Nicolas Espinosa’s hopes for his 11-year-old daughter, Julia, are basic and profound: He wants her to stay alive and perhaps be able to eat normally someday.
And she might, if she can get three organs transplanted — and if the U.S. immigration system doesn’t get in the way.
In a case that reflects the significant and often-heartbreaking failures in how the U.S. welcomes newcomers to the country, the Espinosas are confronting not just the nation’s complicated and expensive health care maze, but an immigration system that Congress has not reformed for decades. Despite calls for coherent reform, immigration policy has been largely set through scattershot legislation and whipsawing administrative actions, often modified by the courts.
