HuffPost: Addiction Should Not Be Punishable By Deportation

“Samuel is the father of four US-born children whose favorite place for family outings was Applebee’s. He was also a green card-holder who was facing deportation. He had come to the United States in his teens fleeing from gang violence and a life marked by severe neglect, parental abandonment, and chronic community violence. After a serious accident landed him in a full body cast, bedridden for months, he took opiates prescribed by his doctor and became addicted.”

Despite coming to the U.S. for a better life, many immigrants find themselves at higher risk of criminalization for chronic diseases such as addiction. Often, this dependency is a result of past traumas. Our immigration social worker Kristen Anderson writes on what is actually needed to help immigrants heal from addiction and how deportation is not the solution.

Read the op-ed here.