'This administration is now deporting kids with cancer," said Rep. Ed
Markey, D-Mass., calling it "a new low, even for Donald Trump."
Mariela
Sanchez, of Honduras, comforts her son, Jonathan, 16, during a news
conference on Aug. 26, 2019, in Boston. The Sanchez family came to the
United States seeking treatment for Jonathan's cystic fibrosis. Elise Amendola/AP
Each
year, the U.S. gets about 1,000 applications from immigrant families in
the U.S. seeking permission to stay in the country and not face
deportation so family members can continue lifesaving medical care that
is not available in their home countries.
But
the Trump administration recently told families who were granted
permission to stay for medical care that their permission to stay has
been rescinded and they have 33 days to leave the country. The policy,
which was not publicly announced, is being applied retroactively to any
requests filed on or before Aug. 7.
In a conference call Thursday with reporters, advocates and Democrats expressed outrage over the rule.
“This is a new low even for Donald Trump,” Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., said in a conference call with reporters Thursday.
Among those facing deportation is Jonathan Sanchez, 16, who has cystic fibrosis.
His
mother, Mariela Sanchez, told NBC 10 in Boston that her family arrived
in the United States in 2016 and she had recently applied for the
medical exemption. After losing a daughter to the hereditary and
incurable disease because doctors in Honduras did not diagnose it, she
knows what would have happened to her son if he was not getting the care
in the U.S.
“He would be dead,” she told the station.
The
Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a
request for comment from NBC News. In a previous statement, United
States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has said that it was
no longer considering nonmilitary requests for deferred action "to
focus agency resources on faithfully administering our nation’s lawful
immigration system."
“This administration is now deporting kids
with cancer. Perhaps that is why it was too ashamed to announce this
policy change publicly," said Markey, who has been trying to draw
national attention to the issue since it was first reported in Boston by WBUR-FM, a public radio station.
The
Trump administration is no longer considering medical deferred action
requests for immigrants. This could be a de facto death sentence for
patients. We all need to stand together against the deportation of sick,
vulnerable children.https://t.co/aWBnZk4v7U
The
change was not made public and members of the public were not given a
chance to provide comment before it went into effect. Families simply
received letters telling them they had 33 days to leave.
“They
are telling these people they need to leave on their own,” Anthony
Marino, director of immigration legal services,said on MSNBC’s “The
Rachel Maddow Show” about the families with seriously ill relatives now
facing deportation.
“I don’t know how they
expect parents to pull their children from hospital beds, disconnect
them from lifesaving treatments and go some place where they are know
they are going to die," said Marino. "But that is what they are telling
them to do.”
In Miami, attorney Milena Portillo told The Miami Herald
that families who have applied for the medical deferments include a
girl with an eye malignancy, a girl with cerebral palsy and the father
of three children — who are American citizens — who has a terminal liver
illness.
“We as a country, we are losing
our humanitarian side,” Portillo told the Herald. “We’re not reviewing
case by case, but we’re just giving a blanket ‘no’ to everyone.”
Rep.
Ayana Pressley, D-Mass., cited in the Thursday call the case of Samuel,
a five year old boy from Brazil. She said he is unable to eat solid
food and without care at Boston Children’s Hospital will not be able to
receive the nutrients he needs to live.
Sirlen
Costa, of Brazil, holds her son Samuel, 5, as her niece Danyelle Sales,
right, looks on during a news conference on Aug. 26, 2019, in Boston.
Costa brought her son to the United States seeking treatment for his
short bowel syndrome. Elise Amendola/AP
"With
this decision, again this administration has hit a new low," Pressley
said. "To be fighting for your life, imagine on top of that facing
deportation."
The American Immigration Lawyers Association
called on the USCIS to reverse the policy change. It has asked people to
contact elected leaders to change it.
A
backlash over the changes has led to confusion over which Department of
Homeland Security agency, the USCIS or Immigration and Customs
Enforcement, must enforce the new policy, as the agencies have pointed
to each other as having jurisdiction.
Medical deferrals are not the only denials imposed by the administration. USCIS told NBC News
that it applies to all other deferred action requests outside of the
military and immigrants enrolled in the Deferred Action for Childhood
Arrival program or DACA.
The policy change
is another in a series of actions the administration has taken that have
had direct impact on children, both who are immigrants and those who
are U.S. citizens.
The administration has taken numerous children from their parents at the border and some have yet to be reunited.
The administration changed the so-called public charge rule so that immigrants wanting a green card or asking to move to the U.S. must prove they are unlikely to ever need public assistance, such as access to health care.
“There
can be no other explanation for why you would target such a small and
vulnerable community other than if your goal was to spread fear and
hardship,” Rep. Judy Chu, D-Calif., said.
“This
is all in character for an administration that is separating families
and abusing children in prison camps at the border," Chu added.
Chu
has filed a bill to defund the public charge rule but said “it’s clear
that this administration will not stop looking for any opportunity to
wage war on immigrants.”
Eugene Robinson joins Morning Blow to talk about his new op-ed in The
Washington Post about Trump’s obsession with comparing himself to
President Obama and his behavior at the G-7 meeting.
