Trump's immigration policies may put people at risk from coronavirus experts | US news

Since 2017, Donald Trump has pushed for a strict immigration program that has sown confusion, fear and mistrust among immigrant communities. Now as the world deals public health emergency in the form of an epidemic of coronavirus, experts fear that its immigration policies will endanger everyone.

There is a widespread fear that the President's policies have sown such fear of deportation and mistrust of any contact with American authorities among immigrants who also have more difficulty obtaining health care that many of them will not seek help if they get sick with the virus.

If you continue to discourage people from seeking services under normal circumstances, you cannot expect them to seek these services simply because you, as a racist and anti-immigrant president, have decided that now it's a good idea. It won't work, said Max Hadler, director of health policy for the New York Immigration Coalition.

Even as the coronavirus spreads to the United States, the Trump administration is stepping up surveillance in so-called sanctuary cities, where local police don't always do work with federal immigration authorities. The objective of the operations is to arrest as many undocumented immigrants as possible, the New York Times reported, and it is executed while leading sanctuary cities such as Seattle, Los Angeles and New York are facing a potential public health crisis linked to coronaviruses.

Randy Capps, director of research for US programs at the Migration Policy Institute, warned that agents could spread the coronavirus if they go door-to-door in already affected communities.

Meanwhile, Hadler feared that an increased presence of Immigration and Customs (Ice) could deter immigrants from accessing health care.

Medical treatment and health facilities should be sensitive places, exempt from most immigration enforcement measures. But this was undermined because reports from across the country indicated that ice officers had arrested or interrogates people in or near hospitals. Last month, Ice brought out a handcuffed man from a Brooklyn hospital after officers fired a pistol at him and shot another person who had attempted to intervene during his arrest.

Neither the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) nor Ice responded to a request for comment.

An extension public office rule targeting immigrants on the use of public benefits could also affect the way people approach coronavirus, as fears about their citizenship status or that of their loved ones are very discouraged from asking for help State, even in health care.

The rule came into effect in late February and has created fear and uncertainty in immigrant communities. This does not apply to public health departments, community health centers or hospital emergency rooms nor does it prevent anyone from being screened or taken care of, said Capps, but it could still make immigrants less likely to seek health care unless they are in urgent need.

The Trump administration also attempted to refuse visas to anyone who cannot prove that he will have health insurance or that he will be able to afford medical expenses in the United States.

Faced with tighter immigration policies and stronger enforcement, it may not be surprising that in December 2018, 6.3% of adults in immigrant families says they or a family member had avoided going to the doctor or to a clinic because they did not want to be questioned or disturbed about their citizenship status.

We have certainly seen that there is evidence that some people avoid medical care, and I think our opinion is that it certainly poses a risk to public health, said Hamutal Bernstein, senior research associate at the Urban Institute who co-authored the report.

His research found that immigrant families did not subscribe to benefits such as Medicaid and the children's health insurance program before the implementation of the new rule because they did not want anyone in their family loses on a green card. These reactions were widespread, even among people who were not involved in the policy change.

It is too early to know how these trends will influence the screening or specific treatment of coronaviruses in immigrants, experts say, although some say they are of concern.

If this hits immigrant communities, I mean, I'm just sure some people won't go to hospital for fear of being deported and being separated from loved ones, said Ally Bolour, a Los Angeles-based immigration lawyer who's board of governors for the American Immigration Lawyers Associations.

Bolour was able to see for himself what the virus can do: his sister and her husband tested positive during their trips abroad and are currently under quarantine in Tokyo. He said the situation looked like a horror film and that it was not more than two weeks ago that he was not sure that his brother-in-law would survive.

It is a national health emergency crisis. The government needs to come forward, just say and not kick you out, said Bolour. If you're sick, come in. Take good care of yourself. I mean, nobodys who say it all.

Bolour also believed that all detainees in government custody with only immigration violations almost 19,000 people at the end February must be released now for their safety and that of the public.

The United States is home to the largest immigrant detention system in the world, where inmates sometimes endure ramshackle and moldy bathrooms, eat expired food, and lack basic hygiene toiletries personal, according to DHS internal watchdog.

Capps said he had visited an ice facility where there was no soap or cleaning products, and that the U.S. ice and customs and border protection facilities had a very, very poor recent assessment of illness. In the last years, mumps, flu, scabies, shingles and chickenpox have all plagued these centers.

If she enters the detention centers, she only confuses the mind on how she is going to be managed. Because right now, they can't even manage, like measles, said Bolour. So imagine that in a coronavirus measure where a lot of people are going to get really, really sick very, very quickly, and they have to be isolated. Or?