Disastrous Consequences
Texas Governor orders hospitals to report immigration status data
Governor Greg Abbott has issued an executive order requiring hospitals in the state to collect and report information on immigration status of the patients they treat. The order is set to take effect on November 1 and will require the Texas Health and Human Services Commission to assess costs accrued by public hospitals for care given to individuals without legal status. Abbott said that the state should not have to be responsible for financially supporting people who are in the country without authorization.
Migrant advocacy groups are advising people not to share any information regarding immigration status with hospitals, but to continue to seek medical care, providing only the usual information required by hospitals such as name and address. No one can be denied care under federal law, so providing citizenship information is not a requirement to receive medical help. “People will be afraid to go to the hospital because they will perceive, I think, very fairly, that Texas is threatening their access to health care through this question,” ACLU Texas lawyer David Donatti stated.
Change to asylum safeguard has had disastrous consequences
According to a new report, a safeguard that had been in place for 30 years to protect people from being deported without a chance to present their asylum claim was ended by the Biden administration when they implemented an asylum ban rule. The rule is part of an Interim Final Rule that went into effect in June.
Several legal services organizations have conducted a large number of interviews with asylum seekers who have been impacted by the new rule and have found that immigration officials are not following U.S. and international refugee law that provides people with the right to a credible fear interview (CFI), or asylum claim screening. Instead, officials are deporting people without a CFI even when they express fear of being returned to their country. In addition, people are being told by immigration officials not to speak, that there is no more asylum, and that they will be deported. Families are also being separated with some family members being provided a CFI and others being removed without a CFI, when under asylum law they could have been referred together.
The report directs that U.S. immigration agencies immediately retract the Interim Final Rule and that Congress rejects any attempt to enact a law based on the rule.
Written by Jenifer Wellman, our Advocacy Director at We Choose Welcome.
