Philadelphia leads the way on ending medical deportations

Martínez is a leader in Philadelphia’s End Medical Deportation campaign.

On Dec. 14, 2023, members of the End Medical Deportation Coalition celebrated a dream three years in the making: outlawing private medical deportations in my city of Philadelphia.

I am proud of the Philadelphia leaders creating history once again as the first city in the country to ban medical deportations. Due to the support of Councilmember Jim Harrity and the entire council body, we now have a law that prevents hospitals from repatriating immigrant patients without consent, requires all materials regarding medical reparations to be translated and gives victims of medical deportations the right to sue hospitals for harm.

We shouldn’t underestimate the importance of this landmark law. Hospitals around the country should not be in the business of sending their patients somewhere else to die because they don’t want to pay for care. It’s that simple. I hope our leadership persuades other cities to follow our example across the country.

Of course I am aware of the fact that hospitals face serious financial strain due to the upsurge in the need to care for undocumented workers who most often do not have medical insurance. Hospitals can serve an important purpose in advocating for comprehensive immigration reform to address health care access and the exploding costs. This is the role they should be playing as opposed to any involvement in deporting their patients.

Medical deportations happen when hospitals send seriously ill, undocumented patients out of the country to a deeply uncertain future. I know firsthand how devastating this practice is because it almost happened to my family. In June 2020, at the height of the pandemic, a Philadelphia hospital attempted to deport my uncle after he was hit by a motorcycle while walking as a pedestrian. At the time they wanted to deport him he was bedridden and unconscious, had fractures in his ribs and legs, was on a feeding tube, and was still recovering from traumatic head injuries. My uncle would have died if he had been deported to Guatemala. I repeatedly told the hospital that. My family and I were against it and did not consent to his transport. My uncle had lived in Philadelphia for 20 years. His support network was here.

The hospital continued to ignore us until the community rallied around my uncle. Thanks to that support, my uncle is alive today. He was able to receive the medical treatment he needed in Philadelphia thanks to advocates who pushed the hospital to help him apply for Emergency Medical Assistance.

This situation profoundly affected my family, and that is why I asked the Philadelphia City Council to support ]Harrity’s legislation. Since sharing my story I’ve learned of other cases of medical deportation in Allentown, where a hospital tried to send a comatose mother to the Dominican Republic, and elsewhere around the nation. It must stop.

Philadelphia’s new law sets a model for the nation by providing much needed oversight of the practice of medical repatriation. It ensures patients and families get the in-language information they need to make the best decision for care; to fully consent to any medical repatriation. When the hospital wanted to deport my uncle, they did not give me all the information in my language, which is necessary to make such important decisions.

Most importantly, this law makes sure there are ways to hold bad actors accountable. It creates the pathway for the city to enforce this legislation, levy fines on those who violate patient's rights, and require reporting from hospitals to monitor how widespread the practice of medical deportation is.

No one should be thrown away for needing health care. We all deserve access to it. No hospital in Philadelphia or anywhere in America should separate a sick or injured person from their support network. The values of this city that my uncle and I call home are rooted in welcoming everyone and centering brotherhood. Medical deportation is not consistent with those values, which is why it’s time to end it not just in Philadelphia, but across the United States. I am so proud of our leadership here and look forward to seeing it spread across the country.