House passes bill putting illegal aliens before veterans

On a Thursday, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill to implement a new medical screening system for illegal aliens, ahead of efforts to implement those same medical systems for U.S. military veterans.

The House passed the bill, H.R. 3525, U.S. Border Patrol Medical Screening Standards Act, on a vote of 230-184. The bill requires the Department of Homeland Security and Customs and Border Patrol officials to implement an Electronic Health Records (EHR) system, and store and report electronic health records to Congress for all migrants apprehended at the border, according to The Hill.

“When I was at the border I saw busy, overworked Border Patrol officials having to keep health records on paper. I also saw how these records don’t follow migrants between facilities and transfers of custody,” the bill’s sponsor, Freshman congresswoman Rep. Lauren Underwood (D-IL), said before the House floor vote.

Critics of the bill pointed out that those same busy Border Patrol agents would have to implement the EHR system within a timeframe of months, whereas similar efforts to implement EHR systems in the Department of Defense and hospitals run by the Department of Veterans Affairs which together will take 10 years and $25 billion to implement.

“If we cannot deliver a modern medical record for the men and women who put their lives on the line for us sooner than that, it is impossible to think that we could or should deliver one in a month for those who knowingly enter our country illegally,” Rep. Phil Roe, M.D. (R-TN) said in a press release. “We should not treat anyone, particularly someone who breaks our laws, better than we treat our heroes.”

House Republicans proposed an amendment to implement the same rollout of medical standards for veterans, but the effort was struck down.

Critics also decried the lack of new funding in the bill, which could leave the Border Patrol to bear the costs of the new medical screening procedures out of their existing budget.

“The new requirements are not funded, so DHS would be forced to take funds from other agency efforts including border security, combatting terrorism, stopping drug and human trafficking, and natural disaster response,” Rep. Mark Walker (R-NC) said in a press release following the vote.

Critics have also suggested the focus of immigration legislation should be on preventing border crossings in the first place and moving asylum-seeking detainees from Border Patrol custody to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody.

The bill managed to garner the support of two House Republicans, Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) and Fred Upton (R-MI). It likely faces a tougher vote before the Republican-controlled Senate.