HARTFORD, CT — More than 50 high school students made their way to the Legislative Office Building in Hartford earlier this week to advocate for the extension of the Husky health program to people up to 26 years old regardless of immigration status.
Currently the age limit is 15. The group, CT Students For A Dream, advocates for undocumented students and communities of color.
But Clara, an 18-year-old student at Danbury High School, said people don’t stop getting sick in their mid teens. She gave an example of her mother, who she said got injured while working, and her 26-year-old sister, who has diabetes. Both avoided seeking treatment because of cost.
Tabitha Sookdeo, executive director at CT Students for a Dream, said the students don’t share last names due to concerns security concerns.
State Rep. Jillian Gilchrest, D-West Hartford, chair of the legislature’s Human Services Committee, told the crowd that healthcare is a human right. She called the federal administration’s treatment of immigrants as a disgrace.
“And the villainizing, the othering of those who are undocumented and those who have lived in this country for some time now is disgusting,” she said. “It’s illegal and we will not stand for it,” Gilchrest said.
There have been two bills proposed specifically for the extension of Husky benefits.
House Bill 5430 would extend the coverage to eligible children and young adults up to 26 regardless of immigration status. House Bill 5471 would extend the benefits to immigrants without legal status up to age 26 and over 65 years old.
While neither of those bills received a public hearing, the healthcare extension for people to 26 years old did get a public hearing through the Appropriations Committee under House Bill 6864 but there hasn’t been a vote on the matter.
Rep. Anne Hughes, D-Easton, who is listed as a co-sponsor on both HB 5430 and HB 6864, said later in the week that the initiative could still be negotiated through appropriations, but added that with all the uncertainty surrounding cuts to federal funding, it was too early to speculate on how that would go.
Republican House Minority Leader Vincent Candelora, R-North Branford, said taxpayers paying for healthcare for underdocumented immigrants was a “nonstarter” and said existing programs had cost “way more than Democrats planned, squeezing funding for services for legal residents who are struggling to afford their own coverage and the overall cost of living in Connecticut.”
The students also urged support of an initiative to strengthen the Trust Act in Connecticut.
House Bill 7212 was recently voted out of the Judiciary Committee. It would limit the type of information disclosed to federal immigration authorities and expand that limitation to all public agencies.
State law already offers some protection by limiting law enforcement’s sharing of information with the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, but “An Act Concerning the Trust Act” makes it clear the law applies to all law enforcement officers, prosecutors and the Board of Pardons and Paroles, legislators said.
Julian Shafer, a Danbury High School teacher and Vice President of the National Education Association-Danbury, said he has seen firsthand the stress students and staff are under due to fears of being deported and separated from their families.
“In my role as union leader, I represent the best interests of my members, several of whom are immigrants, and all of whom work with students who are immigrants,” she said. “In our community and our school system, what happens to immigrants goes on to affect children in every Danbury classroom.”
Shafer said Connecticut needed a strengthened Trust Act “to make sure that all the people in our schools can do their jobs in an environment where everybody feels safe.”
Shafer said what is happening now is reminiscent of when the government interned people of Japanese descent during WWII.
“I personally have seen students drop out because they’ve had to work to support their family when members of theirs were deported,” Shafer said. “And the facts are clear, harsh immigration policies have negative effects on our students’ performance, well-being, and this in turn affects our entire school culture and climate.”
Cynthia, a student at Wilbur Cross High School, said she had seen that firsthand and her family avoided interactions with authorities.
“This has affected our ability to carry out everyday activities,” she said. “The lack of trust and that someone will be captured by ICE can lead to this decrease in cooperation with justice and increase in the vulnerability for immigrant communities.”
The legislature’s Republican leadership opposes HB 7212, saying it would protect those who commit serious crimes.
“Majority Democrats want to help violent illegal immigrants to avoid deportation,” Senate Minority Leader Stephen Harding, R-Brookfield, said. “They want local and state agencies prohibited from notifying ICE.”