By Dan Calabrese ——Bio and Archives--July 19, 2017
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The House Appropriations Committee voted Tuesday on an amendment that would give lawful permanent residence to the family of Charlie Gard, the baby with a rare disease living in England whose parents are fighting to get him an experimental treatment in the United States.
The amendment, which was offered by Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, R-Wash., was added in the committee’s markup to the Homeland Security spending bill. The amendment, if passed, would grant Charlie and his parents, Christopher William Gard and Constance Rhoda Keely Yates, permanent resident status to receive medical assistance.What's wrong with giving them permanent residence, you ask? What's wrong with it is that they don't need it, and it's not the solution to their problem. Charlie and his parents have always been welcome in the United States. President Trump said as much weeks ago. The problem is that they can't get Charlie out of the UK because the National Health Service won't release Charlie from the hospital, and they've gotten the backing of the courts to essentially make Charlie their prisoner, such that his parents are not legally permitted to make the decision to take him elsewhere. The committee's action, if it ultimately became law, might technically eliminate a hurdle at our end if and when Charlie was free to leave, but that's honestly not much of a hurdle to begin with. There was never any chance they were going to be stopped at the border on some immigration technicality. If anything, we'll send a plane for them. Getting them here doesn't require a special act of Congress.
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