In what is one of the most heartbreaking and disturbing trends to emerge from the Trump era, deportation fears are preventing children from accessing medical care, according to a healthcare provider with Lurie Children’s Hospital in Chicago.
Dr. Elisha Waldman writes in a Washington Post op-ed that despite the fact that hospitals have long been “sensitive locations” generally off-limits to federal immigration agents, “increasingly aggressive actions by agencies such as Immigration and Customs Enforcement” are forcing undocumented immigrant parents to “have to ask themselves whether bringing their children for even routine health care could trigger an alert and arrest.” Now that a racist administration that has no regard for the human rights of black and brown people has joined forces with an ICE agency that was already out of control even before Trump took office, immigrant parents have reason to fear:
The concept of sensitive locations was eroding even before the current heating-up. It comes as no surprise, then, that children’s hospitals and other pediatric health-care providers across the country have been reporting a decrease in use of health-care resources by undocumented immigrants in recent months. Actual numbers are difficult to obtain; most medical centers do not document parental immigration status. But within the field, there have been widespread anecdotal reports of reduced emergency department use, along with a drop in regular well-child visits.
This of course puts these individual children at risk, which should concern all of us for what it says about how we, as a society, care for the most vulnerable among us. But if that doesn’t move you, consider the broader public-health implications of such a trend. Fewer children brought in for routine health care means fewer children receiving the routine vaccinations of childhood, such as measles and meningitis. Fewer children brought in for treatment of illnesses means more children out in the community with untreated communicable diseases, such as tuberculosis. This reservoir of potential vectors of infectious disease affects everyone. Germs have no interest in immigration status.
“Hospitals and clinics also need to take a stand, now, loudly and publicly,” writes Dr. Waldman. “This is an issue that transcends politics; health care is a human right. Medical centers should educate patients and families. Hospitals should distribute materials informing families of their rights, as some have already started doing. We must reassure patients and families that they are in a safe space when they come to us—that they will be protected and nurtured while seeking care for their children, and have no need to fear being reported.”
According to one study, thousands of children are already suffering from severe emotional trauma due to their parents’ deportation, or fear that their parents will be deported. According to some of the most recent data, at least 5,000 U.S. citizen children are in foster care due to separation from their parents. “Even before birth, immigration enforcement can put a child’s health at risk. The 2008 worksite raid in Postville, Iowa—the largest single-site immigration raid in U.S. history—was tied to premature and underweight births, complications that put babies at risk for infant death or long-term health problems”:
A study by Human Impact Partners found that in 2012 alone, when deportations were at record levels, approximately 152,000 children who were citizens had a parent taken away from them. From 1998 to 2012, over 660,000 children suffered such traumatic separation from a parent. As a result, tens of thousands of children suffered declines in their physical health, had poorer behavioral and educational outcomes, and experience higher rates of poverty and food insecurity. The study also reported that in surveys of undocumented parents, three-fourths said their child showed symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. Nearly half said their child was anxious and nearly a third said that their child had been afraid most or all of the time.
As early as March, reports emerged that women who would have preferred to have their babies in a hospital were instead being forced to give birth at home out of fear their immigration status would put them on ICE’s radar. In late 2015, the staff of a Texas gynecologist violated patient privacy laws by reporting an undocumented immigrant patient to local authorities after she used a fake I.D.—Texas does not allow them to apply for driver’s licenses in the first place—to check into her appointment. “Front desk staff at Northeast Women’s Healthcare ushered her into an exam room, where Harris County sheriff’s deputies were waiting to bust her.”
These are the kinds of stories that immigrant families fear, because they fear being the next story. The fact is that immigrants, regardless of legal status, should have the right to access medical care without fear of getting swept up by ICE agents in an emergency room and torn from their loved ones and homes, but instead our anti-immigrant policies are leaving the most vulnerable—our children—to suffer. Please tell me how any of this makes America great again.