UTRGV wrongly denies vaccines to undocumented persons

Alejandra Yañez | THE RIDER

The father of a UTRGV alum was denied the COVID-19 vaccine Feb. 20 at the Edinburg campus vaccine site due to his immigration status. 

“They were discriminating against people who are undocumented in the middle of the pandemic, when undocumented folks pretty much have no choice but to continue working,” said Abe Diaz, an immigration services provider for La Unión Del Pueblo Entero, a community union that advocates for issues for members of low-income communities.

According to the Department of Homeland Security and Texas Department of State Health Services, all individuals have equal access to the COVID-19 vaccine regardless of immigration status once eligible under local distribution guidelines. 

Diaz said he signed up his father for the vaccine in late November and received an email that he was able to schedule his dad for an appointment due to his age, 61, and underlying conditions.

“That same day that I received the email, I talked to my father,” he said. “We sat over dinner and I asked him if he was interested in getting the vaccine. He said, ‘Yeah, sign me up. Let me know what I need to take.’ So, I signed him up for [Feb. 20] at 8 a.m. and he went there around 7:30 to the UTRGV School of Medicine to be able to get the vaccine.”

Diaz said his father waited for four hours before reaching the front of the line around 11:45 a.m.–only to be turned away because he could not fill out the Social Security portion of the sign-in sheet. 

“They asked him his full name, his date of birth and then they asked him his Social Security number,” he said. “That’s when he told them he didn’t have a Social Security number, and the person there said that this vaccine was only for U.S. citizens and those who have Social Security numbers.”

The UTRGV alum said this upset his father and prompted him to ask why the vaccine was only available to U.S. citizens, to which the UTRGV employee replied that it was the law. Diaz said his father then asked again and received the same answer and was prompted to visit the university’s website to view the alleged requirements. 

“He was embarrassed because they pretty much told him, in front of everybody that was in line, that because he’s undocumented, he’s not gonna be able to get the vaccine,” Diaz said. “But he was even madder that they were doing this to a lot of people.”

He said his father witnessed one other individual get turned away for the same reason as he was leaving the site, which made him wonder how many people were being affected by this.

When his father returned home and shared his experience with his son, Diaz took it upon himself to verify if immigration status was in fact a requirement and did not find anything of the sort on the university’s website. 

Asked how he and his family reacted, he replied, “To me, it worried me a lot because first, they’re not giving this health [care] to families that really need it. The requirements clearly are older folk with underlying conditions, but they’re picking and choosing who and now saying also because of their undocumented status, they’re not gonna be able to give it to everybody, even though they meet all the requirements.

“They’re creating their own guidelines as they please. But [I was] also angry that they’re doing this to our community here in the Rio Grande Valley.”

Asked what prompted him to voice his concerns on Feb. 20 via Twitter, Diaz replied,“Because of the injustice that my father, who’s been here over 25 years in the U.S. Being denied a human right is very, very unfair. Also, that we’re not going to tolerate this in the Rio Grande Valley. Seeing the university not set a prime example is, pretty much, what upsets me the most.”

He said he and his father have seen the original public apology posted Feb. 21 by the university but are upset that it states that the issue was due to a place of residence. 

“This is truly not what happened,” Diaz said. “My dad had proof that he lived in … the Rio Grande Valley. He had his bank account statements, he had his vehicle insurance, but they didn’t discriminate against his place of residence. They pretty much told him no because he’s undocumented. So, it really isn’t an apology. It’s really trying to cover up what they’re doing with something that really isn’t what happened.”

The statement in question was issued by the university and reads as follows: “UT Health RGV was made aware Saturday (Feb. 20) that it did not follow the most current State of Texas guidelines that all eligible patients, despite their place of residence, be administered a COVID-19 Vaccine. 

“UT Health RGV apologizes to those patients who were affected at Saturday’s vaccine site by our lack of awareness of the updated guidelines. We are reaching out to provide those patients with an appointment at their earliest convenience.”

Dr. Michael Dobbs, vice dean of Clinical Affairs for the UTRGV School of Medicine and chief medical officer for UT Health RGV, told The Rider that there were about three people that were denied vaccines based on residence location and about 10 more reached out to the university via email after the statement was released.

