Subject: oppose HR 3722, the Undocumented Alien Emergency Medical Assistance Amendments of 2004
To: The American Civil Liberties Union <belmonte@mit.edu>
From: The American Civil Liberties Union <belmonte@MIT.EDU>
Date: Sun, 16 May 2004 13:17:00 -0400 (EDT)

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Message sent to the following recipients:
Representative Capuano
Message text follows:

Matthew Belmonte
[address]


May 16, 2004

[recipient address was inserted here]


 [recipient name was inserted here],

I urge you to oppose the "Undocumented Alien 
Emergency Medical Assistance Amendments of 2004" (H.R. 3722).  American 
hospitals already face severe financial constraints and this new 
legislation would place additional burdens on them and undermine the 
security of our nation’s public health system by forcing them to enforce 
immigration policies.

Under this bill, hospital emergency rooms would be forced to take on the 
unwieldy and administratively burdensome tasks of immigration enforcers.  
Hospitals would not receive critical federal reimbursement for the 
emergency care of undocumented immigrants unless they question their 
emergency patients to determine their citizenship, immigration, and 
financial status, and to obtain employer information and biometric data 
for transmission to the Department of Homeland Security for the purpose of 
immediately deporting those determined to be undocumented.  This mandate 
would place added strains on hospital budgets that are already stretched.

This proposal, if enacted, would create such widespread fear and confusion 
among immigrant families -- both documented and undocumented -- that many, 
if not most, would avoid seeking emergency hospital services even in 
life-threatening circumstances.  It is also short sighted and perilous to 
the safety and health of all US residents to push a significant sector of 
the population away from the public health system that tracks and prevents 
the spread of epidemics.

Mistakes will inevitably happen and American citizens will suffer. For 
example, an American couple rushing to the hospital could face questioning 
and even be rejected if the hospital staff did not believe they were 
American citizens.  The job of a physician should be to heal the sick, and 
not to police immigration policies.

Once again, I urge you to oppose the "Undocumented Alien Emergency Medical 
Assistance Amendments of 2004" (H.R. 3722).

I look forward to hearing your thoughts on this matter.

Sincerely,


Matthew Belmonte