""I want more than anything for my baby to walk," her mother said in Spanish, as Gabi cooed and wriggled in her arms, a feeding tube snaking from her stomach to an IV pole. "But with the situation that's happening, I canceled the surgery and all the physical therapy appointments" that would have followed. "Because I'm afraid to leave.""
"The Department of Homeland Security has declared an end to what it called Operation Metro Surge, carried out by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection officers. Even so, weeks later health care workers say immigration agents are still camping out in hospital parking lots. And drones fly overhead in agricultural areas beyond Minneapolis, where Somali and Latino immigrants have settled in recent years."
"The Minnesota crackdown revealed the sweep of the surveillance and capture system the Trump administration is using to uproot immigrant communities in the United States, and its powerful brake on the medical system."
A 2-year-old American citizen with a genetic bone condition requiring complex surgery canceled her procedure due to her mother's fear of immigration enforcement. The child's father was deported and her aunt detained during federal immigration operations in Minneapolis. The mother, terrified to leave her home, canceled not only the surgery but also physical therapy appointments necessary for her daughter's mobility. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents continue surveillance near hospitals and agricultural areas despite the official end of Operation Metro Surge. This situation exemplifies how immigration enforcement creates a chilling effect on healthcare access across immigrant communities, preventing families from seeking medical treatment regardless of citizenship status.
Read at www.npr.org
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