News Round Up In-Brief

U.S. News

• Arguing that deferred deportation and health coverage are separate issues, the Obama Administration announced that young immigrants granted a reprieve from deportation will not be defined “lawfully present” and will not be eligible for Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program, or federal subsidies to purchase private health insurance.
• After pressure from gay rights groups and Democrats in Congress, DHS director Janet Napolitano clarified in writing the guidelines for prosecutorial discretion among immigration officials, instructing officers that same-sex relationships are among the “family relationships” to take into account when deciding whether to halt a deportation.
• California governor Jerry Brown approved a bill permitting the Department of Motor Vehicles to issue state driver’s licenses to undocumented immigrants granted deportation deferrals. Brown vetoed the so-called Trust Act, which aimed to limit immigration enforcement in the state to serious or violent felonies, due to the bill’s wording. He promised to work with lawmakers to correct omissions in the bill’s list of enforceable crimes.
• The Desert Angels, a humanitarian search and rescue operation on the California-Mexico border, has seen a rise in casualties in the desert as increasing numbers of border crossers are recently deported American residents returning to their families in the United States.
• An immigrant woman who was shackled to a hospital bed during labor by Tennessee sheriff’s deputies will pursue a U-visa, a status available to crime victims who are undocumented.
• In a report released September 25, immigrant advocates and Physicians for Human Rights condemned the practice of solitary confinement of immigrants in detention, reporting that gay and transgender detainees and those with mental health problems have been arbitrarily placed in isolation cells without access to lawyers or medical evaluation.

International News

• The head of health services at Australia’s controversial Nauru refugee camp stated doubts about the center’s ability to handle mental health issues, particularly among women and children refugees, suggesting that new arrivals be restricted to men until conditions are more favorable. As more refugees arrive, other health experts claim the center is unprepared to provide mental or pediatric care.
• Thousands of North African migrants have reached the small European nation of Malta, where immigration officials routinely jail everyone who arrives by boat, including minors. The country’s detention policy, ranging from jail-like conditions to “open centers,” has been criticized amid allegations of abuse.
• Golden Dawn, Greece’s extremist anti-immigrant political party, is rapidly growing in popularity.
• A poll found that UK voters would be more likely to vote for a party that promised to stop all immigration than to reject it, but predicted the country would have difficulty hosting any far-right group capable of the popularity such parties have seen in Greece and France.
• Some describe Spain’s recent expulsion of undocumented immigrants from its public health care system as “medical apartheid,” arguing that the government should crack down on European health tourists rather than the immigrant population to cut spending.
• In Canada, cuts to federal health benefits for refugees have caused confusion among doctors, resulting in treatment lapses, including gaps in refugees’ access to essential medicines and prenatal care.

New Research

Luque, John S. and Heide Castañeda. [published ahead of print on September 9, 2012]. Delivery of Mobile Clinic Services to Migrant and Seasonal Farmworkers: A Review of Practice Models for Community-Academic Partnerships. Journal of Community Health doi 10.1007/s10900-012-9622-4.

New Website

Casa de Esperanza, a national project to end domestic violence in Latino communities, has launched a new bilingual site under the name National Latin@ Network. The site offers a resource library, policy news and action alerts, informative videos, training opportunities, and a blog, among other resources for advocates and those directly affected.

Prepared by Rachel Stonecipher.