Why We Launched an ICE campaign

You may have seen our recent demand to Congress to stop further appropriations for ICE and put that money back in the budget for healthcare. By and large, we got very positive feedback from you all — you’ve almost sent 1,000 letters to Congress since our launch. We had only a handful of folks ask us why we would dive into this issue, and I wanted to take the time to actually explain why it is very important and relevant to us. 

Congress cut $1 trillion dollars from Medicaid over 10 years, gutting healthcare access and home and community based services that tens of thousands of people in our community rely on to survive. Meanwhile, in the same bill that stripped money from Medicaid, Congress allocated $85 billion to ICE.  

The cuts to healthcare mean that tens of millions of vulnerable Americans are set to lose their health insurance and get sicker – the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates that 16 million people will lose their health insurance from these recent cuts to Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act (ACA) by 2034. A Yale University study estimates that tens of thousands of people will die annually due to these Medicaid cuts. 

Medicaid work requirements will be particularly harmful to the ME community forced to prove we are too disabled to work – which is why we launched our Freakin' Frail campaign to ensure our community keeps its access to Medicaid after years of already fighting for an accurate diagnosis and disability benefits.

And with that money given to ICE, we have seen cruel and unconstitutional acts committed against caregivers and people with disabilities. We are horrified that ICE has stopped paying for detainee medical treatment, meaning immigrants in detention could no longer receive lifesaving services like dialysis, prenatal care, oncology, or chemotherapy. We also have an #MEAction Minnesota chapter whose members are affected on the ground. And, perhaps even more importantly, historical social justice movements have taught us that it is important to speak out in the face of injustice. 

Senator Sanders recently introduced an amendment that asked Congress to repeal ICE’s $75 billion funding increase and redirect those funds to Medicaid. Reallocating this money to Medicaid could protect or restore health care for approximately 700,000 Americans who were affected by the cuts, according to Senator Sanders. That amendment did not pass, but the option is still clear. If Congress wanted to value healthcare and the advancement of research, they could. They could do it right now. They could do it with the money they will vote on to give to ICE. 

In the ICE Makes Me Sick campaign, we use the word sick in two ways. We will be sick because they took money away from our healthcare and homecare, and we are sick because ICE is harming vulnerable populations, including people with chronic illness and disability. 

Our work – to get you funding for ME research, to get you access to healthcare and services, to advocate for medical education and support for our institutions is political work. It isn’t partisan work because we hold every administration accountable –we laid in front of the White House during the Biden administration when he said COVID was over and got featured in the New York Times. 

Congress has to pass a funding bill for the Department of Homeland Security by Feb. 13 to avoid another funding lapse. It’s not too late to send a letter demanding that money allocated to ICE is better spent on healthcare, so that millions of Americans can access care and live with dignity. 

In solidarity,

Laurie Jones

Executive Director

#MEAction