All over the world people who are well pay part or all of the cost of keeping their fellow citizens well. It doesn't seem to bother them.
I am happy to help out others where they need. And I am pleased that others help me to keep my cancer stable and allow me to be independent.
What is wrong with Americans, or wrong with American politicians? Do they ever think of themselves and what might happen in case of a serious condition, illness? That they would have to sell their homes, declare bankruptcy to take care of their illness. More than one Republican congressperson supports letting their fellow citizens die if they are ill.
Maybe these 1000 or so immigrants could have gone to other countries but they applied came to the US because they thought they would get the best possible help there.
If they are part of important research projects, the results obtained could help American children with these illnesses.
43
I'm 73 years old and always thought of Americans as generous, compassionate, and eager to help others less fortunate. Boy, after reading some of the comments here, I can see I was wrong. Have these mean-spirited people never taken help from a friend, from their community, from any level of government? Do they go through life begrudging others health, safety, and happiness?
May I never be as bitter and resentful as some of these commenters; may I always be willing to share and to help. Amen.
85
More information is required, but It sounds like they did not arrive in good faith. Arriving at a port on entry with a valid visa, does not mean they did not defraud the border official, by knowingly intending to use that tourist (non-immigrant) visa to adjust their status later on.
If they had instead applied for a B-2 Medical Visa outside the US, and then arrived with -that- visa at the border, then I am more sympathetic and am all for extending -that- visa. So long as they can continue to meet the requirements of the b-2 Medical Visa, namely they and -not- taxpayers will pay for the medical expenses.
39
A really important distinction that I think reveals the true preferences of individuals focusing on some fantasized future where America bleeds out money to medical tourists:
There is a HUGE difference in saying, "We will no longer accept medically-based immigration requests"—which I guess we can debate but is not what is at heart here at all—and suddenly pulling the rug out from people who are already here LEGALLY under preexisting guidelines. Absolutely huge. The relative pittance that could be going to help these families (e.g., how on Earth do you know none of these cases have medical insurance?) is nothing compared to the human impact of 1,000 families rapidly having to negotiate complex, vital medical care in places they may not have lived for huge swaths of time, all in a MONTH.
23
This is about using immigrants, legal or undocumented, to rile up the racist white base of the GOP. If children have to die to do it, if they need to be separated from their families, if they need to be caged, if they need to suffer, so be it. This is what America has become, the torturer of children and those seeking help.
7
Controlling the borders is one thing. But the reality behind this policy is cruelty and racism for its own sake. We can always find trillions of wealthy GOP donors, but we refuse to do a darn thing for the sick, especially if they’re brown people.
It gives people a sense of power to turn other people’s lives to hell just because they can.
But everyone needs help eventually. Trouble is, when you’re a cold blooded sociopath, people think you deserve what you get. No one helps you because you weren’t willing to help anyone else.
8
Would the NYT please stop publishing "sob stories" without also (a) noting what the care is costing the US taxpayer, and, (b) providing a "Go Fund Me" link to those who would rather send money than argue while someone suffers? This kid and his family are being used as pawns by both sides and that is sickening in itself. We need to know about all the costs... Not just how awful something feels... Thank you.
15
It is tiresome to read Mr. Jorges claims of the U.S. Government's "war on immigrants."
Ailing children such as "Jonathan" should always be admitted to the U.S. on humanitarian grounds.
ALL other so-called asylum-seekers--approximately 80% of which--should be granted humanitarian "asylum" and housing at the border, an expeditious hearing, and rapid repatriation to their home countries. Otherwise, they will simply disappear into our nation's woodwork-- working, yes, but otherwise sucking off of America's educational system, medical services, and "social services" ad infinitum, like vampires.
Send 'em home just as soon as possible. Except, that's never gonna happen, will it? We're a weak-willed bunch, aren't we?
Just stating a fact.
5
This man in the Oval Office has brought more shame onto this country and the tragedy is that so many in this same country are too insensitive or caring and ignorant to see this. This is not the US that I want; this is not a president that I support.
5
Needless Cruelty. The Motto of the Trump Regime.
Seriously.
8
Trump and his cronies just don't care. Period.
3
Honduras does have hospitals. In 2012, George Washington University Hospital donated a year’s worth of medications to to a Honduran public hospital that permitted it to treat a boy with cystic fibrosis.
The United States could simply donate the necessary medications to a Honduran hospital to permit it to treat Jonathan Sánchez for cystic fibrosis. This would be cheaper than treating him in the United States. It would permit his family to resume their life in Honduras and would spare them the tremendous expense of maintaining a second residence in the United States.
https://smhs.gwu.edu/news/healing-hearts-hondurashttps://smhs.gwu.edu/news/healing-hearts-honduras
12
You can bet that if the medical care seeker came from Melanias' country (white/immigrant) that person would be staying. It would be covered differently on Fox (white immigrant owned) than on the liberal press. These hipocrits value fetuses but not families and living humans.
3
An awful lot of commenters are complaining that since US citizens can’t afford health care, this boy shouldn’t get it either. We are truly living in a dystopia. People look at a sick child and say, “Go die” — imagine if instead they could look at everyone struggling with obscene medical bills and say, “Enough.”
You’re so envious of a terminally ill child that you’ll send him to his death because you assume he’s getting something you aren’t. Despicable.
14
This cruelty is purely intentional. Designed so that Jonathan Sánchez will back to Honduras to tell people there how terribly has was treated and predict that anyone else who tries to go to the U.S. will suffer as well. This is no longer the United States I was born into. It aspires to be a cruel dictatorship.
2
Wow NYT has definitely found a new angle to work with judging by the volume of articles on the topic of illegal immigrants with extremely difficult and expensive medical issues.
I agree that these people deserve medical care, My questions is, is it fair that a person who illegally enters the country gets to get ahead of the line for medical care over a legal immigrant who has been going through proper channels? Overstaying a tourist Visa is one of the biggest drivers of illegal immigration, and should this person be allowed to do that when others are waiting in line to go through normal channels?
It seems to me like if we agree this person should get medical care then we should create a law with a special Visa just for these people. Why cant our Congress do anything?!
6
Jonathan Sánchez is here, and I doubt impoverished Honduras would provide any medical care for him. A wealthy and decent society like ours has to and will provide medical care for him. One might wish he'd gone to Spain, Panama, Costa Rica, Brazil, or some other country capable of doing the same. But he is here.
I don't mind my tax dollars being used for this. The F-35 military plane program is currently scheduled to cost $1.196 trillion, according to a Time magazine story dated April 22, 2019. If we can afford that, we can afford to help Jonathan.
This story, however, proves the point (attributed to Josef Stalin but found in quotations dating back to 1916): a single death is a tragedy, a million deaths a statistic.
Our consular officers likely detect countless cases like Jonathan's and don't issue a visa. If the officer in Tegucigalpa had learned of Jonathan's illness, he would not have been allowed to enter the U.S. And we would never have heard of him.
5
After public protest, this rule was withdrawn. Why is Mr. Ramos pretending it is in place and these patients will be deported?
11
It is tiresome to hear repeatedly from Mr. Ramos and his ilk about America's "war on immigrants."
Yes, "Jonathan," with his special health conditions, certainly does merit special consideration.
But the vast majority of "immigrants," (up to 80%) so-called "asylum seekers," are deserving of nothing more than humane internment, a fair hearing, and then, in MOST CASES, expeditious deportation to their countries of origin.
