ABIC WEBINAR
Healthcare and Immigration Solutions
WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 8, 11am – 12pm EST – via ZOOM
Media registration here: https://bit.ly/ABICHealthcareSummit
Health Care Providers, Industry Leaders, Immigrant Healthcare Workers, and Public Health Experts Urge Fast Action, Release Letter Calling for Path to Citizenship for Immigrant Workers on Frontlines of COVID Pandemic; Reject Claims That Immigrants Spread COVID
Participants will urge Congress to include paths to citizenship for Dreamers, TPS holders, essential workers, and farmworkers in the budget reconciliation bill and reject false claims that immigrants are responsible for spreading the COVID pandemic.
Washington, D.C. — Health care providers, immigrant healthcare workers, health industry leaders, and public health experts from around the country will participate in a National Webinar, “Healthcare and Immigration Solutions,” urging Congress to include proposed immigration reforms within the budget reconciliation process and rejecting false claims that immigrants bear responsibility for spreading the COVID pandemic. The event is sponsored by the bipartisan American Business Immigration Coalition.
Among the participants will be Sandra Lindsay, Director of Patient Care Services in Long Island Jewish Medical Center’s Critical Care department. Ms. Lindsay, an immigrant from Jamaica, volunteered to be the first person in the U.S. to be vaccinated against COVID-19 to inspire others to get vaccinated, after the FDA authorized its use in December 2020.
Congress is poised to include pathways to citizenship for Dreamers, farmworkers, TPS holders, and essential workers in an upcoming budget reconciliation bill. Many have been frontline workers throughout the ongoing COVID-19 crisis.
Participants will announce they are circulating a letter urging Congressional leadership to include pathways to citizenship for Dreamers, Temporary Protected Status (TPS) holders, and other essential healthcare workers in any reconciliation bill moving forward.
There are almost 280,000 undocumented workers in the healthcare industry, including 62,600 DACA-eligible individuals. They are the backbone of our healthcare system working as nursing assistants, home health aides, personal care aides, medical assistants, dental assistants, and registered nurses. They also serve in frontline jobs that keep our medical and care facilities running, including housekeepers and cleaners, receptionists and clerks, and janitors and building cleaners. As of 2020, an estimated 11,600 TPS recipients were serving as healthcare workers, including among other professions home health and personal care aides, nursing assistants, orderlies, and psychiatric aides.
For these workers and their employers, and for the sake of quality healthcare and economic recovery during the pandemic, Congress must ensure undocumented and other immigrants be granted access to permanent status and a pathway to citizenship.
In addition to addressing the vital role immigrants play in America’s healthcare system, participants will respond to recent false claims that immigrants are more likely than others to spread COVID. Not only is there no evidence supporting this claim; of the 10 counties that are currently experiencing the highest rates of new infections relative to population, eight are more densely white than the United States as a whole, and nine are less densely Hispanic.
While ABIC had originally hoped for a bipartisan deal for immigration solutions, it is now clear that the budget reconciliation process is the best vehicle for creating pathways to citizenship for hundreds of thousands of immigrants who continue to treat patients and save lives during this ongoing pandemic.
Press conference details:
What: Healthcare and Immigration Solutions
When: WEDNESDAY, Sept. 8, at 11:00a.m Eastern
Where: Via ZOOM. Media may register here: https://bit.ly/ABICHealthcareSummit
Speakers:
- Sandra Lindsay, DHSc, MSN, MBA, RN, CCRN, NE-BC; Director Patient Care Services, Critical Care, Long Island Jewish Medical Center
- Bill Lucia, ABIC board member and Former Chairman, President and CEO of HMS
- Dr. Zaher Sahloul, ABIC board member, President and Partner, Pulmonary Consultants
- Karen Teitelbaum, President & CEO, Sinai Health System, Chicago; Chair, Illinois Health and Hospital Association Board
- Adam Lampert, CEO, Manchester Place Homes and Cambridge Caregivers, Texas
- Lisa Harvey-McPherson, Vice President of Government Relations, Northern Light Health, Maine
- Jacob Cintron, President & CEO, University Medical Center of El Paso
- José Ramón Fernández-Peña, MD, MPA; Director, Health Professions Advising, Northwestern University; President, American Public Health Association
- Monica Lazaro Davadi, DACA Recipient and Program Manager, Dana Farber Cancer Institute – Boston
- Dalia Gonzalez, Clinic Coordinator, People’s Health Clinic, Park City, Utah
- Dr. Phil Brown, Chief Community Impact Officer, Novant Health, North Carolina
ABOUT
The American Business Immigration Coalition (ABIC) promotes common sense immigration reform that advances economic competitiveness, provides companies with both the high-skilled and low-skilled talent they need, and allows the integration of immigrants into our economy as consumers, workers, entrepreneurs, and citizens. ABIC is active in key states and communities across the country engaging activists, advocates, business leaders and elected officials on the urgency of passing immigration reform that boosts our economy, creates jobs, eases the labor shortage and supports families..
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