WASHINGTON (AP) — Congress is holding an inquiry into the Trump administration's decision to stop considering requests from immigrants seeking to defer deportation for medical treatment and other hardships.
A subcommittee of the House Oversight and Reform Committee has set a hearing Wednesday on the Aug. 7 decision. Immigration officials and medical and legal experts are scheduled to testify.
Three of those testifying are from Massachusetts, where opposition to the decision has been strong. Boston civil rights groups challenged the move in federal court last week.
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services' "deferred action" program allows foreign nationals to work legally and receive health benefits while their family members receive treatment for serious medical issues.
The agency said last week it would continue weighing deferral requests pending as of Aug. 7.
Other articles from Hispanic Outlook:
Lawsuit: End Of Immigrant Medical Relief
BOSTON (AP) — Civil rights groups sued President Donald Trump's administration Thursday over its decision to stop considering requests from immigrants seeking to remain in the country for medical treatment and other hardships. The American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts and Lawyers for Civil Rights filed a lawsuit in Boston federal court challenging the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services' decision to end its "deferred action" program as of Aug. 7. The agency, in letters sent out last month, denied pending applications and ordered applicants to leave the country within 33 days or face deportation. The civil rights groups argue the decision to end the decades-old humanitarian relief policy was done without the advance public notice and justification required by law before changing a substantial federal government regulation. It also argues the move was "driven by racial and ethnic animus" and a desire to limit non-European immigration and therefore in violation of the Constitution. Days before his agency ended the program, acting…
Immigrant Medical Care Cases Get Reprieve
BOSTON (AP) — Federal immigration authorities have partly reversed course on a controversial decision to stop considering requests for foreign nationals to remain in the country for medical treatment or other special circumstances.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services says letters will go out this week reopening all cases pending as of August 7. The agency said on that date that it would no longer consider the requests and ordered all pending applicants to leave the country within 33 days. Mahsa Khanbabai of the American Immigration Lawyers Association says the reprieve isn't sufficient because it doesn't address new requests. The American Civil Liberties Union says it's weighing a lawsuit. U.S. Rep. Judy Chu, a California Democrat who called for a hearing slated for Friday on the issue, says the administration needs…
Protection For Migrant Medical Care Ended
BOSTON (AP) — The Trump administration has eliminated a protection that lets immigrants remain in the country and avoid deportation while they or their relatives receive life-saving medical treatments or endure other hardships, immigration officials said in letters issued to families this month. Critics denounced the decision as a cruel change that could force desperate migrants to accept lesser treatment in their poverty-stricken homelands. Mariela Sanchez, a native of Honduras who recently applied for the special exemption, said a denial would amount to a death sentence for her 16-year-old son, Jonathan, who suffers from cystic fibrosis. They are among many families who settled in Boston to seek care at some of the nation's top hospitals. Sanchez, who arrived in the U.S. with her family in 2016, said she lost a daughter to the same disease years ago after doctors in her home country failed to diagnose it. The disease, which is hereditary, affects the lungs and digestive system and has no cure. "He would be dead," if the family had remained in…
Saluting Physicians And Volunteers
My experiences in Haiti could fill a book but let me just tell you this one that affected me directly. I was standing between two parked vehicles holding the door of one when another vehicle slammed into the side of one of the vehicles. It pushed the two vehicles together “pinching” my hand between the door I was holding and the second vehicle. After freeing my hand, the blood began flowing. Two of my fingers were “cut” almost to the bone on one side. This started a flurry of events. First, there were calls to find out where to go as there aren’t hospitals with emergency rooms, emergency clinics or even a working ambulance service in most communities, readily available. After several calls, I was told of a clinic to go to (a distance away and struggle to get to due to the poor infrastructure, traffic, etc.). I was able to secure a vehicle and driver to take me there. Upon arrival at the medical facility, I found the “emergency room” to be a single room with one bed and a couple of chairs. The floor was covered with blood, gauze, and there was a man in the bed that they had just…
Being Called To Serve Those In Need
