The Immigration Men and the Rumor

There is a pervasive rumor going around the undocumented community in Chicago: if an undocumented pregnant person goes to a hospital, they can be deported in 24 hours or less.

I have been unable to ascertain the origin of the rumor. About three people I’ve spoken with claim the rumor started in Texas and that it followed a group of immigrants expelled under Gov. Abbott’s purges. Many others, including a midwife I’ve been working with recently and two social workers I’ve come to know, have told me that the rumor was begun here in Chicago and was initially spread by Americans who presumably opposed immigration.

All persons in the latter group claim to have seen a pamphlet or flier a few months ago, though none of them seem to have retained a copy of the document. I’ve requested any extant copies of these pamphlets or fliers but most of them claim to have destroyed copies whenever they were found to prevent the rumors from spreading.

The rumor seems to be pointed squarely at expectant mothers and their unborn children; for instance, no one has claimed that accident victims presenting to the emergency room will be swiftly deported. The rumor usually contains three elements: (1) at the risk of their licenses, medical workers must report undocumented pregnant persons to the authorities; (2) if any of the said patients report to a hospital or clinic, they can be deported in less than one day’s time; and (3) even patients in active labor could be given certain drugs to delay the birth of their child until after they’ve been deported.

Of those who say the rumor started in Chicago, they agree that it was first spread by a seemingly organized group of Americans. They are generally called the “Immigration Men [or People]”; more often than not they introduce themselves as working for the government, a law firm of some sort, or with immigrants in some other professional capacity. These Americans are described as being mostly White with a few Black members. A minority of the members speak Spanish with some fluency and some have given stereotypical Latin names when introducing themselves.

The motives of these “Immigration Men” can only be speculated upon. Some allege motives of pure evil: that the Immigration Men wish to see harm come to expectant mothers and their children through lack of medical care. Others, including myself, believe the rumor was aimed at having undocumented mothers give birth in non-institutional settings which might make it harder for their children to gain American birth certificates. Although the two needn’t be mutually exclusive and nothing about the latter precludes the former.

Victims of the Rumor

A midwife called me to talk with a young pregnant woman. The woman was clearly suffering from a serious condition called preeclampsia. After speaking with the midwife I found that I was called less to act as a physician and more because I was an American who was generally trusted by the woman’s family. The woman, believing the rumor, was refusing to seek care even though she was within a few days of giving birth and her blood pressure dangerously high.

The woman’s family, the midwife, and I told her of Illinois’ TRUST Act, that Chicago is a sanctuary city, and that it would unethical to administer tocolytics for such a purpose. In the end the woman was convinced to ignore the rumor by showing her the docket of the US District Court for Northern Illinois and proving to her that US courts simply don’t move fast enough to comply with 24-hour time constraint stipulated in the rumor. She did eventually go to a hospital and ended up giving birth to a healthy baby later the same day.

The Other, Older Rumor

The midwife told me of an older rumor; she dates it to several years ago during the Trump administration. The main conceit of this rumor being that any undocumented woman who gives up her new born for adoption by an American family would be given a Green Card. No one else I spoke with could recall such a rumor; although one of my social worker friends said he had heard something similar during Bush’s second term as president.

I am less inclined to believe that this was something being popularly shared around as it strikes me as something a Dickensian villain might offer. It’s just cartoonishly evil to say, “Trade us your baby for the right to stay in the country.