3 WASHINGTON (AP): P RESIDENT JOE Biden announced Thursday that hundreds of thousands of immigrants brought to the US illegally as children will be able to apply for Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act’s health insurance exchanges. The action will allow participants in the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals programme, or DACA, to access government-funded health insurance programs. “They’re American in every way except for on paper,”Biden said in a video released on his Twitter page. “We need to give Dreamers the opportunities and support they deserve.” The action is likely to generate significant pushback from conservative leaders of states that have been have been reluctant to expand Medicaid and critical of the Biden administration’s response to migrants who enter the US illegally. While the federal government provides funding and guidelines for Medicaid, the programme is administered by the states. Then-President Barack Obama launched the 2012 DACA initiative to shield from deportation immigrants who were brought to the US illegally by their parents as children and to allow them to work legally in the country. However, the immigrants, known as “Dreamers”, were still ineligible for government-subsidised health insurance programmes because they did not meet the definition for having “lawful presence” in the US. Biden’s Department of Health and Human Services will aim to change that by the end of the month. The White House action comes as the DACA programme is in legal peril and the number of people eligible is shrinking. An estimated 580,000 people were still enrolled in DACA at the end of last year, according to US Citizenship and Immigration Services. That number is down fromprevious years. Court orders currently prevent the US Department of Homeland Security from processing new applications. The DACA programme has been mired in legal challenges for years, while Congress has been unable to reach consensus on broader immigration reforms. DACA recipients can work legally and must pay taxes, but they don’t have full legal status and are denied many benefits, including access to federally funded health insurance, available to US citizens and foreigners living in the US. Other classes of immigrants – including asylum seekers and people with temporary protected status – are already eligible to purchase insurance through the marketplaces of the ACA, Obama’s 2010 health are law, often called “Obamacare”. and was responsible for the management of Jamaica’s relations with international organisations, such as the United Nations and the Commonwealth. Among her duties was the provision of policy advice to government delegations; monitoring international political developments in the preparation of policy recommendations, and providing responses to Jamaican overseas missions and other ministries. “One of the most important things that we need to strengthen is our cultural relations. That is a natural synergy, because both cultures are so similar. We came from them. We are them, but we have evolved and have our own persona. So, one of the first things that I would want to do is to strengthen our culture,” she told The Gleaner. STRENGTHEN PROJECTS In the sphere of cultural corporation there are already some agreements, she said, but stated that a number of projects are in the pipeline to be strengthened, beginning in the southern part of Africa and moving to the east. Cultural links will spawn a number of areas to include education, tourism, and training services, as she believes there are lessons to be learnt both ways. High Commissioner Thomas Edwards will also be seeking to cement relationships using low-hanging fruits that are likely to bring quick successes in the shortest possible time in areas of trade. “Then we are going to move towards trade issues. Right now the trade between and Africa is almost negligible and we want to improve on that. But it is something that you have to build over time. So that’s another prong in terms of our objectives that we want to build on. So we want to promote an exchange of ideas and understanding between the continent and Jamaica,” she stated. According to COMTRADE, the UN database, Jamaica imports from South Africa US$5M in 2021. In the same period COMTRADE noted that Jamaican exports to South Africa were US$74,014. She hopes to boost the numbers from Jamaica. Asked how she will navigate duties in the 18 countries she said there were many lessons learnt from the COVID-19 pandemic that will assist, but she will be working closely with a network of hard-working honorary consuls in each country for the most part. She promised to visit all 18 countries. She challenged the diaspora to hold up the country’s flag. “To the Jamaicans in the diaspora, continue to build, to stamp Jamaica’s footprint in Africa. One of the things I want to see is that Jamaica is seen not only as sea, sand and reggae, but we are country that is serious about making its name known evenmore on the world stage,”she told The Gleaner. High Commissioner Edwards holds a master’s degree in public policy from the American University inWashington, DC; a Bachelor of Law from the University of London, and a Bachelor of Arts fromThe University of theWest Indies. She was called to the Bar in Jamaica and Belize. A past student of Excelsior High School, St Andrew, she is married with three children. CULTURE Continued from, 2 moya.thomas@gleanerjm.com Moya Thomas Biden says he’s expanding some migrants’ healthcare access President Joe Biden speaks about his administration’s plans to protect Social Security and Medicare and lower healthcare costs, Thursday, February 9, 2023, at the University of Tampa in Tampa, Florida AP THE MONTHLY GLEANER | APRIL 17 - MAY 23, 2023 | www.jamaica-gleaner.com | NEWS
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