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As the Massachusetts House advances legislation designed to block federal agents from making civil immigration arrests at courthouses, dozens of doctors visited Beacon Hill Wednesday to secure similar protections at health care facilities.
In a January spending proposal, Gov. Maura Healey proposed blocking civil immigration enforcement actions in nonpublic areas of hospitals and other medical facilities without a judicial warrant. That provision was not included in the PROTECT Act (H 5305), which received an initial vote of approval Wednesday morning in the House.
Leda Anderson, director of advocacy and governmental affairs at the Massachusetts Medical Society, said that medical practices are increasingly seeing cancellations and no-shows and staff are also afraid to come to work.
“I know so many of you are seeing firsthand the impact of current immigration enforcement tactics and what the impact is having on patient behavior, with patients delaying or avoiding really needed medically necessary care out of fear,” Anderson said at the society’s “Doctors’ Day” event in the Senate Reading Room.
“This affects preventive care, chronic disease management, urgent medical needs,” Anderson continued. “And you all know best, that when care is delayed, outcomes worsen, and the broader health system really absorbs that strain.”
Asked why his chamber didn’t include some Healey measures, like those dealing with enforcement in schools and hospitals, House Speaker Ron Mariano said, “Because it never ends.”
“We’d be constantly moving the goal line,” Mariano told reporters after a private Democratic caucus.
“It’s best that we have an outside source that can see where the problems are and evaluate what needs to be fixed,” Mariano continued. “In the hearings that we had with the different groups of reps, once you started this discussion, everything was on the table. What about the daycare center with 10 kids? What about the person? So we just couldn’t answer all the what ifs.”
The House Ways and Means bill that is advancing gives the governor the authority to restrict where immigration enforcement can take place on state property and allows the governor to create regulations on which state agencies should be shielded from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The governor’s and attorney general’s offices can also produce guidance for schools, churches, hospitals and private employers on how to respond to ICE actions, Public Safety Co-Chair Rep. Daniel Cahill said last week.
Black and Latino Legislative Caucus Chair Rep. Andy Vargas said the caucus “didn’t want to provide false expectations as to what a ‘safe space’ is when we’re looking at the constitutionality of all this stuff, and so we wanted to be real with our constituents about what’s possible here.”
Cahill told reporters, “We’re in an ever-changing landscape, legally.”
“Codifying certain spaces, right, in law, would then hamstring us to those spaces,” Cahill said.
Giving the governor authority to restrict where immigration enforcement can take place on state property, Cahill said, “can put Massachusetts in a more fluid situation where they can react to some of these court cases, and also we can see where enforcement is starting to be targeted, and the governor can very quickly address those issues.”
Maura Healey spending more money to serve and protect illegals should surprise no one. Imagine more money for illegals while Veterans, Seniors, Families, and Hard Working Residents struggle to afford healthcare, pay their groceries, rent, and utilities. Healey is the worst Governor in Massachusetts history.
Absolutely, the illegals have more rights than the US born. Sick and tired, come here legally, stop wasting our tax dollars.
Criminal and civil penalties are applicable, under US law, for employers that are employing unauthorized workers (illegal immigrants). Leda Anderson, at the Massachusetts Medical Society, should be advising medical practices that employ unauthorized workers (illegal aliens) of these criminal and civil penalties and that hiring authorized workers would eliminate “fear of coming to work”.
Agree!
This is one of the reasons why I changed my Party after 55 years of voting Democrat. I won’t be voting for anyone running as a Democrat. I’m 77 years old and appreciate President Trump for the $6,000.00 for the tax reduction for Seniors over 65 years old. My husband and I received a sweet refund when we filed our tax return this year. Just think a $12,000.00 tax reduction for the next 3 years. It’s unfortunate that our State Governor doesn’t care about the senior citizens, and will find a way to take it from us, in my opinion.
So what about not paying tax on social security. I only had a 2 person income of 32,000.00 and had to pay federal taxes, only less than 7,000 was SOC sec the rest was pension from the school department. I had to pey federal taxes!