August 11, 2004

Goodman Criticizes Plan to Keep Immigrants Out of Hospitals

Lee Goodman, Democratic candidate for U.S. Congress (10th Dist. IL), called upon the Bush administration to immediately rescind its plan to ask people about their citizenship status before allowing them to get treatment at hospital emergency rooms. The plan also requires hospital personnel to ask patients for copies of their passports. “As soon as the word gets out that hospitals are asking for this information, and the word will get out very quickly, people who cannot document their status will stop going to emergency rooms. They will stop taking their children to emergency rooms. People will go untreated. They will suffer needlessly. Some will die. All because the Bush administration is more concerned about keeping certain people out of this country than they are about the health of people who are already here,” Goodman said.

“In a couple of weeks, the Republicans will hold a convention where they will try to convince us that they are the friend of Hispanics and other groups who will be hard-hit by this policy,” said Goodman. “Friends don’t throw friends out of hospitals.”

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