Immigration

The Immigration Justice working group works on issues at the intersection of immigration justice and health. We are committed to the following: 

• Healthcare facilities must be a safe place so that patients can access it during their most vulnerable moments. Immigration enforcement in and around our healthcare spaces poses a threat to patient and staff health and safety.

• Patients arriving to the healthcare facility while in the custody of immigration enforcement should be afforded the same standard of care and rights as any other patient.

• Healthcare facilities should adopt and implement policies that work to restore the safety and protection of immigrant patients from unlawful immigration enforcement actions.

• Healthcare facilities must be free from unlawful immigration enforcement so that they can remain a safe place for anyone including those who do so at their most vulnerable moments.

We have two current subgroups: policy and education and are connected with on the ground health-worker run rapid response teams. We also have close local partnerships with NYLPI and Doctors Council as well as cross-national partnerships with providers in CA and MN.

We are currently working on 2 main projects:

• Policy Subgroup: Building a coalition to pass our bill, the Safe Access to Care Act in the NY State Senate and Assembly. This bill covers all of the above values that we hold.

• Education Subgroup: We host regular teach-in's focused on any intersection points of immigration justice and healthcare workers. Prior topics include caring for patients who are detained, Know Your Rights for healthcare workers, and have had presentations from Ice out of NY, and the Dignity not Detention Coalition. The next teach-in, date TBA, is focused on Know Your Rights and more for healthcare workers on visas.