Trump’s Newest Targets are Kids with Cancer

I, like most people, can relate to the agony of having to sit in a hospital atrium while awaiting my beloved uncle’s cancer test results or the outcome of a close family friend’s emergency surgery. Every single time, I’ve been blessed with a sigh of relief upon discovering that my loved one will be able to come home. I feel fortunate to know that American healthcare has so far worked in my favor. Others aren’t so lucky. Some will heave a sigh of anguish when they hear the news of a death or a terminal illness. Some will have to overcome great adversities to secure the health of their loved ones, facing obstacles like the great amount of time it takes to care for an ill relative, impossibly high medical bills, and of late, the American government itself.

Donald Trump, in a decision that has been dubbed "the most inhumane” of his policies, recently implemented an unannounced policy that forces the deportation of immigrant families who are currently staying in the U.S. for life-saving healthcare for their terminally ill children. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) recently sent out letters indicating that the agency is no longer considering deferrals of deportation for families whose children are staying in the country for medical care their native countries might lack the supplies to treat. This status, called medical deferred action, had previously allowed immigrants to legally stay in the country to work and receive healthcare while receiving much-needed treatment for their illnesses. By withdrawing this policy, the administration has effectively halted the life-saving treatment of children with leukemia, cystic fibrosis, muscular dystrophy, and a host of other deleterious diseases. Often, this essentially means a death sentence for these children.

The Miami Herald recently reviewed the case of an immigrant man whose child was diagnosed with metastatic Stage Four neuroblastoma, a type of cancer that develops in nerve tissue. The man was told by the U.S. government to terminate treatment and get out in 33 days, regardless of his child's condition. He is "desperate" to stay in the country so that he may remain with his daughter. MSNBC featured the story of Jonathan Sanchez, a 16-year-old with cystic fibrosis whose family also received a letter booting them out of the U.S. More and more cases have been appearing in other states, indicating that similar occurrences are happening around the country.

Enraged and confused by the egregiousness of the unannounced change, 110 Congress members wrote a letter to the Trump Administration asking for a clarification in the policy shift as well as an explanation for the lack of an official statement. But when questioned, the USCIS seemed to "have no idea of the humanitarian—and potentially fatal—consequences of what it is doing," prominent MSNBC show host Rachel Maddow said. When radio station WBUR called in to ask for clarification, the USCIS deflected the blame onto ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement), which is supposedly taking medical deferred action requests into consideration. MSNBC found that ICE isn't actually processing the requests, however, and ICE has stated to the Miami Herald that it had no idea USCIS was telling reporters that ICE was handling the responsibilities to save children with life-threatening maladies. Then, on the morning of August 28, 2019, ICE and USCIS had a meeting about the issue for the first time, and Boston Globe reporter Sarah Betancourt said, "ICE is definitely punting this back to USCIS." Meanwhile, Maddow laid out the following scenario to describe the stupidity and severity of the situation:

“Imagine leading one of the most influential and richest countries on Earth and then getting the idea that what that country ought to do to better itself is target children with terminal diseases. Imagine believing that these children pose such a threat to this nation that you need to channel the power of the entire federal government to effectively cut off their life-saving treatments and kick their helpless families out of the country. Imagine that, once you've decided to do this, you forget about it without a care in the world, thinking no one would care or even notice because the affected group is made up of ‘just immigrants.’ So you don't even come up with a plan in case someone—somewhere—asks you to answer for your actions: when you are inevitably questioned, you say, ‘some other agency is doing it!’”

This piece will be printed in the Opinions section of The Spectator, but there’s not much opinion to be had. The growing outcry of grieving parents across the country has made it clear that the consequences of revoking medical deferred action will cost the lives of innocent children across the U.S. Most immigrants—especially immigrants with children battling life-threatening diseases—pose no threat to the U.S. Since the USCIS has given immigrants a 33-day deportation window, there’s still time to undo the changes.

To me, the story of Sanchez serves as a chilling reminder of my own cousin, who is an incredibly strong teen survivor of lung cancer. I have witnessed firsthand the struggles that families endure when their loved ones are diagnosed: it is certainly filled with anxiety and pain, but it also teaches priceless values to the victim’s caregivers. As my aunt said, “His link to the world was fragile. He had such a delicate lifeline to us, and we held onto every passing moment and day as if it were his last, because…it could have been his last.” This is the lifeline that the Trump administration is tearing apart, and we have an inherent, moral obligation to stop the federal government from doing this in the name of the American people.