Deportation Fears Spread To Military After Marine’s Dad Is Deported in Calif.
Both parents — who were from Mexico and had pending green card applications — were taken into custody last month while visiting family members at Camp Pendleton, AP reported. The father was deported Friday. In other news about race and health, California's Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom has vetoed bills on slavery reparations.
Parents of a U.S. Marine were detained by federal immigration officials and one of them was later deported after visiting family members at a California military base, a case that has drawn attention to how the government’s immigration crackdown is touching military families. Steve Rios, a Marine from Oceanside, California, told NBC 7 San Diego that his parents, Esteban Rios and Luisa Rodriguez, were taken into custody late last month while picking up his pregnant sister, Ashley Rios, and her husband, who is also a Marine, at Camp Pendleton. (10/15)
Have other military members’ families been detained? Yes. A Marine Corps veteran’s wife, who was seeking a green card, was detained in May in Louisiana but a judge barred her removal. And veterans without citizenship are increasingly worried about deportation. (Bedayn, 10/15)
Some people decide not to participate in in-person visitation because they don't want to take off all their clothes in front of a guard. (Morrissey, 10/14)
More news on race and health —
Gov. Gavin Newsom of California vetoed bills that would have provided tangible benefits to those descendants, though he approved a state agency to determine who qualifies for potential reparations. (Rosenhall, 10/15)
Other health news from across the U.S. —
Drug overdose deaths in Missouri decreased for the second consecutive year in 2024, according to the latest data from the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services. The drop in drug-related fatalities — a 26% decrease compared with the previous year — brings the total to its lowest number since 2017. (Fentem, 10/16)
Despite federal law, disabled students can’t access playgrounds, lunchrooms, classes and bathrooms. With added funding, school districts are still unable to make necessary fixes. (Savransky, 10/15)
High indoor temperatures combined with a lack of cold drinking water and cooling fans in three of the state’s prisons during the summer months is risking the health of incarcerated individuals and may violate their constitutional rights, according to a new report from the correction ombuds. (Otte, 10/15)
As Texas develops its application for a new rural health funding program, rural hospital leaders say the priority should be financial stabilization for their facilities. (Ruhman, 10/15)
Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller is trading barbs with the Trump Administration over its response to a parasitic pest that continues to make its way north in Mexico, and could potentially threaten the state’s $15 billion cattle industry if it crosses the border. This week, in an interview with a Nashville television network that focuses on rural issues, Miller expressed frustration that the U.S. Department of Agriculture was not using a synthetic bait that he has promoted to combat the New World Screwworm, a fly that infects warm-blooded animals and recently has been spotted less than 100 miles from the border. (McGee, 10/15)
On Sept. 30, Planned Parenthood’s Gulf Coast branch in Houston, which ran the organization’s largest clinic in the country, shuttered to merge with another affiliate. Anti-abortion groups celebrated this shutdown, saying they were one step closer to pushing the health care provider from the state and, eventually, the nation. (Byman, 10/15)