“Anyone who feels they have been wrongly denied a vaccine can email us, and we will reach back out to them and, if so, get them in immediately for vaccination,” Dobbs said.

Asked why this situation happened, he replied, “We had received conflicting guidance … and so the guidance that was interpreted and applied there on the spot was not the guidance that was in effect from [Texas Department of State Health Services]. 

“Realizing that, we’re grateful to the people that it happened to for speaking up and pointing that out. Realizing that, we were able to correct it pretty quickly.”

The vice dean said the university has to ask certain questions as it brings someone into its system. Because UTRGV uses an electronic health record, guidance was misinterpreted.

Dobbs said, moving forward, UT Health RGV will vaccinate individuals without verifying for residence. He said the faculty and staff have been retrained.

“Very sorry for the inconvenience to those individuals and their family and any embarrassment they may have had,” he said. “It’s not easy to stand there in a line and expect to get health care and then be turned away. It’s really a horrible situation for those individuals.”

In response to the situation, LUPE created a petition, which was launched Feb. 22, calling to release the name of the official who decided to implement the policy, under what circumstances they implemented it and how many people were denied based on the policy. 

The petition also demands a pledge from UTRGV to not deny any eligible person based on immigration status, and for the university to quickly launch an education campaign in Spanish with the message that the vaccine is for everyone, regardless of immigration status.

Diaz said the university needs to publicly say it is accepting people who are undocumented for the vaccine.

“Because place of residence means one thing and being undocumented means another,” he said. “If we want to create change, I think that’s where it needs to start.” 

In response to the LUPE petition, Dobbs replied that the university wants to do more outreach to the community to be able to vaccinate anyone who falls within the health-related categories. 

As for the specific individual responsible, Dobbs said it is communication which is to blame rather than an individual.

“We are beginning work on a campaign which definitely should include Spanish language as well,” he said. “The group that oversees vaccination and interprets guidance has been a committee. It would be really untrue to say there’s an individual who sets policy. It’s a continuous learning process, and I’ll tell you the truth, it’s not easy.”

While his father was called about the possibility of getting rescheduled for a vaccine at UTRGV, Diaz said his father is not comfortable.

“To be honest, I think my dad is embarrassed by what happened,” he said. “So, having to go through all of that in a place where he sent his child to school to get a higher education, and what happened, it’s not just something that can be discarded or seen as if it was nothing.”

Diaz said his message to people who are following the story and the campus community would be to sign the petition “not for my father, but for the families that were neglected, and also for those who are also curious about what is going to happen.”

“We want these positive changes at the university,” he said. “We want a campaign in Spanish stating that the vaccine is for everyone, not only a few. And seeing who was responsible for this. … There must be someone at the university who said, ‘Let’s not give it to people who are not U.S. citizens,’ and why did it happen?”

Patrick Gonzales, associate vice president for University Marketing and Communications, said LUPE worked with the university to help provide a response to “help set the record straight.”  

He said UTRGV worked with LUPE to meet its petition demands and issued a statement in both English and Spanish to the public last Wednesday.

 “We are no longer going to verify residency or immigration status,” Gonzales said.

In response to the situation, Dobbs said his message to people following the story and the campus community is that UT Health RGV wants to administer vaccines to everyone who is eligible throughout the region to achieve herd immunity and beat the disease. 

“At UT Health RGV, we really want to help everyone and we’re really, really sorry for what happened with individuals who were turned away, and we want to make it right for them,” he said.

The university began administering vaccines in mid-December 2020 and is looking back to try to find any other individuals who may have been wrongly turned away since then.

As of last week, roughly 25,000 vaccine doses have been administered by UTRGV, according to Dobbs.

Due to the winter storm that halted the shipment of vaccinations, the university was not administering vaccines, but resumed on Feb. 20 and 21, once power was restored. 

The university has vaccine sites in Edinburg, Harlingen and other select locations. UTRGV plans to reopen the Brownsville campus vaccine site once vaccines are available.

Dobbs said the vaccines have been requested but not yet allocated.