Last week, we spotlighted a New York Times story about how under the Trump Administration’s new immigration policy, six migrants undergoing lifesaving treatments would be abruptly deported; including a young woman battling a rare disease. The change in immigration policy was announced on August 7th.
Well since the New York Times published the story on August 29th, pressure and criticism has been mounting for a reversal, and thankfully, our government is hearing our voices on this one.
The NYT again reports that the Citizenship and Immigration Services announced it would reconsider its decision to deport those immigrants, saying in a statement that while their policy was “appropriate,” officials would reevaluate.
This is literally a life-or-death issue for those patients involved — including 24-year-old Maria Isabel Bueso, who has been in the US receiving treatment for MPS-6, at the invitation of doctors conducting a clinical trial for the rare disease.
Citizenship and Immigration also said that deportation proceedings had not been initiated against anyone who had received its deportation letter. However, they did not say whether they would continue to grant immigrants extensions to stay in the country or whether the program would be continued after current applications are processed.
