Update from the Justice for Immigrants campaign
November 2009
The following update is based on information from the USCCB's Justice for Immigrants campaign.
In the recently-passed American Families Health Care Affordability Act (HR 3962), legal immigrants and other legally present immigrants would be eligible for government subsidies to purchase health insurance. Unauthorized immigrants would not be eligible for subsidies, but would be permitted to purchase health-care insurance with their own funds. HR 3962 did not lift the five-year ban on legal immigrants accessing Medicaid, as many advocates wanted.
The Senate is now combining health care bills from two committees into one bill for consideration by the full body. The Senate Finance Committee version is the toughest on unauthorized immigrants, explicitly barring them from purchasing government-subsidized health insurance with their own funds. Use this action alert from JFI to write to your senators and urge them to 1) permit undocumented immigrants to use their own money to purchase health-care coverage in the new health-care exchange; and 2) lift the five-year ban on legal immigrants accessing federal means-tested health programs such as Medicaid.
At a recent speaking engagement, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano reaffirmed the Obama administration’s commitment to reforming the nation’s immigration laws. She stated that reform is needed in order to help regulate legal immigration and bring order to the U.S.’s immigration system. When asked when immigration reform legislation would move in Congress, given other priorities such as health-care reform, Napolitano said in early 2010 and that this administration was able to “multi-task.” Her remarks are available here.
On October 13, Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) unveiled a list of principles that is guiding his draft immigration bill in the House, which is expected to be introduced sometime after Thanksgiving. The principles are: pathway to legalization for undocumented workers; professional and effective border enforcement; smart and humane interior enforcement; protecting workers; sound verification systems; family unity; future flow of workers; AgJOBS/DREAM legislation; and iintegration of immigrants. Though Rep. Gutierrez’s bill is not expected to move through the House, it will serve as an important guidepost for a more viable bill likely coming from Rep. Zoe Lofgren’s (D-CA) office, who is chairwoman of the House Subcommittee on Immigration.
Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) attempted to offer an amendment to the Commerce, Justice, and State appropriations measure which would require Census officials to ask participants their legal status. The effect of the amendment would have been to chill the participation of immigrants in the 2010 Census. Because of opposition from the Obama administration and advocates, the amendment was not offered on the floor of the U.S. Senate.
On November 3, His Eminence Theodore Cardinal McCarrick delivered a talk at a symposium on theology and migration sponsored by the Woodstock Theological Union. Cardinal McCarrick spoke to the theological and Gospel underpinnings of church teaching on migration. You can find a PDF of the cardinal’s speech here.