"Boy, these conservatives are really something, aren't they? They're all in favor of the unborn. They will do anything for the unborn. But once you're born, you're on your own. Pro-life conservatives are obsessed with the fetus from conception to nine months. After that, they don't want to know about you. They don't want to hear from you. No nothing. No neonatal care, no daycare, no Head Start, no school lunch, no food stamps, no welfare, no nothing."
- George Carlin
On the campaign trail, Trump maintained that his efforts at mass deportation would be concentrated on violent criminals who posed a threat to public safety. As he reassumed the Presidency, the definition of "criminal threat" was expanded to include anyone who had broken the law by crossing our borders illegally, even if they had lived exemplary lives in their adopted country. Then even those who were living here legally were targeted for removal as Trump revoked the permission that they had received under previous administrations.
In 2023, the Vargas family was granted legal entry into the United States on humanitarian grounds. Their two-year-old daughter, "Sophia," was critically ill due to the effects of Short Bowel Syndrome. Unable to absorb nutrition without an IV she was developmentally delayed and, according to the doctors at a hospital in Mexico, faced certain death.
'Sophia' Vargas before arriving in the United States (Deysi Vargas)
(Image by Deysi Vargas) Details DMCA
Thanks to America's exceptional health care, "Sophia" has made remarkable progress. Services provided by Rady Children's Hospital-San Diego and Children's Hospital of Los Angeles have fulfilled a mother's dream of her daughter being able to leave the hospital and join her family at home. "Sophia" now attends preschool like any other healthy four-year-old.
This is not to say that "Sophia" is out of the woods. She is attached to an IV feeding system every night, carries a portable version of this system during the day, receives hour-long feedings four times a day through a gastric tube, and must visit the hospital every six weeks. According to her doctor, interrupting her medical treatment "could be fatal within a matter of days."
In Trump's America, the lives of young children like "Sophia" are expendable. The family was notified last month that their legal status has been revoked, warning them that "It is in your best interest to avoid deportation and leave the United States of your own accord." The work permits that allowed her parents to support their family financially were also taken away by immigration authorities under Trump's directives. After a public outcry, she was once again provided the right to stay based on humanitarian considerations, but not before her family the emotional trauma of the possibility of losing their daughter.
"This child will die and there's no sense for that to happen. It would just be a cruel sacrifice."
-Rebecca Brown, the family's lawyer
"Sophia" is also not the first child with healthcare issues to have fallen victim to Trump's hardline immigration policies. A four-year-old American citizen with Stage 4 Cancer was deported last month without his medication. This willingness to sentence young children to death contradicts Trump's self-proclaimed status as the "most pro-life president in US history." If every life "is a sacred gift from God," why are the lives of "Sophia" and the four-year-old cancer victim expendable?
It is also notable that the activists who fought for decades to overturn Roe Vs. Wade have remained mostly silent while these children are deprived of their right to life. Unwilling to confront the President, whose Supreme Court appointments ended the Constitutional protection for women to have autonomy over their bodies, they have stood by while these children are sentenced to death. While they continue their fight against access to safe, medically induced abortions with the claim that life begins at conception, they are willing to overlook Trump's government depriving children of medical care. What logical contortions must they engage in to accept the resulting deaths as natural or ethical?
Carl Petersen is a parent advocate for public education, particularly for students with special education needs, and serves as the Education Chair for the Northridge East Neighborhood Council. As a Green Party candidate in LAUSD's District 2 School Board race, he was endorsed by Network for Public Education (NPE) Action. Dr. Diane Ravitch has called him "a valiant fighter for public schools in Los Angeles." For links to his blogs, please visit www.ChangeTheLAUSD.com. Opinions are his own.
