Listen: NYC H+H Threatens Doctors Protecting Patients From ICE!
NYC H+H is warning physicians they “should not try to actively help a person avoid being found by ICE.”
By Bob Hennelly
“First they came for…”
This past weekend, protestors across the country turned out by the thousands against Donald Trump’s mass deportation of undocumented immigrants.
Locally in the Tri-State Area, hundreds turned out in Passaic, New Jersey on Saturday to protest an increase in ICE raids like the one last month in Newark where city officials say federal agents detained undocumented workers and U.S. citizens.
In the first half of this week’s episode of “What’s Going On?” we explore the ugly threat physicians working in New York City’s Health + Hospitals system now face when treating patients. Last week, the municipal hospital system told clinicians that it is “illegal to intentionally protect a person who is in the United States unlawfully from detention.” H+H further warned, “You should not try to actively help a person avoid being found by ICE.”
At the same time, NYC H+H is telling patients on its website, “Health + Hospitals will honor your right to privacy. We will keep confidential all information regarding your immigration status.” We talk with Dr. Gray Ballinger, a primary physician at Queens Hospital, about the double-speak and new threats to doctors attempting to care for their patients.
In the second half of the show, we get an update from Dishunta Meredith, president of DC 37 Local 2054, which represents thousands of workers at the City University of New York who do clerical support, sign language translating as well as supporting disabled students. We’ll talk about why it is that some members of Local 2054 still don’t earn the New York State’s minimum wage.
Listen to the entire show below: