Mental disability of undocumented immigrants can raise risk of being deported
(Photo : Reuters)

An undocumented person living in the United States of America does not have the same rights as someone who entered the country legally. This includes access to programs like medicare, as well as educational benefits, special housing, and more because these are reserved for American citizens, who pay taxes.

One of the core concerns of any society is healthcare. It becomes more of a concern, when someone is undocumented, as they do not have the same luxuries as a legally documented citizen. 

Thus, when an undocumented immigrant requires special medical treatment, the chances of them being found to be illegal greatly increase. Therefore, there are several incidents of people failing to seek proper medical attention in fear of deportation.

One of these incidents involves a child, who will remain nameless, that suffers from a mental health issue.

"Jose", the boy's father, moved from Mexico to United States in hopes of giving a brighter future to his children. Jose has a 21-year old son, who lives in Illinois, however his son has a criminal record that would surely be used for deportation. As a matter of fact, both Jose and his son are living in US illegally.

Jose's son was diagnosed with a bipolar disorder and schizophrenia in 2017. Unfortunately, Jose could not get any affordable medical treatment for his son because of their illegal status. Therefore, Jose's son's untreated condition has led him to to a life of extreme difficulty as it is hard for him to cope with his mental illness. Trouble with law enforcement was bound to follow Jose's son. According to a mental health advocate, those who have mental health problems and are undocumented are constantly having run-ins with police.

Jose admitted that his son spent several weeks in jail and had numerous court hearings in 2018.  

Jose also said that if his son gets deported, he will end up living in the streets of Mexico, because he brought his son to America at a very young age. So basically, Jose's son does not know anything about Mexico. 

In the most recent occasion, Jose's son planned to plead guilty to a crimial charge of property damage and before the proceedings or the hearing started the judge read aloud that noncitizens who pleads guilty might be deported from the country. His plea quickly turned to not-guilty.

Before that, years ago, his son was hospitalized and diagnosed with mental and behavioral problems. Jose even said that his son was respectful and kind, but as the time goes by and his mental illness was left untreated, he became argumentative and violent.

The healthcare is very important to immigrants, after all, this is one of the reasons why foreigners are coming into US in droves; legally and illegally. The healthcare services of US are not comparable to other countries due to its advance technology.

If the healthcare of immigrants will be given importance by the US government, especially to those who are under the Deffered Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, it might decrease its mortality rate and can even make some of its states safer.

According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, an estimated 4.1 million under the age of 65 are not qualified for medicaid due to their immigration status. However, according to the National State of Legislatures there are also states that opened its healthcare to undocumented immigrants like Illinois, California, Massachusetts, New York, Oregon, and Washington DC, especially to the undocumented children of illegal immigrants.

Meanwhile, according to the report published in NPR, Talia Inlender states that it is still not clear as to how many immigrants were deported due to mental health problems, on the other hand, the ACLU said in another statement that there are tens of thousands who are deported each year due to mental disability.

As for Jose, maybe the proper routes are needed to be taken now, unlike before, in order to save his son's life or possibly that of a legal immigrant.