping life-saving medical care away from impoverished, desperate people who need it most.

It’s cruelty for cruelty’s sake and nothing more.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.