Philly City Councilmember seeks to stop ‘medical deportations’ that expel sick immigrants

Philadelphia City Councilmember Jim Harrity has introduced a bill to end so-called medical deportations, where extremely ill, undocumented patients are sent out of the country in what lawyers say are hospitals’ attempts to shed the cost of ongoing care.

“I believe that the medical deportation issue is a civil rights issue, and it’s a human rights issue,” said Harrity, who as an at-large member represents all city residents.

The bill he introduced on Thursday states: “No hospital in Philadelphia may engage in medical deportation, either directly or through a designated agent.”

It requires that patients get greater control over whether they return to their homelands. And that, if they wish to go, they give their informed consent after the circumstances are explained to them orally and in writing — and in a language they understand, if they are not proficient in English.

For years, these private deportations have been unregulated and ungoverned, most occurring “in the shadows,” concluded a joint study by Seton Hall University School of Law’s Center for Social Justice and the Health Justice Program at New York Lawyers for the Public Interest.

The term medical deportation, though commonly used, is a misnomer, because the power of removal rests with the federal government, not with hospitals or flight companies. The practice goes on quietly, immigration advocates say, often without the consent of patients and families.

When an uninsured patient arrives at an emergency room, there is no guarantee that the hospital will provide indefinite, chronic care. At the same time, long-term care facilities often will not accept uninsured patients.

Hospitals may charter private flights to transport people, and the journey often ends in the aggravation of illness or in death, immigration advocates said. Patients can be sent to countries that cannot provide the level of care that is needed.

It’s also true that, in some cases, patients and families may decide that the better option is to leave the United States.

“We want patients to make that decision on their own and not have hospitals make that decision for them,” said Adrianna Torres-Garcia, deputy director of the Free Migration Project, a Philadelphia-based advocacy group. “This bill would give people more information about their health-care choices, and more information and how and when this [deportation] happens.”

David O’Connell, a Thomas Jefferson University medical student and a member of the End Medical Deportation Campaign, said in a statement that ending the practice protects the dignity and right to health of all those who come through hospital doors.

“As future physicians, we all pledge to do our best to help the sick, in whatever condition we find them and regardless of their means,” he said.

In March, Pennsylvania immigration activists stopped an Allentown hospital from carrying out the forced deportation of an undocumented, comatose patient. The 46-year-old woman, identified only as S.C., experienced complications from surgery after suffering a brain aneurysm in December 2022.

Her supporters said the mother of two could die if she were sent to the Dominican Republic. Her husband, Junior Rivas, 52, said he refused hospital-administration requests to consent to her removal.

A spokesperson for the Lehigh Valley Health Network said at the time that the network could not comment on the woman’s case because of privacy laws, but it “works tirelessly with patients and their families to ensure they receive appropriate care.”

The woman is now under care at a facility in Pennsylvania.

In Philadelphia in June 2020, advocates rallied to stop the deportation of an undocumented Guatemalan man who suffered a serious brain injury when he was struck by a motorcycle in May. Activists gathered for what they said would be a physical effort to block a vehicle carrying him to the airport from Jefferson Torresdale Hospital.

The man, identified as A.V., was later moved to a long-term care facility in the Philadelphia region.

Members of the Pennsylvania Immigration and Citizenship Coalition, Make the Road Pennsylvania, CASA, and the Free Migration Project have worked to try to stop this type of deportations.

The Free Migration Project argues that a need for long-term health care should not create a risk for deportation and has called on hospital systems to explore options that include uninsured and undocumented patients.

“This bill will put an end to the practice of international patient dumping,” Harrity said. “Patients and their caregivers should have the option to choose or decline medical repatriation, and be given support to apply for emergency medical assistance if they choose to seek care in the United States.”

Staff writer Sean Collins Walsh contributed to this article.