Press Release  AG Healey Leads 20 State Coalition in Demanding Answers from Trump Administration About Decision to Deport Immigrants Accessing Life-Saving Medical Care

Boston — Attorney General Maura Healey today led a multistate letter demanding answers from the Trump Administration about its announcement that it will abruptly end a longstanding policy that allows seriously ill immigrants to stay in the United States for life-saving medical treatment. 

The letter was sent by a coalition of 20 attorneys general led by Massachusetts and New York to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and calls for immediate answers regarding the status and oversight of the federal government’s review of medical deferred action requests, which if approved allow immigrants to remain in the U.S. legally, work, and receive health care coverage while they receive medical treatment for serious health conditions.

In August, USCIS began informing immigrants with medical deferred action that “USCIS field offices no longer consider deferred action requests” and that if these applicants did not leave the U.S. within 33 days, they would face deportation proceedings. The Trump Administration has since failed to issue any formal directive or guidance on the new process for reviewing medical deferred action requests, including what federal agency is overseeing the program.   

“This announcement is the latest action to target and endanger immigrant children,” said AG Healey. “We are demanding answers and urging the Trump Administration to change course.”

The attorneys general write that USCIS’s sudden refusal to review medical deferred action requests and its failure to issue a public notification or a new process for these requests has led to widespread panic. After public outrage over the apparent suspension of all medical deferred action requests last week, USCIS announced this week that it would continue to process requests only for individuals who had a request pending as of August 7, 2019. 

USCIS claims it no longer has oversight to review medical deferred action requests and has provided no official explanation of its decision to suspend consideration of requests moving forward. Some reports have indicated that ICE will review requests going forward, but ICE has provided no indication of plans to consider such requests or how individuals who have been denied deferred action by USCIS can request such relief from ICE.

In the letter, the attorneys general ask whether USCIS has terminated all consideration of deferred action for non-military-affiliated individuals submitted after August 7, 2019, how immigrants with severe medical conditions can request deferred action moving forward, and whether and how the processes related to medical deferred action will change.

AG Healey has led a number of efforts against the Trump Administration’s illegal and unconstitutional immigration policies, including challenging the terminations of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals and Temporary Protected Status, programs that provide protection against removal for hundreds of thousands of long-term residents of the United States. Last week, the AG co-led a multistate lawsuit opposing a new rule from the Trump Administration that would roll back long-standing protections for children held in immigration custody and allow the federal government to hold immigrant children and their families indefinitely. AG Healey also co-led a coalition of 20 attorneys general in a comment letter demanding that the Trump Administration withdraw a proposed rule that would ban asylum for anyone who travels through a third country on the way to the United States and does not first apply for asylum in that country, and filed a brief opposing the expansion of the “expedited removal” deportation process. In July 2019, AG Healey co-led a coalition of 20 attorneys general on a brief urging protection for children held in inhumane conditions at the border. In February 2019, AG Healey joined 19 attorneys general in filing a brief challenging the Trump Administration’s “turnback policy,” which effectively halted the asylum process at the southern border for thousands of people waiting to present their claims. In June 2018, AG Healey co-led a coalition of 18 states in suing the Trump Administration over its illegal policy of forcibly separating families at the southern border.

Today’s letter is led by Massachusetts and New York and joined by California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, and Washington.

This matter is being handled by Chief Abby Taylor of the Civil Rights Division.

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