You might ask why someone who is a contractor, professional driver, technical engineer, project manager would be writing an article for Physician Outlook; and that would be a legitimate question. The answer is one that will hopefully touch your heart and open your mind. Several years back while operating a successful building and grounds maintenance company, I was planning a trip for myself to go to the keys, to relax, scuba dive and just enjoy some of what life offers. It was all planned when I saw on television a clip that showed a town, Harrisburg, Illinois, devastated by a tornado/storm, and requests for volunteers needed to help. I just could not turn from it, I canceled my trip, called my mother, and told her what I was planning on doing and asked if she wanted to go; the next day we were driving from Pennsylvania to Illinois to help strangers in their distress. I will never forget driving into the town, and walking through the streets, realizing we are so “desensitized” to things through television, media, internet…the reality set in. We spent the next week…
Pediatrician Honored As Everyday Hero
Dr. David Hennessey, M.D., is a pediatrician who practiced at Sewickley Valley Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine in Wexford, Pennsylvania, and has volunteered his services in remote regions of Guatemala. He was in active practice for 45 years. Earlier this year, the Pennsylvania Medical Society (PAMED) selected Dr. Hennessey for one of its Everyday Hero Awards. Dr. Hennessey earned his medical degree from Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia and completed a residency in pediatrics at the University of Cincinnati, Good Samaritan Hospital. His service to the community started with a four-year stint in the Air Force following his residency. After his military service ended, he decided that he wanted to bring pediatrics to a rural area where there is a desperate need for Doctors and spent time practicing in Titusville, Pennsylvania. He and his wife Anne then chose to settle in the Pittsburgh area. He joined Sewickley Valley Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine in Wexford (SVPAM) in 1986 and was an SVPAM partner. Dr. Hennessey practiced at…
Geriatric Surgery Verification Program
WASHINGTON (AP) — The 92-year-old had a painful tumor on his tongue, and major surgery was his best chance. Doctors called a timeout when he said he lived alone, in a rural farmhouse, and wanted to keep doing so. "It was ultimately not clear we could get him back there" after such a big operation, said Dr. Tom Robinson, chief of surgery at the VA Eastern Colorado Health Care System. The Denver hospital is trying something new: When their oldest patients need a major operation, what to do isn't decided just with the surgeon but with a team of other specialists, to make sure seniors fully understand their options — and how those choices could affect the remainder of their lives. It's part of a move to improve surgical care for older Americans, who increasingly are undergoing complex operations despite facing higher risks than younger patients…
Perhaps this has happened to you (and if it hasn't, it might happen soon). You need to see a Doctor, but you’re told you can’t see the Doctor for weeks or maybe even a month. Or maybe your trusted family Doctor has either moved away, died or retired, and an all-purpose medical group has moved into that office. More than likely you’ll have to get used to seeing non-Doctors including nurses and APNs for routine office visits. Unless the projected Physician shortage is reversed, that’s the future of medical care. If that doesn’t sound wrong, how would you feel if you were on trial in a case where your life, liberty or livelihood was on the line, and the only person you could find to argue on your behalf was a paralegal, not a licensed attorney? Unlike an attorney, every time you see a Doctor there’s a chance that his or her skills will discover and treat something that would otherwise severely impact...
Graduating More Latino Doctors
In the 2003 landmark Supreme Court decision on affirmative action at the University of Michigan Justice Sandra Day O’Connor wrote, “We expect that 25 years from now, the use of racial preferences will no longer be necessary to further the interest approved today.” Since that 2003 decision, the United States has made little progress in the areas Justice O’Connor had hoped, says Jorge Girotti, director, The Hispanic Center of Excellence at the University of Illinois College of Medicine. In fact, it appears the country is moving backwards, he added. Statistics suggest that most U.S. medical schools can just attract, enroll or graduate significant numbers of Latinos. In the 2018-19 school year Latinos comprised only 6.4% of students enrolled in U.S. medical schools. Some schools, however, are the exception. The University of Illinois College of Medicine, for...
Legal Pot Cuts Into Medical Marijuana
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — When states legalize pot for all adults, long-standing medical marijuana programs take a big hit, in some cases losing more than half their registered patients in just a few years, according to a data analysis by The Associated Press. Much of the decline comes from consumers who, ill or not, got medical cards in their states because it was the only way to buy marijuana legally and then discarded them when broader legalization arrived. But for people who truly rely on marijuana to control ailments such as nausea or cancer pain, the arrival of so-called recreational cannabis can mean fewer and more expensive options. Robin Beverett, a 47-year-old disabled Army veteran, said she resumed taking a powerful prescription mood stabilizer to control her anxiety and PTSD when the cost of her medical marijuana nearly tripled after California began general sales. Before...
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