The Practice of Medical Repatriation: The Privatization of Immigration Enforcement and Denial of Human Rights

Abstract

This article analyzes the growing trend of forced or coerced medical repatriations of seriously ill or injured immigrants by U.S. hospitals and the privatization of immigration enforcement. It explores such extrajudicial deportations within the context of expanded local enforcement of immigration laws and the lack of regulatory oversight over hospital discharges to foreign countries. The lack of regulatory oversight in this area has led to new partnerships between hospitals and private transportation companies with the goal of repatriating uninsured immigrant patients and providing cost savings to hospitals. The author concludes that immigration enforcement is a federal governmental function with interests at stake that are too significant to be delegated or left to private companies. Because the right to life, to health, and to due process are core fundamental human rights, the United States is obligated to respect them and hospitals and transportation companies are ill equipped to repatriate seriously ill immigrants against their will or with consent that was obtained without advising the patient of the immigration consequences. By examining issues such as informed consent, immigration consequences of repatriations, federal authority over immigration regulation, and the human right to health care and due process, the author concludes that there is an urgent need for reform of the health care and immigration regimes and that the U.S. must care for those within our country that are in need of medical treatment.

Keywords: immigration, medical repatriation, human rights, health, due process, expulsion, deportation, hospital repatriation, right to health, right to due process in expulsion, international human rights, hospitals, privatization, enforcement

JEL Classification: F20, F22, I00, I18, I30, I31, I38, K33, L33, L51