Children’s Health and Deportation of Immigrants

Summary

The news report by Wiener Jocelyn is about a young girl called Abril who is eight years old. She lives with her parents in Santa Cruz, California. The girl was diagnosed with epilepsy and cerebral palsy; conditions that make her to constantly choke, not able to clear her throat and cannot walk or speak. Constantly her parents are forced to use a special machine to suck out phlegm and saliva from their daughter’s mouth. One of her parents has to be available for seizures and choking can happen at any time. Her parents, Sonia and Rafael originated from Mexico and had been living in the US for over a decade without permissions. Since President Trump came into power, the one question that has been haunting the parents is what would happen to their daughter is they are deported. With the promise given by Trump’s administration to deport all immigrants, Sonia and Rafael and others in their situation are now looking for legal ways to make them stay in the country so that they can care for their sick children. Professionals such as lawyers and doctors and those working with immigrants are struggling to provide sound advice to immigrants facing this dilemma.

Rafael and Sonia have to do all things undercover to avoid being spotted by the federal government. Abril’s survival and remaining alive is through her parent’s efforts. Parents with very sick children like them, according to Community Health Centers of Santa Cruz are seeking formal letters that document the healthcare requirements of their sick children with the hope that the letters can be of help in enabling them to stay in the country. The author also points out that the policies of deportation have changed from those passed by the Obama’s administration to the newly passed policies of President Trump. There is no selective form of deporting undocumented immigrants regarding deporting only those who have committed crimes. Currently, every undocumented worker is facing the risk of deportation (Weiner, 2017).

2. The implications to future as a leader in health care

Parents lacking proper documents of immigration living in the US face threats of separation from children after deportation. When the law enforcement catches up with an undocumented parent through the child welfare system, these parents face the potential of losing their children’s custodial rights. The immigration enforcement mechanism and child welfare systems operate independently of one another with the least regard on how their actions can impact the legal rights of parents that lead to a permanent separation of a child from his or her parents. For the case of the news article, it highlights the same fear whereby parents are faced with the threat of deportation, and yet they have a very sick child whose survival depends on their present all day and night. It is a case of a physically and mentally disabled child in need for supervision all round the clock. Parents are worried that they could be deported at any time living behind their disabled daughter behind to fend for her. Thus these parents face the same pressures as many other parents of children with special needs such as ensuring that their child is receiving medical care, educational help, therapy as well as full-time while at the same time balancing for household responsibilities and also balancing jobs. Also, these families have to deal with living in the shadows and are barred from attaining government assistance in a wide range of services (Pereira et al., 2012).

As a health care leader, I have to play a role in advocating the need for not deporting parents of children with special needs like the case of Rafael and Sonia. Additionally my role as a leader in healthcare organizations to ensure that the US-citizen children with parents who are unauthorized immigrants receive insurance which is publicly funded to children with no regard to their immigration status. Also, I should advocate and set up programs for providing emergency financial support. It is because immediately after parental deportation and detention, children may need money for buying necessities such as rent and food yet the family breadwinners especially fathers are always subject to deportation and detaining. It is possible by linking up the healthcare organization with charitable organizations that provide financial resources for covering basic expenses for a month (Capps, 2007).

As a future leader of the healthcare organization, I also have a role to play in assisting parents who have been deported in need of no-cost or low-cost legal services. Families are having the parent in detention always need legal representations in contending for their deportation. Therefore I will network with good lawyers who I can refer parents to them. I will also partner with child welfare agencies that advocate for parents participation in proceedings concerning the welfare of their children. I will work with these agencies in identifying parents in detentions, communicating with them as well as enabling them to attend custody hearings. I can work with these agencies in identifying the need for reunifying children with their deported parents in their home countries. It is possible since agonies do not always consider parental deportation as an automatic ground of parents losing their parental rights (Rosenblum, and McCabe, 2015).

Finally, as a health leader, I will hire more staff members who can assist families to apply for better healthcare services for their sick children and who can refer parents to other services. I will ensure that the health organization works with law and medical schools so that graduates from the universities can provide low-cost health care and legal services to families facing deportations. For instance, staff members from the medical school will focus on the public health approach as well as social determinants of children’s health. On the other hand, the medical school staff will assess the needs of the families such as food, and housing and connect families with benefits provided to the public in ensuring they are also eligible for these and other services provided by their immediate community. The hospital will also work with faith-based-organizations in providing the main source of support for families facing deportation and parental detention.

References

Capps, R. (2007) Paying the price impact of immigration on America's children

Rosenblum, M, and McCabe, K (2015) Deportation and Discretion. Reviewing the Record and Options for Change.

Perreira, K, Crosnoe, R, Fortuny, K, Ulvestad, K, & Chaudry, A. (2012). The barrier to immigrants’ access to health and human services programs. ASPE Issue Brief.WashingtonOffice Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation.

Wiener Jocelyn. ( May 22, 2017) Care For Abri Fear For Their Disabled Child If They Are Deported. Keiser Health News.

Carolyn Morgan is the author of this paper. A senior editor at MeldaResearch.Com in research paper writing services if you need a similar paper you can place your order from Top American Writing Services.

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