Instead, once denied asylum after a lengthy judicial review process, the majority of these failed asylum seekers will vanish into our country's woodwork, to work, yes, but ALSO to sponge off of our nation's schools, welfare and medical systems, and whatever else they can get their hands on.
Except for "special needs" children like Jonathan , the rest should be sent home pronto. But of course, that's never going to happen.
Instead, I'll watch the "progressive" (pun intended) third-worldization of the U.S.
Thankfully, I don't have that much longer to live to watch this slow-rolling disaster.
9
it does sound like the family committed fraud by lying about the purpose of their tourist visa if they intended to seek medical treatment.
13
The poisoned fruit of predatory capitalism has made everyone in America a mark for the predators. Immigrants get it the worst because they are on the bottom. We use them to do the jobs we don't want and throw them away when the aren't needed. This young man suffering from a chronic illness is particularly vulnerable, because he's likely to cost his insurer money.
4
Jonathon evokes no sympathy from me. He will die from cycstic fibrosis. I'm sure that nothing about his fatal condition was mentioned on his visa travel application. His family plays a less than honest hand by getting him here first and then immediately applying for special costly treatment. I hope they all are deported immediately. I don't like being suckered .
8
When will this evil end? This is what trump Americans want? What is wrong with his supporters?
3
Of course this is a special case that deserves compassion. But other than this case Mr Ramos is wrong.
I obtained a green card and then citizenship the legal way and I assume that the same may be the case for Mr. Ramos.
We live in a country of laws and those laws must be followed and respected. Of course this country is based on immigration and by far most immigrants contribute positively to this great Nation.
However we can not accommodate all those that for medical, economic or political reasons seek entrance to the USA, and we have every right to control our borders.
This should not be about Donald Trump even if I admit that our President invites it to make this a partisan issue.
This is about orderly immigration that should be based on what is best for America, but also occasionally making humanitarian exceptions. However let us not make exceptions the rule.
With regard to Central America, corruption is a huge problem in many of these countries and our efforts should prioritize improve local living conditions rather than opening our borders wide.
18
"Nothing is more compelling and moving than a child fighting for his own life."
How "compelling and moving" could it be when Mr. Ramos didn't immediately pull out his billfold and personally pay the medical bill?
19
This article shines a spotlight on the core of the Trump administration's behavior: performative cruelty. In terms of costs, this program is a vanishing speck within the expenditures of US healthcare. The point the Trump administration are making, is that they don't hesitate to send children to their deaths, if it can serve them to commune with their base.
That base extends to the commenters here.
How many of the commenters here, who object to our paying taxes to save the lives of a thousand children from outside the US - have ever stood up to politicians depriving them of health insurance while giving away $1.1 trillion in tax breaks to megacorporations and billionaires?
The same cruelty that these commenters want to inflict on a Honduran boy, they approve of inflicting on their fellow Americans who don't have health insurance through an employer.
17
It's interesting to see how many people are responding with comments like, "why should we help this kid? why should we help immigrants?' we should be helping our own instead." Reality check: we don't help our own, even when we can. The Republicans could care less whether millions of Americans have access to health insurance, millions of American kids are living in poverty and don't get enough to eat. The issue of helping a small group of immigrants with life-threatening illnesses and helping American citizens in need are not mutually exclusive.
23
Even though there are millions of American children who cannot get medical treatment in America, it is still, of course, a human cruelty to return a sick child to certain death. But that isn't the point. One million people a year who enter the United States illegally are do not have cystic fibrosis. The America I know is not in a war against immigrants, it is a nation that is obliged to enforce its laws. We are a nation of laws, that is what differentiates us from Honduras. If we cease being a nation of laws then inertia will carry us for a while, but it won't be two generations before we will have lost what it is that people coming here now seek. What I have written can easily be twisted, taken out of context, interpreted in the worst possible way, or otherwise turned against that basic truth. We need a legal immigration system that we are willing to enforce as effectively as we enforce our other laws (no law is 100% enforced, but no law will stand if the people elected to enforce the law stand aside).
21
Many many people are coming to the US each year for free medical care and free education for their children. Many, many thousands, not the 1,000 cited in this article.
Medical care is indeed free and the US taxpayer is paying for it. Undocumented children are covered by Medicaid, pregnant women are covered by Medicaid. Undocumented folks of any age and citizens alike qualify for almost free healthcare at the expansive network of the US Federally Qualified Healthcare clinics. Comprehensive care, including dental, costs just a few dollars for the poorest. No one is turned away.
Don’t forget the ER’s. No one is turned away, even non citizens who can’t pay.
Think about the next pandemic which will come sooner or later. If sick in Central America, why not hop a bus to the border, then sneak in to the US, go to the nearest hospital in south Texas, and demand services. In reality, the hospitals will be so overwhelmed with sick people, and hospital staff too sick to come in to work, then what happens?
29
I think the NYT’s readers live in a cocoon that would make the bubble boy in the memorable Seinfeld episode a widely travelled sophisticate. Anyone who expects that the majority of Americans will be moved to open the country’s borders to every foreigner with a life threatening illness because of this young man’s story is living untethered to reality. Articles like this harden the opposition to immigration, not increase acceptance for it.
30
@Shiv No, that is not what we think. Moreover, no one cares to correct you, because we no longer care what you and your fellow Trump travelers think.
Count again, Shiv. Your candidate lost the popular vote, by 3 million votes. It’s you who are outnumbered.
In 2020, unlike in 2016, we will all show up, including in the crucial battleground states, where Trump won by thin margins.
We won’t argue with or try to detoxify your poison, Shiv. We will beat you.
18
Not in 2020. Four more years.
5
I hope this particular kid lives a long and healthy life. If the family has to return to Honduras, hopefully his U.S. doctors can confer with Honduran doctors on a treatment plan. But I am also reminded of all the Americans I hear of who have died because they rationed insulin or delayed going to a doctor because they couldn’t afford treatment, even with insurance. We need to fix our health care system — provide truly affordable care, universal insurance with reasonable deductibles, lower prescription drug prices, prevent drug companies from jacking up prices on EpiPens and insulin — for Americans and legal residents before we start providing that care to non Americans for free or reduced prices.
25
"Those who would slay monsters must take care lest they too become monsters>" Nietsche.
Had the adminstration merely ended the eligibility of foreigners for treatment trials it would have been cruel, that it made the decision retroactive was monstrous and murderous. In reversing retroactivity, the administration did what the guilty often do, it acted on the QT.
Where did the administration get these people, the ones who made the original decision and the ones that implemented it without resigning. "Have you no shame?" Apparently not.
Question for Trump's evangelical supporters. Did the manifestly immoral decision to rip foreign kids from medical trials in the U.S. affect your view of the administration?
6
In 2012, George Washington University Hospital donated a year’s worth of medications to to a Honduran public hospital that permitted it to treat a boy with cystic fibrosis. The United States could simply donate the necessary medications to a Honduran hospital to permit it to treat Jonathan Sánchez for cystic fibrosis. It would be cheaper than treating him in the United States.
Which the publicity generated by the New York Times article, it should be easy to raise donations to cover other children who suffer from the same condition.
https://smhs.gwu.edu/news/healing-hearts-hondurashttps://smhs.gwu.edu/news/healing-hearts-honduras
20
@William Case: I wonder if his illegal parents have stolen jobs and food stamps also from the US government? if not,what are they living on?
