Florida Creates Opportunity for Immigrant Residents to Receive COVID-19 Vaccine
Florida grants all residents COVID-19 vaccines, including migrant workers.
With only 28% of its total population vaccinated and three main vaccination sites closing down by the end of May, the state of Florida has seen a hectic situation recently regarding the pandemic. Once the state announced moving all vaccine supplies to mobile clinics at the end of this month, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) recommended that all residents of Florida have access to the vaccine.
This means that, as long as an individual can prove residency – whether as a citizen or a migrant worker – they should be able to obtain the vaccination. Moreover, the DHS has also moved to prevent Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from performing customs enforcement operations at or close to vaccination sites. This way, more migrant workers will hopefully feel safer visiting these sites for their COVID-19 vaccines.
In fact, the government has managed to simplify the situation such that people living in Florida now need to only verbally affirm that they reside in the state in order to obtain a vaccine. Not only will such policy reform likely encourage undocumented immigrants to become vaccinated, but having as many individuals as possible receive the vaccine will help to quell the spread of the pandemic across Florida.