We're seeing confusion, despair and even suicide after Trump rule on aid to immigrants

[90DayFinancier 910]

https://amp.usatoday.com/amp/4905563002

 

We're seeing confusion, despair and even suicide after Trump rule on aid to immigrants
The Trump administration says coronavirus tests and treatment won't count against 'aliens' as a public charge. But how many will risk seeking care?
RANIA AWAAD | OPINION CONTRIBUTOR | 10 hours ago
   
Two days after President Donald Trump announced a rule last August that made immigrants ineligible for residency and citizenship if they relied on government benefits, a 28-year-old Iranian asylum seeker died by suicide. His county-based social worker in Northern California later told me that Rouzbeh, who went by Adam, had confided in her that his suicidal thoughts stemmed from this new "public charge" rule. Despite reassurance from his family and social worker, he said it made him feel unsafe.

Adam, whose last name is being withheld for privacy reasons, believed that he would likely be extradited back to Iran on account of accessing public mental health services for his depression, not speaking English well and accumulating a large debt from an emergency hospital visit — all examples listed in the new rule as potential reasons to deny immigrants American citizenship. Complicating matters, extradition would mean a one-way trip back to the very conditions Adam was trying to escape by seeking asylum. Iran is one of the 13 countries listed in Trump’s now expanded travel ban.

As it turns out, refugees and asylum seekers are exempt from the expanded “public charge” rule. Adam's unfortunate misinterpretation highlights the confusion surrounding this new policy. And he wasn't the only one. As I was helping plan a community healing event after Adam's death, two other families reached out to our team. That was how we discovered there were three suicides by a refugee or asylum seeker from the same county following Trump's public charge announcement.

 

[Scandi 4,166]

Well this story doesn't seem made up at all to back up someone's agenda... 

[sexyafrican36 42]

What privacy reason would you have when a person is dead ? 👀  

[Kris & Crystal 47]

I'm not his biggest fan, but again this is more a case of Trump wanting to enforce a rule that has been on the books for a while.

 

I'm a recent immigrant to the US (21st of November). You can't expect US Citizens or the Government to support every person especially not every immigrant who wants to live in the US. Sure if we lived in a post-scarcity society, but we don't.

 

Immigrants should have factored in the cost of living before moving there.

[sl1pstream 551]

On 3/18/2020 at 7:53 AM, Scandi said:

Well this story doesn't seem made up at all to back up someone's agenda... 

Eh, idk.

 

It wouldn't be the first time ICE just shows up and drags people away. Even if they don't, the idea that they might is powerful enough for some.

[sl1pstream 551]

On 3/26/2020 at 7:52 PM, Kris & Crystal said:

I'm not his biggest fan, but again this is more a case of Trump wanting to enforce a rule that has been on the books for a while.

 

I'm a recent immigrant to the US (21st of November). You can't expect US Citizens or the Government to support every person especially not every immigrant who wants to live in the US. Sure if we lived in a post-scarcity society, but we don't.

 

Immigrants should have factored in the cost of living before moving there.

That's cool under normal circumstances, but that's not how you fight a pandemic. You'd want everyone tested and preferably eventually immunized, so they don't pass it on to those that can't get a shot.

 

There's an estimated 10-12 million undocumented immigrants in the US, that's a lot of people who can still pass on the virus if they don't also get tested and vaccinated.