News India Times

www.newsindiatimes.com – that’s all you need to know - Continued On Page 26 As Deportation Fears Rise, Immigrant Parents Ask: Who Cares For My Kids? A s the Trump administration intensifies a nation- wide mass deportation campaign, immigrant parents are scrambling to secure emergency caretakers for their children - flooding legal clinics and naming friends, acquaintances or teachers as temporary guardians. A Chicago volunteer worker agreed to become a guard- ian for nine children, using an obscure state law that dates to the AIDS epidemic. A teacher in Maine recently agreed to be an emergency guardian for one of her students if his parents, both of whom are undocumented, are deported. And a business owner in Oregon ended up with tem- porary custody of her friend’s children for four months when the parents were both detained. Fear of being separated from her son recently led Rosa, an Ecuadorian asylum seeker and single mom in Chicago, to search online for help with a question she never thought she’d face: What happens to my child if I get deported? The search led her to information about short-term guardianship, or tutela temporal in Spanish, which allows parents to designate a trusted adult to temporarily care for their children under certain conditions without giving up parental rights. In Illinois, the four-page legal docu- ment is free and requires no lawyer or notary. It gives people the authority to make decisions about education and medical needs if parents are unable to care for their children. “I don’t know if I will come home from work any day; this is my plan,” Rosa said of the short-term guardian- ship agreement. (Like several others interviewed for this article, she spoke to TheWashington Post on the condi- tion of anonymity because of fear of retaliation from the federal government.) Across the country, the effects of the Trump adminis- tration’s mass deportation campaign have had a chilling effect on immigrant communities - both the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants and those here legally. Perhaps nowhere has it been more pronounced than in Chicago, where law firms advertise services on Span- ish language radio for parents in need of a plan for their kids if they get detained. Sometimes parents are seeking help from U.S. citizens they’ve only recently met. Aleah Arundale, who helps a network of immigrants with necessities like food and rent money in Chicago, has made short-term guardianship arrangements for nine children from four families. “The greatest fear for them is: ‘What happens if I get taken?’” Arundale said. “They think I’m the best chance to get their kids back.” There’s no data to quantify short-term guardianship arrangements since the requirements vary by state. But lawyers report they are being inundated. Clinics are pop- ping up across the country, and one specialist said they usually see two or three cases per year but now receive hundreds of requests each week for information. The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to questions about the surge of interest in guardianship agreements. The Trump administration has deported more than 400,000 people this year, DHS has said. It has also doubled the number of people detained in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities. By Ben Strauss, María Luisa Paúl U.S. Visas Can Be Denied For Obesity, Cancer And Diabetes, Rubio Says T he Trump administration directed visa officers to consider obesity - and other chronic health condi- tions such as heart disease, cancer and diabetes - as reasons to deny foreigners visas to the United States. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told U.S. consulates and embassies around the world about the changes in a Nov. 6 cable, according to a copy obtained and verified by TheWashington Post. The move broadens current medical screening beyond contagious diseases and gives visa officers new justification to reject applicants, in the Trump administration’s latest effort to curb the flow of immigration. “You must consider an applicant’s health,” said the State Department cable, which was reported earlier by KFF Health News. “Certain medical conditions - includ- ing, but not limited to, cardiovascular diseases, respira- tory diseases, cancers, diabetes, metabolic diseases, neurological diseases, and mental health conditions - can require hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of care.” The cable then suggests that consulates consider obesity in determining whether to grant visas, mention- ing that it can cause sleep apnea, high blood pressure and clinical depression. The cable was drafted by the agency’s political leader- ship and did not go through normal channels for review - which typically includes input from career staff, ac- cording to a senior State Department official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media. “This guidance gives consular officers wide discretion to deny both immigrant and nonimmigrant visas based on common health conditions that, by themselves, have never been treated as disqualifying,” said Vic Goel, an im- migration attorney in Reston, Virginia. Anna Kelly, aWhite House spokeswoman, said in a statement that “for 100 years, State Department policy has included an authority to deny visa applicants who would pose a financial burden to taxpayers, such as individuals who were seeking publicly-funded health care in the U.S. and could further drain health care resources from American citizens. “President Trump’s Administration is finally fully enforcing this policy, and putting Americans first.” She added that “low-level bureaucrats may have run autopen Joe Biden’s administration, but under President Trump, directives come from the top - not whiny deep staters who complain to TheWashington Post.” About 16 percent of adults worldwide qualified as obese in 2022, according to theWorld Health Organiza- tion. And 14 percent had diabetes in 2022. The State Department’s guidance also directs visa officers to consider applicants ineligible to enter the U.S. for several new reasons, including whether they are past retirement age, how many dependents - children or elderly parents - they have, and whether any dependents have “special needs” or disabilities, the cable said. Rubio issued the directive under the “public charge” rule, which denies visas and green cards to immigrants expected to be heavy users of social welfare programs or be institutionalized. Critics of the new directive point out that the Trump administration is relying on the idea that having a medical condition creates a financial burden on the U.S. “While health has always been one of several statu- tory factors consular officers may consider in a public charge determination, prior practice was narrow and tied to specific findings, for example, conditions that would likely result in institutionalization at government expense,” said Goel, the immigration attorney. “Here, the cable directs officers to consider a broad list of chronic and common medical conditions explicitly tying them to the potential cost of care over an applicant’s expected lifespan.” The State Department directive applies to both tem- porary visa holders, such as H-1B visa holders, as well as immigrants seeking permanent residence in the U.S. for work and family-related reasons. Certain humanitarian visa applicants, such as refu- gees, are excluded, although the Trump administration has ended or is ending many of those programs. The new directive is the latest example of the Trump administration’s tougher stance on legal immigration, including travel bans and the cancellation of certain humanitarian immigration programs. Steven Heller, an immigration attorney in the United Kingdom who has worked as a U.S. immigration officer, said U.S. consular officers typically have significant dis- cretion to deny visas based on their interpretation of the rules. He noted that the directive gives visa officers “more reasons not to have to issue a visa.” The State Department directive appears to go beyond the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s techni- cal guidance on medical criteria for immigrants to the U.S., which include a tuberculosis and syphilis test and disclosure of drug abuse or addiction as well as vaccina- tion records. The guidance also asks visa officers to make their own assessments of how much someone’s medical conditions might cost the U.S. “Does the applicant have adequate financial resources to cover the costs of such care over his entire expected lifespan without seeking public cash assistance or long- term institutionalization at government expense?” the cable says. A diplomat who received last week’s cable, and also spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media, said State Depart- ment leadership has been very active in finding new ways to deny foreigners entry into the U.S. or just slow down the system. -TheWashington Post By Lauren Kaori Gurley, Hannah Natanson News India Times (November 15, 2025 - November 21, 2025) November 21, 2025 18 Immigration