3
There are people on GoFundMe right now trying to raise--begging for--money for medical treatment, including kids with cancer.
I feel bad for the boy in this story. But there are people here going bankrupt from medical care and dying for lack of it.
23
@Talbot
My understanding is that families like Jonathan's have to pay for the care they receive. It might come as a surprise to you, but not all Hondurans are poor.
12
@Syliva
Medicaid will cover this undocumented/illegal child’s medical care at 100%.
6
The person described in this article certainly needs to be helped, the issue with illegal immigration does not apply to him or such, of course.
But the slant of the article is disgusting in terms of using this medical example to state that there is "America’s war against immigrants", with the word "illegal" apparently missing, or that the administration is "virulently anti-immigrant". Nothing new from NYT, of course. As far as the case described, if you need help from such an administration or such country, at least chose your words more carefully.
We only have problem with illegal immigration and "fake" asylum seekers and hopefully we will solve or ameliorate those issues, despite all the efforts from NYT to make this country border-free and a circus as far as the immigration policy and situation.
21
trump's population control immigration program -
Get Out And Die.
7
Although bias against Alexander Harrison is so deep BY members of the EB , we will continue to contribute , try to, nonetheless,to the public discourse in hopes that policy and personnel will change, become more tolerant of dissenting opinions from us aficionados of The Donald. Have we not heard and read of this story before:Why is Trump admin. not more sensitive to the plight of illegal immigrants from central America? THAT is a minority view, Mr. Ramos, and is it politically incorrect to wonder, ask why UNIVISION, which has taken a personal interest in this case, not undertaken to pay for the expense of caring for the child ?. It has the means to do so! We have problems of our own, caring for native born Americans, and was it not RAHM EMMANUEL who sagaciously remarked why should Americans be asked to pay for the poor of the world when so many families here," ciudadanos," are 1 operation away from bankruptcy? Why not dig deep into ur own pockets, or formulate the request to writers at Times newspaper drawing 6 figure salaries plus income from highly paid appearances on the Speakers Circuit.And George Soros?Can't he pitch in?Stop exploiting suffering of others to advance a political agenda,"Je vous ai compris,"which, in plain old Anglo Saxon English translates as "We get your point!"I like Mexicans:It was a dvm who rescued a dog from streets of Oaxaca years ago, saved his life. Daffodil remained with me until his demise 15 yrs, later:a "beau geste!"
8
One swallow doesn't mean it's spring. Nor does one selected example reflect the totality.
12
It is extremely difficult to argue with "one-off" stories about deserving, critically ill children being deported. Of course it's God-awful.
But no one wants to talk about the overall problem- climate change, rotten third-world governments and universal availability of information, all of which contribute to the extra-legal movement of nearly 100 million people from the third world to the first world. Until and unless we shift resources and military authority to Central America, Asia and Africa in a sort of "benign colonialism" this problem is only going to get worse even with a decent Democratic administration in power in the U.S.
25
@Richard Katz It is the current and past malign colonialism of the United States in Central America that has led to the fact that this boy cannot be treated in Honduras.
4
I just bought a new t-shirt. It reads "Keep the Immigrants. Deport the Racists." Sounds like a plan.
12
@mkc So your plan is to deport people you believe are racist?
How does this make you any different from Trump?
9
well, racists are awful and immigrants aren't. so let's start there.
3
I am going to be honest, Mr. Ramos, I don't think this is very helpful to our shared cause. The title of this piece and the tone of it makes it sound as though he was already denied ...but buried in the text it says that for now, he was granted an extension. He is safe. For now, but he is safe. That's not how the headline reads.
So please listen to me.
I am not denying he is in danger. I am not denying his story needs to be heard. I am objecting to your sensationalizing the narrative to make it seem more dire. That undermines our credibility and God knows we have enough examples of the cruelty without sensationalizing a story to make it seem worse than it is.
I would and could let it go but you are an important voice for Hispanics.
My friends who are Jewish invited our Congressman to speak about his commitment to Israel. I very much approve of their efforts, for the record and I went to listen. However, a question was asked about hispanic immigrants and his response left a lot to be desired. It was evasive. He talked about the sanctity of the borders. It made sense on the surface but it lacked the attention to the details that other, better coordinated groups have been able to get, like my friends.
So, why does this apply to you? Because Hispanics come from many different races and countries and we are not united in one voice.
We don't have the room to waste the bullhorn as I feel it is wasted here. His life, at the moment, is safe. Many others are not. Focus there.
14
Before the Trump administration restored the prior procedure, this was the plan:
— The citizenship branch of the immigration service (USCIS) decides on deportation deferrals for seriously ill and illegally present noncitizens.
— Applicants can still avoid deportation, but another agency is going to decide, namely the branch that deals with deportations (ICE). The government argues that this makes sense because it’s not a citizenship question, it’s a deportation question.
— However, in a classic example of what’s wrong with parts of the federal government, the form letter that the applicants received did not tell them to apply to ICE for the same deferral they were applying for with USCIS. It instead told them that they have to leave in 33 days.
Whether that was a deliberate attempt to scare seriously ill recipients or mere bungling isn't for me to speculate on. Either is possible.
Of course, had the Trump administration stuck with its change, ICE might have been less generous than USCIS in deferring deportations. We'll never know.
NPR and the Washington Examiner got this story right. Other media didn’t.
5
Goldman says in his editorial today what I've been saying all along, that American's "Christians" are in reality Old Testament thumpers of wrath and punishment. I find almost no Christianity in the comments from so called conservatives here.
I don't remember expediency or convenience or we getting to decide who should be helped, or a pass from God for cost in any of the teachings of Jesus Christ.
8
American tax dollars should be spent on Americans in need not people who are not here legally it’s not cruel it just the fact. America has plenty of poor who could benefit from the money being spent on those who come here illegally and take advantage of our medical system we must take care of our own first.
19
@EAH So did you think it was a good idea to gift a $1.1 trillion tax handout to the richest Americans? Where was your protest against that, while the "plenty of poor" Americans are struggling to survive?
4
Likely the administration will wait until our attention is elsewhere, then expel these immigrants. Remember when they "stopped separating parents and children"?
2
Just to fill in the blanks a bit since the article is sparse on details. Please keep in mind, these are not assumptions, but rules from the State Department and USCIS...
1. If a family came to the U.S. on a tourist visa for medical purposes, it would be a under a B-2. This is a NON-IMMIGRANT visa, meaning the visit is temporary and the individuals granted this must return to the home country of origin at the expiration of the visa. There is no long-term or permanent stay under this category. Additionally, a family would have to provide substantial financial proof that (literally) everything associated with the medical treatment is paid for privately or the family's home country. Usually, hospitals want their fees and care charges up front before treatment even commences. Furthermore, if the State Dept has any doubt that a family would become a Public Charge, they would be denied the visa, and ultimately, lawful entry to the U.S.
2. Deferred action is for someone who is already out of status (expired visa and overstaying) and is pending deportation orders. Deferred action does not confer "in-status" or forgive any time periods that someone was out of status. Deferred action only delays the inevitability of removal. Additionally, it can be revoked at any time, as it is discretionary.
24
@Yuriko Oyama
You are absolutely right, the article author did not disclose the important facts. Pretty much everything in the article describes the emotional side of the story - obviously very important as Jonathan's life is on the line. Did Jonathan's family disclose his health status during the interview at the US consulate? Who is paying for Jonathan's treatment?
