Getting vaccinated against the influenza virus is something most Americans do every year, as they contract the flu throughout the year. Some undocumented immigrants in the U.S. receive a seasonal flu shot and have it fall outside the window of care— either because they have passed away, or due to their refusal to get the shot. Because of this, they are at increased risk for influenza.
Santonia Mendoza, a Mexico-born mother of two, became severely ill with the flu while visiting her sister in San Francisco. Following her sister’s death in August 2015, Mendoza, who is not an immigrant, started advocating for health care for undocumented immigrants, which she is calling the Immigrant Flu Vaccine Task Force. She is now speaking at university health centers, talking about immigrants’ health care needs and safety from vaccine-preventable diseases. When she visited the University of California, Berkeley in January 2016, she sat with students to discuss ways to distribute vaccine among undocumented immigrants, and to educate students and the campus community about dangers of not vaccinating. At the time, Mendoza was receiving national attention for her activism.
In 2015, with the knowledge that over a half of the immigration-related influenza cases were in undocumented immigrants, vaccine provider MedImmune and the Coalition for Immigrant Wellness held a summit to come up with a way to reach undocumented immigrants. In the midst of this, researchers at UCLA’s Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science, Sandra Colón-Martinez, Jonathan Guadalupe and Anangul Noor-Ulobi, came up with the concept of treating undocumented immigrants by paying them. The intention is to use the money to pay for licensed doctors to perform the vaccinations.
Of course, given the need and especially given the pressure that Mendoza is facing, it is not a viable method.
There is increasing opposition to the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” policy, which aims to secure the border and de-criminalize undocumented immigrants. We are seeing immigration policy changes including the ending of the DACA policy, which allows for undocumented individuals to remain in the U.S. and work, and the removal of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) granted to more than 800,000 Haitians, Salvadorans, and Nicaraguans, and 30,000 Hondurans. We are seeing the separation of children from their parents at the border, which clearly violates international law. The results of these policies are obvious: they have put thousands of undocumented families and individuals in a difficult situation. The government should be given proper space to process the cases of families. Instead, what they are doing is creating dangerous policies and placing the burden of public health on public institutions. Immigrant rights and health care are inextricably linked. We can only hope that the health care system, which is part of the public sector, is able to work with health care providers to distribute vaccinations without unduly burdening immigrant children. That they can do so without forcing undocumented immigrants to accept one of the most government-run public policy— which doesn’t necessarily exclude children.
Sonia Mendoza’s story shows that undocumented immigrants are a vital part of America, and they deserve our care, just like the rest of us. No amount of deportation, separation or incarceration can make those of us who are in the U.S. more concerned about the well-being of our fellow citizens.
In October 2016, the Department of Homeland Security was created. Last month, it was further expanded, and given with the authority to detain immigrants for extended periods of time and cross state lines to take them into custody. A few months later, the federal government announced that they planned to build 1,200 miles of border wall between Mexico and the U.S. Both plans— proposed in 2017— are long on spin and short on logistics. But the only way to save the lives of undocumented people in this country, and reduce the number of deaths of all immigrants, is to ensure they are vaccinated.