America’s “Immigration Enforcement” Is Killing Us, and Healthcare Cuts Are Paying for It

We can’t have an honest conversation about healthcare in America without first addressing the paramilitary thugs brutalizing and murdering people in our streets. What good is health reform if masked agents of the state can murder or abduct you with no consequences? Adding insult to injury, our government is paying these violent gangs by slashing funding for healthcare.

Just yesterday, as I was writing this piece, we learned that Border Patrol goons murdered Alex Pretti, an ICU nurse who cared for American military veterans at a VA hospital. He was executed in broad daylight. This is already the third shooting and second murder by federal agents in Minneapolis so far this year. Instead of being investigated, the federal agents who committed these murders are still on the job.

Being a U.S. citizen and avoiding protests doesn't make you immune. ICE tear gas sent a 6-month-old to the hospital after one family’s van was hit by a flash bang and tear gas while on their way home from their son’s basketball game.

ICE is Targeting People Seeking Medical Treatment, Then Denying Care

Previously, hospitals, doctors' offices, and health clinics were off-limits to ICE. That changed last year when Trump returned to office. Now, Minnesota doctors are warning that people are avoiding medical treatment even at the risk of their lives.

Once detained by ICE, medical treatment is often nonexistent. Aliya Rahman, a disabled woman and U.S. citizen on her way to a doctor’s appointment, was dragged out of her car by ICE, detained, and denied medical care even after she passed out. This shouldn’t be surprising, considering ICE is being sued for medical neglect in its detention centers, and stopped paying contractors for detainee medical treatment back in October.

We can’t make meaningful changes to America’s health system if people are being kidnapped on their way to doctors' appointments and murdered in the streets by marauding state-sanctioned goons.

We’re Paying for Lawless “Immigration Enforcement” With Our Healthcare

All this is being done at the expense of our healthcare. It’s not a stretch to make this connection.

Last July, Congress voted to cut healthcare spending for children and low-income Americans by $1 trillion while at the same time adding $170 billion for “immigration enforcement” over the next decade.

We are beginning to see the violent consequences of dramatically increasing ICE’s budget, but it may take years for us to see the consequences to our healthcare system. Here are some of what we can expect over the next decade:

• 11.8 million Americans will lose health coverage due to these cuts (Source: Congressional Budget Office)
• 5 million people, including 800,000 children, will lose food assistance (Source: Center on Budget and Policy Priorities)
• 338 rural hospitals are now at risk of closing in the next decade  (Source: Sheps Center for Health Services Research at the University of North Carolina)

While hospital beds dwindle, ICE is constructing new detention centers with 125,000 beds. The contrast couldn’t be starker. We’re literally paying for “immigration enforcement” with our lives. Don’t forget that all this is happening while Congress can’t find a dollar to help Americans pay for skyrocketing health insurance premiums.

As state-sponsored violence ramps up, healthcare resources are siphoned off to pay for it.

The Good News?

If you’re looking for good news, it’s this: people hate this. Support for ICE and their aggressive intimidation tactics is collapsing.

Once again, the lesson is that confronting the Trump administration works. The administration and their thugs are weaker and more unpopular than ever. Now is the time for more people to speak up and organize to fight this creeping fascist menace.

Abolish ICE and prosecute the murderers. Then let’s get back to the good work of improving healthcare and saving lives.

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