- Border Patrol causes death of blind Rohingya refugee in Buffalo, NY. 56 year-old Nurul Amin Shah Alam was detained on February 19th and released the same day. However, instead of being returned home, Alam was dropped on a corner five miles from his home with no phone or assistance. Alam was blind and did not speak English, and his family was not alerted to his release, so they were unaware they should be looking for him. He died in the cold, his body identified five days later.
DHS/ICE continues to harm disabled people at high rates, both in direct interactions, in substandard access to medical care and basic sanitation in detention, as well as by separating families and caregivers. - HHS announces new cuts targeting medical suppliers, Medicaid/are cuts. This week Dr. Oz created particular confusion in a video announcing a “pause” on Medicare enrollment for medical suppliers; inconsistent captioning made it appear that individuals would be barred from purchasing medical supplies (e.g. oxygen, wheelchairs, crutches, prostheses, etc.).
In actuality, according to the HHS press release, the restriction is on people trying to open up new medical supply stores. While this may affect some folks’ ability to access supplies in places where suppliers are already limited, it will not close existing suppliers or prevent individuals from ordering supplies.
A more concerning development announced in the same briefing is the withholding of $259 million in Medicaid and Medicare funding for Minnesota. The decision, which the Trump administration blamed on a vague concern about “fraud” is more likely retaliatory political move due to recent clashes with DHS, including violent protest repression tactics, illegal arrests, two high-profile murders of American citizens by ICE agents caught on camera. The cuts will affect mostly home and community-based services that serve disabled and chronically-ill people. - Nine states revive a lawsuit against Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act. This is an updated version of the previous lawsuit Texas vs. Becerra , later Texas vs. Kennedy brought by 17 states, which had argued that both Section 504 and an affiliated, non-legally binding Biden-era “Final Rule” regarding protections for people with gender dysphoria were unconstitutional.
After the Kennedy administration took power and removed trans protections from Final Rule, many states withdrew, but 9 states filed a new version of the lawsuit seeking to declare another part of Final Rule–a piece that protects disabled people’s rights to live in community in “the most integrated setting“–is unconstitutional. If successful, many disabled people will lose access to supports that allow them to be independent and live and work in their home communities, leaving them at high risk for forced institutionalization.