Health inequity and tent court injustice

Abstract

US law promises refugees they will not be deported until they receive fair, impartial review and determination of their asylum eligibility. Some refugees' illness experiences, however, preclude them from testifying and accurately representing their own interests during asylum adjudication proceedings. This article explains how health inequity compromises the capacity of ill refugees to successfully demonstrate their asylum eligibility, recounts federal policy changes that exacerbate their health and legal vulnerabilities, and suggests how the United States fails to meet international obligations to refugee-patients.