Initiative Underscores “Power of Pen” to Defend Vulnerable Migrants

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Alianza Americas, a network of organizations led by immigrants of Latin American origin throughout the United States, is hailing President Biden’s decision to extend healthcare to more than 100,000 migrants migrants who are DACA recipients.

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“Alianza Americas knows the power of the pen can defend vulnerable migrants when it’s wielded by a humane administration faced with xenophobic, racist powers within Congress. This move by President Biden will allow the most basic healthcare to 100 thousand young adults known as DACA recipients,” said Dulce Guzman, Deputy Director of Institutional Development of Alianza Americas.

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President Biden’s administration will allow some undocumented immigrants who arrived in the U.S. as children greater access to federally run health insurance, the White House announced today. Persons of Latin American origin are the group with the second highest rate of being uninsured, at 17.7%, as compared to only 5.7% of non-Hispanic white people. A large number of them stand to benefit from this policy change. It is important to underscore that 81% of DACA recipients are of Mexican origin, 4% are Salvadoran, 2.6% are from Guatemala, and 2.4% are from Honduras.

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“For President Biden, it’s simply signing his name, but for tens of thousands of young adults like me, it will be life-changing and life-saving because it means they will have access to health care through health insurance and the ability to enjoy healthy lives like millions of their neighbors. This also means that we don’t have to worry about going bankrupt due to medical debt, placing our families into financial peril,” said Sandra Diaz, a DACA recipient and Director of Communications at the Center for Immigrant Progress.

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The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said an estimated 100,000 previously uninsured participants in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, are expected to enroll in the Health Insurance Marketplace and Basic Health Program, both created under the Affordable Care Act.

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“Healthcare access for Latin American communities, who represent a large and growing powerful positive group in this country, is one of Alianza America’s mission goals and we will continue to push at the White House, Congress, and civil society, with or without the pen, to achieve this most basic human right,” added Guzman.  

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Alianza Americas is the premier transnational advocacy network of Latin American migrant-led organizations working in the United States, across the Americas, and globally to create an inclusive, equitable and sustainable way of life for communities across North, Central and South America.

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