January 20, 2024 Today President Trump, at the 60th Inauguration of the U.S. President, announced one of his first Executive Orders on immigration reform The President will declare a national emergency at the U.S.-Mexico Border and reinstate the “remain in Mexico” and the “catch and release” orders, and utilize the emergency act to direct federal funds to build a bureaucracy of new staff, deploy troops and immigration agents starting in Chicago as early as this week. Although these policies have decreased past flow of immigrants, they have also decreased detaining those with no safety risks or those with families in the U.S. and, thus, they have decreased costs of manning detention sites.
On the other hand, this effort will undoubtedly increase much fear, anxiety and stress among our Latino families that will lead to higher toxic health and wellbeing – more diabetes, heart attacks, strokes, and depression….leading to absenteeism and decreasing productivity, less services and products, and eventually increasing prices.
We need bipartisan immigration reform from Congress that secures our borders and improves the border areas by supporting the CDC’s Border Infectious Disease Surveillance (BIDS) project and the U.S.- Mexico Border Health Commission, to lead the surveillance system for infectious diseases along the U.S.-Mexico border. We also need reforms with new funding to train a greater workforce in order to shorten the legal pathways for citizenship.
We also need to support DACA persons and our domestic immigrant workforce who have contributed for decades as tax-payers and are the backbone of our economy. Our communities work to make so many businesses thrive – from agriculture, poultry and meat-packing, to hospitality and restaurants, to construction and blue collar workers, as well as our health professionals such as International Medical Graduates (IMGs) who can work to increase Hispanics in clinical trials, in hospitals and clinics, as allied health workers.
Today is the start of a transition and the National Hispanic Health Foundation looks forward to transforming our nation, but in ways that support our communities.