18
@zumzar
In addition, per the State Dept. website:
Validity of a visa relates only to the length of time the holder may travel to the United States and apply for admission. It does not determine the length of time you can stay in the United States. The length of time a visitor is permitted to remain in the United States is determined by the United States Customs and Border Protection Officer at the port of entry. Each traveler will be permitted to stay in the U.S. for a period of time that is fair and reasonable for the completion of the purpose of the visit.
A tourist visa is valid for generally 10 years for multiple trips, and if all terns and conditions are met and there are no violations of the visa. People can stay usually 6-12 months (depending on CBP's stamp on the I-94) per visit till they have to go home.
Now if a family has continuously stayed and has not gone home, as per the terms and conditions of the visa, then yes... the visa is revoked, removal is imminent, and there will likely a bar from re-entry (even if a family applies for a different type of visa).
11
Honduras has a medical school that is part of the National University. Jonathan will be able to be treated there. The diagnosis has been made and treatment to keep him alive has been identified.
I wonder if the family figures that by staying in the US he will also get a lung transplant and lifelong follow-up care.
23
@kathy So how do you feel about the Saudi and Emirati patients who come to this country to get lung transplants, and other organs for which there is a long waiting list of US residents? It's all good because they are paying lots of cash?
3
I feel for Mr. Ramos and his family. But it is impossible to give every sick person in Central America FREE CARE IN THE USA.
The author here is not thinking this through. If Mr. Ramos is treated free....who else hears about it in his village and says "my diabetes needs treating! my kid has a broken leg! my mother in law has cancer! let's all go to the USA for FREE MEDICAL CARE!"
A large percentage of Americans lack insurance or have lousy worthless Obamacare with HIGH DEDUCTIBLES ($10K and up!). How can we pay to treat Mr. Ramos free -- but leave our own citizens to die?
24
@Concerned Citizen
Well we are not talking about every sick person in Central America. We are talking about the ones affected by this policy.
Would you be willing to pull the plug as Jonathan sits there? Would you give a righteous rational and then say sorry, as the breaths become harder and harder?
6
CF therapy requires frequent monitoring, medications and care. There is no cure, the best outcome for children patients is to reach adulthood - their 30's at best. The cost of care for a CF patient may go into hundreds of thousands over the life of a patient.
Who is paying Jonathan's healthcare bills?
19
@zumzar I will work for the goal that my taxes go to pay Jonathan's bills and not to the billions of subsidies currently paid to oil corporations and to gigantic agribusiness conglomerates.
5
Just to be clear, the boy, Jonathan, was brought to the US from Honduras as a baby and he is now 16.
Other comments refer to the foreign aid cuts by the Trump administration being the reason why he would be in the US.
I think the people of Honduras need to get after their government to support their needs - the long-term use of the US to take care of people the Honduran government doesn't want to care for should stop.
18
@Margo To be clear, the involvement of the United States in South and Central America for decades has resulted in the situation many countries now find themselves in (crime, poverty, corruption). Not to mention the role of the US in contributing to and denying climate change, resulting in places where nothing will grow anymore, preventing people from having even a subsistence level of survival. The US has a lot to make up for.
8
Sorry - he lived with this disease for 13 years, before he came to the US.
Maybe we should bill the Honduras government for his treatment?
14
@nectargirl
What are you basing your assessment that the involvement of the US in South & Central America is the reason they are so messed up? If we had let them become communist countries would the outcome have been better?
7
Trump could stand out in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot a person and he wouldn't lose any voters.
Trump could deport very sick immigrant children to their deaths and he wouldn't lose any voters.
132
@mrpisces
More likely, he would gain voters.
Never forget "He's not hurting the ones he is supposed to be hurting" as a window into the Republican soul.
17
@mrpisces
Perhaps if you read today’s Washington Post story you might understand why - A mother of five children stands to lose her home. Her medical provider wants to seize the home because of unpaid medical bills. The mom had emergency surgery and as a result owes thousands that she cannot pay. The Sanchez family is currently receiving even more expensive treatment - and they are getting it at no cost.
13
@Mauree
The one family and their needs do not stand in opposition to the other. If we have the capacity to treat the children who come here for tx we have the moral obligation to do so - and especially since "we"are helping "them" not entirely without a vested interest in the outcomes and what we learn in the development of treatments that benefits us all.
The medical establishment's inhumanity to the family featured in the WaPo story sounds deplorable and indefensible on its face ( I haven't read the artivle) but not has nothing to do with the other children's plights. They are not the perpetrators of the greed of our private medical establishment.
37
Mr. Miller , Trump's chief adviser on immigration matters, is a ruthless person. The end of excessive immigration justifies all means to him. Poor Jonathan faces the excruciatingly painful situation of watching himself die an early death. We have other such stories, as that of Jimmy Aldaoud, the frail Michigan man, who had never been to Iraq and did not speak Arabic, but whose parents were Iraqi . Jimmy was born in Greece and brought up in America--- in his own mind an American speaking only English. He was deported to Iraq, where he slept on park benches and soon died.
This ruthless treatment, so inhumane and immoral, is a form of murder. Those who condone it have their hands dipped in blood. Those who promote it , even more so.
I can understand men like Trump and Miller doing this evil.
They never made any claims to religious piety. But the Evangelical representatives, the Pences and Huckabees, and some others, who support Trump---who claim to love Jesus and present themselves as holier than thou--how can they assist such evil by their presence and their silence?
5
@shimr - Steve Miller is the rot in trump's brain.
1
The overwhelming majority of countries in the world don’t have the level of medical care found in the west. Cystic fibrosis is a life-long illness that requires consistent, advanced medical care to manage. Jonathan was admitted to the United States under a “deferred action program” that, in light of the chronic nature of his disease, needs to morph into a lifetime tourist visa of sorts so that Jonathan can continue to get the treatment that’s not available in Guatemala. Is the plan to allow anyone with with cystic fibrosis (or any other disease for which treatment in the home country is substandard) to reside in the United States indefinitely for care?
65
@Don L., well, it's admittedly not a perfect world and there are difficult choices where neither option is ideal, but that seems like a better plan than telling someone to just go die.
Of course, in the long-term, we could re-institute the foreign aid funding that Trump has cut and even expand it to help these countries build their infrastructure so fewer people have to leave their countries to save their lives. Until we do, I don't understand how anyone can blame a person in a life-threatening situation for choosing to do all they can to survive, yes, even if it means breaking immigration laws. Wouldn't you if it was you or your child whose life was at stake?
We make exceptions for people who take a life in self-defense. How can we not make an exception for someone who violates immigration laws in self-defense??
55
"Roughly 1,000 people benefit from the lifesaving program each year, according to a recent report in The Times."
Compared to the US population, this number is near zero. So yes, why not "allow anyone with with cystic fibrosis (or any other disease for which treatment in the home country is substandard) to reside in the United States indefinitely for care".
40
@ChrisH
Why this talk about violating immigration laws? These families specifically are not violating immigration laws. I know you mean well, but this is counterproductive.
26
American citizens are not responsible for the medical care of non-citizens, especially those who came to our country specifically to game the system.
Suppose we take care of our own before trying to take on the burden of caring for the world?
52
@Barooby Everyone is a human being regardless of where he or she is born. As far as taking care of our own, we take care of the wealthy and powerful quite well. Perhaps it's time to take care of everyone else?
