U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services is no longer renewing medical deferred action status, which allows immigrants with serious illnesses to legally stay in the country while they receive medical treatment, The Boston Globe reports.
Only military families will be able to renew medical deferred action status. Families of at least 12 children hospitalized in Boston will be affected, according to the report. Lawyers for some of those affected received letters that they could not renew their status, and that they must leave the country within 33 days or become undocumented and face deportation.
The change could put the lives of medically vulnerable people at risk. An official from Boston-based Dana-Farber Cancer Institute said medical deferred action is only given in extreme circumstances, according to the report.
USCIS said its offices will no longer consider requests for medical deferred action, but it isn't the end of the program, according to The Boston Globe. The agency said Immigration and Customs Enforcement will now handle those requests.
However, lawyers who reviewed the deportation letters said the letters did not notify people of this option, according to the report.
Read the full story here.
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