Let's talk about the reporting from Axios that Donald Trump has (ON
MULTIPLE OCCASIONS) suggested that we bomb hurricanes so they won't come
to the shores of the United States.
Anthony Scaramucci believes that there are enough former Trump officials
who are angry at the resident to assemble a team to take him down.
The
problem with Scaramucci’s idea is that the public already knows that
he’s nuts, and anything short of revealing criminal activity by the resident isn’t going to have any effect at all on the public.
With just his actions on WEDNESDAY of this week, Donald Trump
demonstrated the dire situation we are facing with him in the office of resident.
He is a ranting & raving lunatic who is steering our
country off a cliff and threatening our allies while asserting that he
may still be in office in FOURTEEN YEARS from now... and all while
claiming to be the chosen one, the second coming of God, and the king of
Israel.
At a sick G-7 presser, Trump outrageously blamed the former president for Russia's international war crimes.
Not only that, the criticism takes the form of lies, and reeks of
racism, not only for the former president he insults, but the esteemed
reporter (Yamiche Alcindor, of PBS) asking him the questions.
ALCINDOR: Thanks, Mr. President. Why do you think it's appropriate to
invite Russia to the G7 given that they've meddled in the 2016 election?
And are you worried that if Russia does come to the G7 that it might
hurt you politically because it's only going to be a couple of months
before the 2020 election?
DJT: I don't care politically. A lot of people don't understand this.
I ran one election and I won. It happened to be for president. I don't
care politically....
[...blah blah blah argle bargle horsesh*t...]
...Really it was President -- I'm not blaming him, but a lot of bad
things happened with President Putin and President Obama. One of the
things that happened was, as you know, what happened with a very big
area, a very, very big and important area in the Middle East where the
red line was drawn and then President Obama decided that he was not
going to do anything about it. You can't draw red lines in the sand. You
just can't do it. And the other was in Ukraine having to do with a
certain section of Ukraine that you know very well, where it was sort of
taken away from President Obama. Not taken away from President Trump,
taken away from President Obama. President Obama was not happy that this
happened because it was embarrassing to him, right? It was very
embarrassing to him. And he wanted Russia to be out of the what was
called the G8. That was his determination. He was outsmarted by Putin.
He was outsmarted. President Putin outsmarted President Obama. And I can
understand how President Obama would feel. He wasn't happy. And they're
not in for that reason....
[...blah yada bloop-de-doo horsedinky...]
I do nothing for politics. I do what's right. And people like what I do. But I just do what's right...
Wait, let me get this straight. You can't
name the "very big area" where President Obama drew the red line in the
sand (it was Syria, sweetie,) and Putin took Crimea away from President
OBAMA?
Crimea was OURS, and Putin tricked Obama into giving it
to him? Oh, that wily Putin. He's so dang SMART. He and his army and
TANKS outwitted Obama into losing Crimea to him in a game of checkers
because he's brill, man. So much smarter than Obama!
Lies and racism. Yamiche Alcindor called him on it.
ALCINDOR: Why do you keep using the misleading statement that Russia outsmarted President Obama...
TRUMP: Well, he did.
ALCINDOR: ...when other countries have said the reason why Russia was
kicked out was very clearly because they annexed Crimea? Why would you
keep repeating what some people would see as a clear lie?
TRUMP: Well, it was annexed during President, I know you like
President Obama, but it was annexed during President Obama's term. If it
was annexed during my term, I would say, "Sorry, folks, I made a
mistake." President Obama was helping Ukraine. Crimea was annexed during
his term. It's a very big area and important area. [...something
something submarines...] and President Obama was pure and simply
outsmarted. They took Crimea during his term. That was not a good thing.
It could have been stopped. It could have been stopped with the right
whatever. It could have been stopped.
But President Obama was unable to
stop it and it's too bad.
Yeah. It could have been stopped with the right "whatever." President
Obama was outsmarted. "I know you like President Obama..." You know,
because Yamiche Alcindor is Black?
Racism and lies. The BIGGEST lie was when Trump said that if Crimea
was annexed during his term, he would have said, "Sorry. I made a
mistake." That's the biggest pile of horseshit of all
California Governor Gavin Newsome signed a bill into law this week that
will prevent Donald Trump from appearing on the 2020 ballot if he does
not release his tax returns.
This might get under Trump’s skin, but
given the fact that California is a solid blue state, it isn’t likely to
change his position on releasing those tax returns. Ring of Fire’s
Farron Cousins discusses this.
The latest round of polling from Fox News doesn’t have any good news for
the resident, even though the hosts on the network do their best to
provide cover for him on a daily basis.
The latest polls from the
network have Trump’s disapproval ratings at a near-record high, which is
consequential for multiple reasons.
Ring of Fire’s Farron Cousins
explains what’s happening, and how the events of the last few months
haven’t helped Trump at all.
Hollywood legend and liberal activist Rob Reiner puts out new video with
military veterans against Trump. Reiner and U.S. Army veteran Robert
Pearson join The Beat.