49
@Barooby Yes, let's try that. Your first task should be to confront the Republican governors who refused to expand Medicaid under the ADA. Collectively, they've cut off access to heath care to millions of people. Then, catch up with those who use CHIP, the children's program, as a bargaining chip every chance they get.
Many Republicans in power have proved repeatedly that they could care less if the people whom they have sworn to represent suffer and die. What's your cure for that?
54
@Barooby, your post makes me sad. It is probably true that we can't medically take care of all the people in the world, but why do you say "especially" regarding those who do it legally? We are a country of laws and I think we should respect people who follow them. An it isn't their fault that we don't take care of our own.
14
My son has been on the Medicaid "waiting list" for years, with no movement whatsoever and not even any indication from the people we talk to (on the rare occasions when you can reach an actual human being) when. Just sayin.'
39
Why do you think they are receiving Medicaid?
5
@david so, better to make someone else die. Got it. That will solve everything.
8
Sorry that your son is on a waiting list, you may want to ask your Republican representative. The Republicans have cut Medicaid and many Red states have governors that have refused Medicaid expansion.
FYI: these immigrants are not using Medicaid, repeat, not using Medicaid!
9
Did this evil action begin with the president or someone in his administration? Who is responsible for this awful thing? This is not what American and Christians are about.
1
My guess it’s Stephen Miller who has come up with all the ways to traumatize undocumented immigrants. Trump approved this plan, until the media (thank God for Free Press) outed their evil plan.
By the way, we are not a Christian nation, otherwise children would torn from their families and held in cages at the southern!
1
Like all NYT authors, you deliberately leave out a necessary adjective. Its NOT “America’s war against immigrants”; it’s “America’s war against ILLEGAL immigrants”, AKA (usually) criminals.
Families of illegal aliens should not be separated; they should all be sent home (along with any minor children, regardless of citizenship). Minors should not be behind bars; they should be sent home. Birthright citizenship should be changed; one’s parents’ legal status, not one’s place of birth, should determine citizenship.
That said, you’re right: 2020 will about the kind of country we want to be. Or, more accurately, do we actually want to BE a country? A place without borders and without laws is not a country.
This kids’ parents engaged in deliberate fraud. There is precisely no reason to believe that treatment for CF isn’t available in Honduras or places like Costa Rica.
And, like just about everything else AOC says, there is no reason to make immigration “easy”. Only those who offer an immediate benefit to the US should be permitted to enter. We have no need of unskilled immigrants, who depress wages and cost the taxpayers hundreds of billions. We should adopt a system like (say) Mexico’s, Canada’s, or Australia’s. America's needs, not those of foreigners, should determine our policy.
Put simply, why does it ALWAYS have to be HERE? And the answer is simple: illegals know that American leftists don’t take the law seriously. When they do, these problems will vanish.
30
@Michael. So, the US is at “war” with illegal immigrants? Therein is the nonsensical approach to a complex issue. When you have a few thousand people waiting for refugee approval in a country of 350 million people, it’s hardly an invasion. That said, the US has to come up with a credible immigration program
1) financial aid to countries in need to help people stay put. Including for agriculture which has been impacted by climate change.
2) temporary work visas for people to work in seasonal agricultural jobs
3) free contraception - not mandatory- to poor countries where people can’t afford to support growing families
4) more judges to sort out those who’re applying for refugee status for political reasons vs. those who are fleeing poverty. If the latter, provide them with some money and return them in a plane to their countries.
3
What a disgrace is Trump for the humanity of these United States, a nation of immigrants (after the real American Natives were placed in Reservations; and Africans were dealt with by slavery and ending in segregation), now denying asylum to newcomers in need, a cruel action towards 'the other' (read, non-white)...by a vulgar plutocrat, revealing his huge social distance from the least among us. Though shameful, Trump is shameless, and never felt the need to apologize for his multiple 'crimes'. Call it serendipity if you will, but Jonathan's illness may be just 'what the doctor ordered', to reverse governmental stupidity, and do what's the humane thing to do.
2
Do we admit, and pay for, lifelong medical treatment for any and all foreigners who demand it?
17
It would appear that is the case.
4
Jorge Ramos is a citizen of Mexico and he always wants more migration to the U.S.
10
Trump, and Bolton, and Pence, and Pompeo DO NOT CARE. It's not them or THEIR immediate family or someone who might give them money or power. It's an easy target for racist xenophobe cowards, just like the Jews were for the Nazis. IT IS SHAMEFUL and it has become one of the hallmarks of today's Trumpian/Republican America.
I have spent my entire professional like caring for people with disabilities and it has never cost this country one cent. I did it because that is what good people do for each other. Without my care and that of my compassionate colleagues of all medical specialties, our patients would die if exiled to other countries. Each and every one, no matter how disabled or handicapped, is to us far more worthy of care than Donald Trump would ever be. They are of greater personal and social value than a destructive, brainless, malevolent narcissistic sociopath who would end them with his Twitter finger and rejoice to his rabid followers how wonderful he is.
To anyone with any moral or ethical underpinning, this situation is unquestionable. Those of you who claim to be "good" Americans, "good" Christians, Jews, Muslims, Druids, etc. should understand this - the rest are welcome to find their own residence, perhaps in Afghanistan with the Taliban. That seems to be where your philosophies, such as they are, would be most welcome.
3
@RealTRUTH
You know what? If you are so torn, go down to South America and be the Messiah there. Establish the care facilities there. A lot of American's would be willing to contribute, I'm sure. But don't play the hero with my money.
5
THE EJECTION OF GRAVELY ILL FOREIGNERS GIVEN PERMISSION TO REMAIN IN THE US To receive life-sustaining treatments parallels Hitler's orders to the Nazis to go into hospitals and institutions and remove "defective" persons, who were to be exterminated. Those horrific acts were stopped by the forceful objections of the German people, in part motivated by the Church, who backed the Nazis down. After the church was silenced, the Nazis murderous rampages exploded to huge proportions. I have no doubt whatever that unless Trump is backed down from his current murderous orders, he will vastly expand the number of people who require life-sustaining medical treatments. Why? Because the owners of the insurance companies are the 1%, whom he favors to the exclusion of the rights and needs of the 99%. Trump will cancel costly medical treatments and transfer the money to the 1%, using yet another tax "overhaul" (AKA huge ripoff), to siphon off trillions of dollars to the 1% paid for by the 99%. If you think that this perspective is overstated, just sit passively by and watch Hitler's Nazi Germany 2.0 be reenacted here in the US by Trump, our cross between Caligula and Nero, resulting in the worst acts of both of them.
2
Why does the press persist in calling refugees "migrants"?
3
Won't Canada take him? They are god's chosen people. They are the arbiters of what is good and correct in the world. If they won't take him, then I guess god doesn't care.
8
Of course these sob stories never mention how the expensive medical care is being paid for... by the US tax payers! When so many American citizens are not insured and illness can lead to financial ruin, why should actual citizens have to foot the bill for foreign nationals who come here on a tourist visa or illegally and then show up in an ER?
19
@Altered Carbon so, would you be OK if the child was aborted? Are you only pro-birth, and not pro life?
1
@Altered Carbon
Are you advocating for high-quality insurance for all Americans? If not, why not?
