Immigrants demand medical care for all, including the undocumented community

CHICAGO,  IL. A group of Immigrant rights advocates, families of patients, and supporters of the Hunger Strike for Health will march from Little Village to UIC Medical Center and demand an immediate meeting with hospital administrators.

Last year, as the result of a hunger strike, UIC Medical center committed to forming a round table with other hospitals in Chicago in order to provide liver and kidney transplants for patients who are undocumented or uninsured. UIC also agreed to form a Not for Profit pharmacy that would provide affordable medication for low income transplant patients. The hospital has broken these two commitments, and refuses to place uninsured and undocumented patients on the transplant list.

Since July 29, fourteen people have been on hunger strike to protest these inhumane and discriminatory health care practices. “University of Illinois at Chicago is a public institution that calls itself a civic leader, a progressive institution” stated Father Jose Landaverde, “and yet they deny treatment to people simply because they are uninsured and simply because they are undocumented. Poor people and those without status are being treated as less than human”. The hunger strike demands a change in policy that ensures people are put on the transplant list based on need and not based on citizenship or financial status.

Maria Garnica is participating in the hunger strike on behalf of her husband who urgently needs an organ transplant. She as well as others call on elected officials to prove their support of immigrant communities with concrete action not empty campaign-season promises. “They want our votes, we want our lives” she stated.

For more information, contact Fr. Jose S. Landaverde 773-512-8015; Tania Reyna 779-220-1006; Oscar Balbuena 773-715-0857