Florida vaccine residency rule may block access for migrant farmworkers
A state proof of residency requirement is raising concerns about whether migrant workers will be able to get inoculated at all.
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Olga Perez sorts through boxes of produce during a food distribution event for farmworker migrant families at the Guatemalan Maya Center in Lake Worth, Florida on Friday, January 15, 2020. [ MATIAS J. OCNER | Miami Herald ]
By Monique O. Madan and Ana Ceballos
Published Jan. 22
Updated Jan. 23
Since the start of the pandemic, Herlinda Mendez, a 52-year-old migrant worker who spends her days harvesting green beans in Palm Beach County, has felt like she keeps getting the short end of the stick.
Speaking to the fears of many immigrant communities regarding the COVID-19 vaccine Sunday, U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams sent out a message that carries particular urgency for Palm Beach County’s undocumented residents.
“I want everyone to hear me: No one in this country should be denied a vaccine because of their documentation status, because it’s not ethically right to deny those individuals,” Adams told CBS “Face the Nation” moderator Margaret Brennan.
In recent days, Adams has addressed longstanding concerns in the nation’s Black population over a history of medical mistreatments, inhumane experimentation and systemic negligence. On Sunday, he sought to calm the concerns of undocumented immigrants who fear vaccination records could land them on Department of Homeland Security deportation lists.