2
People complain when "tax payer money" is used to save a live of an immigrant. But don't hear much complain when the government misused money for golfing, traveling, and so on. If the money is used to save people 's lives, big deal. It is just incomprehensible when the government decides to use money for no senses to please the ego of a madman, and when the government tells people go away and die just to please the same psychopath. There is money taken away to build a wall. Why not complain that that money could be use to save the lives of many american citizens? Why no protest that instead of building a wall, build better roads and bridges? As long as some citizens are happy that the "brown people" stay in the other side of the border they don't care if that money can be used for better purposes.
5
The tactic for finding the most pitiable and helpless among the millions of people illegally in America, creating a well of emotion from that person's story, then implying that the entire effort to protect America's borders is cruel and heartless is a well-known, and frankly, tired journalistic technique.
The bottom line: A Yale study last year found that we have 22 million illegal immigrants inside the United States. Since then the borders have been swamped by fake 'refugees' who are really nothing more than people seeking a more materially enjoyable existence.
Hardcore activists like Jorge Ramos use 'journalism' as a front for a political position that can be summed up as: "Every Hispanic on earth should be given free transportation to the US, put in schools with special tutors, given food stamps and lifetime health care." All paid for by American taxpayers.
No thanks, Mr. Ramos.
36
There is one mistake Jonathan and his parents made. They should have come to a civilized European country (like the UK), where we treat people first and ask questions about the financial situation and migration status later, if at all.
Some of the comments in this section are disgusting. Smug. Inhumane. Devoid of any compassion.
I lived in the US for a couple of years, and I come back to visit and for academic stuff at least once a year. I do not regret my time in the US, but I certainly don't regret that I returned home instead of staying.
5
Tragically, the language of 'protecting jobs' and 'immigration reform' has always and ever been a smokescreen for a poisonous hatred of the Other, of everyone who does not look like the 'in-group' of European-Americans.
The Republican Party and the diehard factions of their base are not merely 'conservatives'- if they were, we'd be discussing fiscal policy and the reduction of government spending instead of merely paying lip service to it. They are fascists, plain, simple, and unspeakably ugly, and the current administration has allowed their poison to seep into the groundwater of our political environment.
1
Being an American now fills me with shame--reading stories like this horrify me: a family comes to the U.S. legally to seek treatment to keep their child alive, and Donald Trump wants to brush them aside.
http://www.thecriticalmom.blogspot.com
1
Read the comments of those who think Jonathan should be deported or should never have been let into the US to survive. Most are from southerners, of course, who demonstrating yet again the intelligence and respect for human life (especially the lives of people of color) that has long been a tradition below the Mason-Dixon line. (Note to literalists: I am being sarcastic.)
Not all these mean-spirited, ignorant comments come from the expected quarters, however. Recall that many Trump voters were white middle-class and that his winning margin (slim, Donald - get out the sharpie) - came from voters in PA, OH, WI and MI, all in the north.
What this means to me is that (1) the South is going to Trump again, because he is exactly the kind of racist, xenophobic ignoramus whom southerners have embraced for 250 years; and (2) the rest of us had better not turn our nose up at a Democratic candidate whom we don't like personally, or is insufficiently progressive. This election is, literally, a life and death matter.
For all our sakes, including Jonathan's, we need to vote, and vote Blue.
5
Can you leave here and go to another country, before you are exported?
1
(Let’s not forget President Trump’s remarks in June 2015 about Mexican immigrants: “They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists.”)
Every time I hear anyone using that same old tired quote as the basis of their current argument, I know they have none and are just carrying on with an old grudge they can't let go and at someone else's expense. If anything it hardly helps this poor sick boy's case.
2
@John Doe: my husband has a chronic condition. He lost his health insurance in 2016 after a lay off.
Does that mean we can go to Canada or Sweden on a tourist visas....demand high cost medical care FOR LIFE...and then never leave?
3
Let's get all Americans on Medicaid, improve the program, see what savings we've got left, and then add undocumented illegal and their children to the rolls. In the meantime, let's constantly search for the truth-- and for cures! Much cheaper.
3
Incredibly well coached. The coacher's need to go to prison!
6
This is more a story of complete incompetence, rather than heartlessness.
The heartlessness comes in the self-assumption of competence in areas where everyone in this administration has zero experience.
We need to hope that there are no serious hurricanes, earthquakes, tornadoes, or any other crises between now and January 2021.
Trump getting re-elected would also count as a crisis.
Thank you. You are always worth reading!
1
Our own veterans have died waiting for care. Millions of poor Americans cry out for healthcare.
Why on earth is it America’s responsibility to provide health care for the world? It isn’t.
I keep hearing how wonderful Cuba and Canada’s healthcare system is - why aren’t they taking him?
23
@William Rodham: Costa Rica has outstanding health care -- universal coverage. And in Spanish. And 1000 miles closer to the Ramos family.
SO WHY THE USA? just to rip us o
2
Lots of comments come down to tough, too bad for you, and really, some people deserve to die. Too bad for them.
But what of those who are here. Getting care. Right now. How many commenters would volunteer to turn off the machine and watch someone suffer and die?How many would pack someone up and close the airplane door behind them knowing that the person they just boarded will not survive?
How many commenters harbor that level of personal cruelty? Not in the abstract. Not in the "how many do we have to accept?". But in the real sense of that person, this person who is named right here? Would they would be willing to pull the plug on Jonathan. Personally. And if they can't do it why do they expect others to do it for them?
8
Jorge Ramos is a saboteur and immensely responsible for the current state of the Mexican community dislocation in the US. As a professional Spanish language broadcaster, he mainly promotes Mexican cultural issues, as if they were residing in Mexico, thus blocking assimilation of legal Mexicans residing in the US with pretty alarmingly negative results: little to no investment in the political process. Mexican in the US don’t apply for citizenship nor are engaged in exercising their Democratic right to vote at rates equal to their numbers.
To be clear, Mexican culture with its art, literature, cuisine and much more is great. But, to raise the Mexican community’s quality of life, they need to assimilate. Jorge Ramos is well poised to lead by example. Complaints, prayer and candles to the saints won’t do it. The Mexican-American community has significant spending power that can be harnessed to demand better services and more treatment.
An economic boycott could have pushed back Stephen Miller’s racist policies in the southern border. A registration movement should be in effect to guarantee the removal of Trump in 2020 and send a message that the hate-filled treatment of this community,or any other, is unacceptable and won’t be tolerated. It would help the country as a whole to move forward.
4
Oh please. There are no sick Americans who have difficulty getting treatment? Honduras actually has some excellent hospitals -- which charge about 1,000 times less than U.S. hospitals. While I feel badly for any child who is sick, it is not the responsibility of the United States or its taxpayers to care for every sick person in the entire world. I'm sure there are plenty of people in Africa who would benefit from treatment at a U.S. hopsital. But they don't have the luxury of trecking across Mexico and crossing the border for treatment at one of the best hospitals in the world. I'm sorry this child is ill. But it's not my fault or my country's fault.
13
Thanks for such a compassionate response...May you never need any sort of aid, help or empathy.
7
I have found that comments that relate to intentional Republican cruelty are either objected to and taken down or are simply not posted. It seems it is true that the truth hurts. And inconvenient truths that one can validate and document are disallowed.
If Mr. Ramos read the newspaper which invited him to contribute an op-ed, he would know that this order was quickly withdrawn.
That's no defense of the people who wrote it, but the op-ed misrepresents the present situation. Disliking Mr. Trump is no excuse for lying about his administration.
