Many emergency responders on the US-Mexican border are becoming accomplices in immigration policing against their will
Many emergency responders find themselves in an impossible situation when saving the lives of migrants who are harm while trying to cross into the country without authorization. They are torn between their mandate to rescue and treat the sick and the injured and their obligations to taxpaying residents in communities with scarce resources. Firefighters say that they are there to help people,not to enforce the laws. Yet on the US-Mexico border this task is not so simple. Local fire departments respond to many calls to help injured foreigners who enter the country illegally and who do not contain insurance to pay for their care. Yet, in order to ask the federal government to reimburse the costs of services if to unauthorized migrants, or these patients must be placed in the custody of the border patrol. As communities became concerned approximately the rising costs of uncompensated humanitarian care,emergency responders contain been made to participate in immigration enforcement.
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Source: theguardian.com