Let's get one thing straight here right off: If you are a legal
immigrant in nearly every other country in the world, you are allowed to
participate in that country's national health system. You're paying for
the benefit through your taxes and other fees, and, goddamnit, just
like everyone else legally in the country, you don't have to worry about
paying much of anything else for your medical care. Nothing will be
held against you. Nothing will turn you into a "public charge" or
whatever fuckin' term for "undesirable" you want to use. And that's
because most every other country in the world is not filled with
ignorant savages who think that calling health care a "right" is akin to
mass enslavement by socialists.
We in the United States happen to live in a country that is, in fact,
filled with brutish idiots who would rather die in a ditch of a
treatable disease than have a government-run health insurance system for
everyone. So that means that only the poorest of the poor get to be on
Medicaid, and then you're considered on welfare and a burden to the
state. And that means that, unlike every other civilized nation, if
you're a legal immigrant, the American government wants to hold it
against you if you have a shitty job that doesn't provide health
insurance (like, say, in a chicken processing plant) and need help so
the flu doesn't financially ruin you.
We are a nation run by sadists who get off on hurting the poor. So, in the new rule, "Inadmissibility on Public Charge Grounds," published yesterday
in the Federal Register, taking advantage of a whole bunch of
government programs meant to, you know, help you survive could result in
you getting booted from the country.
See, previously, "'public charge' has been interpreted to mean a person
who is 'primarily dependent on the Government for subsistence, as
demonstrated by either the receipt of public cash assistance for income
maintenance or institutionalization for long-term care at Government
expense.'" Yeah, we didn't take into consideration "an alien's reliance
on or receipt of non-cash benefits such as the Supplemental Nutrition
Assistance Program (SNAP), or food stamps; Medicaid; and housing
vouchers and other housing subsidies."
But that was before motherfuckers took over and decided to redefine shit
that didn't need redefining unless you are a motherfucker. Here's the
new shit: "DHS is revising its interpretation of 'public charge' to
incorporate consideration of such benefits, and to better ensure that
aliens subject to the public charge inadmissibility ground are
self-sufficient, i.e., do not depend on public resources to meet their
needs, but rather rely on their own capabilities, as well as the
resources of family members, sponsors, and private organizations." Wow,
sounds almost logical, no? Except it's just fucking cruel for so many
reasons. Keep reading.
"This rule redefines the term 'public charge' to mean an alien who
receives one or more designated public benefits for more than 12 months
in the aggregate within any 36-month period (such that, for instance,
receipt of two benefits in one month counts as two months). This rule
defines the term 'public benefit' to include cash benefits for income
maintenance, SNAP, most forms of Medicaid, Section 8 Housing Assistance
under the Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) Program, Section 8 Project-Based
Rental Assistance, and certain other forms of subsidized housing."
The fuckery is deep in this, but let's put this simply. Let's say you're
an immigrant who has been in the country for a few years totally
legally. All of a sudden., you lose your job when the restaurant where
you're waiting tables or, hell, the office where you're working closes.
For four months, you need to go on Medicaid, you need SNAP, and you need
housing assistance. That's it. You can be denied a green card for
circumstances completely beyond your control unless you starve, go
homeless, and let yourself be sick.
This has been one of the pet projects of presidential adviser and man
most likely piss in your swimming pool, Stephen Miller, whose head is
essentially shaped like a white hood. It's racism that is so plain, it's
almost laughable. Yes, let's punish those who want to come to the
United States and work our shittiest jobs so rich pukes can get richer.
Yes, let's make them pay sales taxes and other shit that prop up our
economy. And by all fucking means, let's take the income taxes of people
who may have paid them for years before needing some government
assistance.
In the UK, if you are a legal immigrant, once you receive your National
Insurance number, you have access to many (not all) financial benefits,
starting with the National Health Service. You can apply for Employment
and Support Allowance, in case you are too ill or disabled to work. You
can apply for a Carer's Allowance if you are forced to stay home because
you must care for someone. You can get housing credits, maternity leave
pay, and retirement income. And it's specifically because you've been
paying into the national insurance while living in the UK that you are
eligible. In the United States, it doesn't matter how much you've paid.
Go fuck yourself in your old country if you need Medicaid for over a
year.
Of course, the demented dullards of the Trump administration are all on
board. Acting director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services,
that verminous cockscab Ken Cuccinelli, couldn't
even fake it when he completely undercut the Emma Lazarus poem on the
Statue of Liberty, ignoring the "huddled masses" and "wretched refuse"
part. And then he insisted that the poem was about Europeans, which,
really, just sodomize your ass with a burning cross at that point.
As for resident Ignoramus Q. Shiteater, when asked
about the rule and Cuccinelli yesterday, he said, " I don’t think it’s
fair to have the American taxpayer paying for people to come into the
United States...I am tired of seeing our taxpayer paying for people to
come into the country and immediately go onto welfare and various other
things. So I think we’re doing it right." We should point out that not
only are the taxpayers of the country paying for the months and months
of vacation he has taken, but a good chunk of that taxpayer money is
going straight into his business coffers and his own pockets.
Frankly, it's pretty fucking clear who should be booted from the country for being a public charge.