9
Even Ellis Island screened would be immigrants for diseases and sent the diseased back - typically to Europe. Is the U.S. to be the medical treatment center of planet earth? The nursing home of the world's poor elderly? Medical tourism is a very expensive burden imposed on the host country. Let's take care of our own unserved poor first, millions of them, and many persons of color.
15
Early in childhood I was taught by my parents of a very basic human quality called compassion. Those suffering the most should be the recipients of our compassion and should not be denied care in the basis of their nationality or their ethnicity. The care that many sick people in Latin America are in need of can only be obtained in the US as often times it is only provided in very specialized institutions, such as Boston Children's Hospital.
But we are aware of the "qualities" adorning the present US president and compassion is not among them. This person is showing the entire world what a very ugly person he is. Ugly in his mind and soul, that's the real kind of ugliness.
I hope he will not last too long in the presidency, as every day he stays the damage done grows. It will be very hard for the US to repair that damage, if ever it can be repaired. The only thing that I see as good coming from this dark times is that people become aware of how easy it is to fall in the hands of a madman by listening to a commercial sales pitch.
I read some of the posts here and it just makes me sick. 'It's not our responsibility' ? This is a kid's life we're talking about here. And parents who have already lost a daughter. Yeah, they could have gone to Mexico. Could have gone to Costa Rica. But they chose to come here. Why ? Because this country used to be the golden light. The best.
'They hate us because of our freedoms' ? No, they hate us for what we've become.
193
@sheikyerbouti wrote: "they chose to come here. Why ? Because this country used to be the golden light. The best."
The point other commenters have tried to make is that the US, despite being a "golden light", cannot possibly take up the responsibilities of all other countries to help those needing assistance.
If other countries are nearby and the medical teams are qualified there is no reason that the American taxpayer should be asked to pay the medical bills of the many millions in the world who are in positions similar to the young man profiled here.
If you can afford to donate, there are dozens of charities who contribute to international health organizations.
16
@Stanley Gomez
Come on, Stanley. I'm not saying that it's the responsibility of the American taxpayer to take in everyone who needs life saving medical care. Like you said,
'If other countries are nearby and the medical teams are qualified there is no reason that the American taxpayer should be asked to pay the medical bills of the many millions in the world who are in positions similar to the young man profiled here.'
And I agree 100%. But this kid is already here. You sure as heck don't deport him back to a country where he very well may not survive. To satisfy someone's political agenda ? To save a couple of measly bucks ? That's not the America I was raised in.
29
@Stanley Gomez
Where does this article say that American taxpayers are being "asked to pay" for Jonathan's treatment? Awfully presumptuous of you to assume that the Sanchez family is indigent.
11
They came here legally,; they went through the proper channels and are now getting the care they need.
To those of you who have no sympathy and want to send him back -- shame on you. Visualize yourself holding the gun and killing him, because in effect that is what you are doing.
Imagine your neighbor coming to your house seeking help in an emergency and you turn them away because they didn't call first. Is that what we've become?
President Obama and the democrats at least tried to start something to fix our failed healthcare system. Republicans would rather destroy what was started and do nothing. A healthcare system based on profits ignores the poor and the slowly disappearing middle class.
So it is true, many in this country go without healthcare as well. People die here too because they cannot get the proper care. This young man and his family are not to blame for that.
Our healthcare systems fails us because unlike other wealthy nations our care is based on profit margins. Our politicians fail us because they refuse to do anything because they get lots of money from the companies making the profits. We lose because we believe the propaganda that people like Jonathan and his family are to blame and see universal healthcare as evil, rather then a way to be sure everyone gets basic healthcare.
155
@Ginaj
True. Universal healthcare works very well. It works in the UK and in Australia. I know this first hand. I can't understand why Americans think it doesn't. What propaganda do you get that somehow makes everyone have access to free healthcare sound like a bad idea?
18
@SouthernstarBrit:
as a retired RN I totally agree, its way past time for some version of universal health care for all citizens as every other developed nation in the world has.
BUT we've been raised on the "socialism=communism" and socialism is evil mantras. Hard to change that.
15
The very sad truth is that President Trump and a majority of Americans don't care if Jonathan, or any other non-citizen dies if deported. Americans do not believe that providing medical care or anything else to non-citizens is worthwhile. Americans only grudgingly provide barely adequate food, housing and medical care for other, poorer Americans, and if many had their way they would not provide even that. Sorry, Jonathan.
92
@Ms. Pea - "…a majority of Americans don't care…".
Amend that to "a majority of (R)epublicans don't care".
4
@Ms. Pea
Yes, President Trump and a majority of Americans don't care if Jonathan, or any other non-citizen dies if deported. And Americans do not believe that providing medical care or anything else to non-citizens is worthwhile.
And so do I.
Until we adequately serve our citizens, we should not spend money serving illegals, even if they came here legally, under false pretense.
1
If the United States decides to grant all tourists with medical problems free treatment and legal residency until they are cured or die, America will become the world’s emergency room. Millions of sick people with preexisting conditions and chronic illnesses will apply for tourist visas.
51
@William Case
But the US isn’t giving everyone a free pass. Jonathan and his parents were here legally and applied for a deferral. There are only 1000 or so applicants so they’re hardly overwhelming our medical system. I’d like to hear from the “pro-life” people on this.
62
@Larry Land
The fact they are here legally doesn't give them the right to stay permanently.
They came on a tourist visa. They probably lied when they applied for the visa by stating they intended to leave before their visa expired. This would make the deportable.
18
@William Case You don't get an extension to a tourist visa for medical treatment without providing evidence YOU CAN PAY FOR IT YOURSELF. They've been granted extensions in the past, therefore they have submitted proof they CAN PAY FOR THEIR SON'S TREATMENT. This is not about giving away free stuff.
70
I heard this young man speaking on television not long after his family received the pack up and leave letter. It's difficult to receive a death sentence by mail, and this teenager was in heartbreaking anguish.
The medical deferred action program involves only a thousand or so patients. They are not bankrupting the US healthcare system, and some of them are involved in lifesaving research studies.
Trump promised to go after the "murders and rapists" in the undocumented population. Looking for any real threats seems to be too much work, so he goes after children and sick people. This is nothing but racist and xenophobic cruelty to appeal to his base. Trump knows his supporters well.
141
If the Sánchez family were granted their petition to train in the US for medical treatment, this should have been mentioned immediately - instead of grandstanding. This is a direct quote from this article.
“Despite all this, the Trump administration said no. That is, until it suddenly reversed course on Sept. 2.”
A while back the Times ran a story about a young writer who had a minor bike accident and broke her arm. Minor accident, but she was billed $25,000 and the hospital threatened to sue her. She is a tax paying American citizen. It could be this and the many thousands of such cases that has caused so many to be highly critical of medical visas. The medical treatment the Sánchez family is receiving will run into millions of dollars. The Sánchez family paid probably nothing.
18
What is deeply shocking is that “When our daughter was born, the doctors didn’t have a clue in terms of a diagnosis,”
Is medical training and/or schools so inferior in Honduras that medical doctors don't know about cystic fibrosis?
If the quality of medical care is that low, it is no wonder people want to come to the US for treatment
7
I see a lot of unethical comments bordering on violations of the Geneva Convention here that are basically advocating de facto child abuse all in the name of following not the letter of the law, but the current administration's interpretation of the willy-nilly immigration patchwork system of laws that we have.
These folks did not break the law; they came as tourists and immediately applied for the medical permit and renewal through the proper channels. Still, they were denied. The administration is condemning this child to an early death. How many of us would accept this fate on our own children? If you were denied medical care for your child, would you just shrug your shoulders and say "that's life"? I highly doubt it.
If this administration had any ethical bent, it would offer a humane alternative, such as changing the aid structure to Honduras to be humanitarian instead of military aid or providing funding for the child to receive treatment at a third country.
And news flash: human rights are human rights regardless of nationality. You don't get to say you're for human rights if you're condemning this child to death.
Giving him treatment, whether here or abroad, would not limit treatment to our native-born population. Blame your overwhelmingly Republican representatives for blocking Medicaid expansions for your state as one of the many reasons we have so many uninsured citizens, as well as citizens who don't qualify for the coverage due to under-funding.
15
How long did he live before arriving in the US? were there no doctors?
There are some very hard questions. They should start with the Honduras government.
6
@Margo: If you Google "cystic fibrosis" and "Latin America", you'd see the problem is it is a poorly understood disease, assumed to be condition of mainly Caucasian Western Europeans. The problem is structural and our support for a coup to depose a democratically elected president in 2009 certainly didn't help to improve healthcare in the country.
The question again is payment. How do we cover the cost of care for someone who is not a citizen and whose parents have paid little or nothing into the system? That's a real question because there are people sick all over the world who would love to drop into the US for treatment. Can we accept them all? How do we decide where to make exceptions? There are quite a few Americans that have paid little or nothing into the system, and are demanding several hundred thousand dollars in treatment at no cost. 50 years ago, cost was not a question because medical science was often not able to help you. You got sick and died. (In 1950, my grandfather was sent home with chest pains and told to stay in bed. Bypass, stents, statins, etc hadn't been invented yet. He had a fatal heart attack 2 days later). Now, with all these miraculous treatments available, covering the cost becomes an issue.
32
@Steve
I have no problem with the treatment as long as every child of citizens in the United States received treatment first, but I have a feeling that these humanitarian cases are jumping the line over children of poor citizens.
Also if it is a patient at one of the large hospitals doing a drug trial or something that is ok because pharma and probably the hospital are absorbing the cost before it gets to the taxpayer.
Also these humanitarian cases should be split between the United States and Canada, since they are so proud of their own system.
If they handle humanitarian cases within their socialist system fine, but if they don't it is wrong to claim their superiority if they are only treating their own citizens.
The United States should not be the dumping ground for every healthcare emergency.
7
@Steve
You do not cover the cost of someone who is not a citizen.
3
@Steve Everyone hates us but they all want to come here I've read. There is some truth to this I think.
2
It is clear that we are entering a phase in humanity where not enough countries have the medicine nor the resources to help little Jonathan live among other problems. To people against illegal immigration, think about what it's like to be in Jonathan's shoes. His life comes down to breaking the law or dying. The host nations don't know what to do yet besides sending them here. In one end the pro-open borders will take any comers with the risk of losing an election if they refuse a single migrant regardless of the migrant's life choices. On the other we have a group who see globalism solely through the lens of finical gain. Both teams have their pitfalls but in the end, if the electorate aren't the ones to come up to reign both ends into an acceptable outcome.
I believe the next era of 'colonialism/cold war will come whether we want it or not. We have to start asking ourselves what can Honduras and the US do to partner up? How much autonomy are nations like Honduras willing to give up to a nation like the US or China to make better the lives of their citizens?
3
@edi
Who is talking about illegal immigration?!
I guess I don’t understand why this young man is more worthy than many others, who through no fault of their own, lack proper medical care.
Many people, including actual US citizens, can not get the care they need to live, but because his parents broke the law to get him the care he needs, we (taxpayers) are on the hook for a lifetime of medical care because it tugs at our heartstrings?
Mr. Ramos and Univision should look into improving the conditions in Mexico instead of changing America to suit their agendas.
51
@stanAs the article clearly states, these were legal immigrants who followed all the proper procedures and filed all the proper paperwork. LEGAL immigrants who broke no law and followed our rules.
49
@KayVing
They came here on a tourist visa and then applied for a medical deferment. It sounds like they were gaming the system in the first place.
45
@stan
Please read the article again, they did NOT break the law.
6
"If They Send Me Back, I Will Die"
Mr. Ramos should be aware by now that for millions of Americans, and a clear plurality of Republican politicians, this represents an invigorating prospect, an invitation they cannot refuse.
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I have lived and worked in Mexico for thirty years. If this boy’s family were to apply for asylum here, he could and would receive equivalent treatment in Mexico City. Treatment protocols are similar.
There are numerous countries other than the U.S. where those seeking to leave Central America can live and reside including Panama and Costa Rica And make a living working there.
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@John
And why can't they come to the US as well?! With only 1000 using this program per year, the US is hardly doing "its share".
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@R.R. It will be way, way more than 1,000 if this is openly allowed.
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It is obvious that Jonathan's parents brought him to the USA in order to get treatment for the cystic fibrosis . It is very, very likely that the expensive treatment he is getting at Boston Children's Hospital is paid by the American taxpayer. He is not an exception : it is called medical tourism. The foreign patient will , sooner or later, get Medicaid or , at the very least , get emergency medical care which has to be given, by law, to uninsured patients . The article by Mr. Ramos would have been much more interesting ( and fair) if it had mentioned this and discussed the problem - instead of being the usual tirade against the heartless Trump.
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@MS
Exactly. The hospital doesn't care who pays the bill. The ER I work in directs patients to apply for "emergency medicaid"
In fact there is an office dedicated to processing those applications right there. It's the taxpayer that's getting soaked and the public is essentialy clueless as to what is really going on.
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@MS
And you are making these assumptions based on what?! Admittedly, I also only have anecdotal evidence, but the families in this situation whom I personally know all have private insurance.
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@Anne The taxpayers will continue to get shafted if Trumpers destroy Obamacare. Which was called RomneyCare before his administration adopted it as a public-private partnership to enable millions to get coverage AND ensure hospitals did get paid. The Republicans are sabotaging it. I hope you and MS are never in a position where you have to go to these lengths to save your kid's life . . . and can't imagine either one of you having any moral backing to the case you make.
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Perhaps I read the article to fast, but I didn’t see anything on who is paying for Jonathan’s treatments.
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@Mark No, it doesn't mention that, but I for one would be delighted if my tax dollars are going toward such a worthy endeavor. Much better than buying yet another bomber or nuclear missile.
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@CKathes
Why should we pay for medical care for non-citizens? I would rather see lower taxes.
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@Mark I would rather see my tax dollars go to saving lives instead of paying for another worthless Trump golf trip.
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In 2017, countries listed with exceptional medical care listed the top 4 as Malaysia. Costa Rica, Colombia and Mexico
( WHO ) based upon quality of care and economics of care. We know that Americans seek medical and dental care in Mexico because of the reduced costs and comparable quality to American care. The article declines to identify why the provisions within Mexico were not viable for the care that this young man requires, and why the demand is placed upon the US.
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@JaneK You're right. Good points.
But he's here, now. So let's lend a hand, instead of worrying about "What if?" and "Why not?"
And while we're at it, let's keep helping our own citizens and neighbors who are in need. Let's re-order our priorities.
We have enough gold-plated F-35 jet fighters.....
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@JaneK
The demand is not just on the US - with only 1000 participating in this program each year the US hardly even doing its share.
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