February 10, 2006

Editorial

Migrant politics
FSU med school shows the way

Historically the Florida Legislature has shown almost less than no interest in migrant workers' health, education or safety.

This year appears to be only incrementally different. A special legislative committee on migrant workers has recommended the state spend $20 million to create affordable housing for farmworkers, increase inspections of field safety conditions and pass a law requiring seat belts in the vans carrying workers to the fields. There is some chance that some of these proposals will get a fair hearing.

But lawmakers seem to have conceded even before the Legislature convenes that the state can't possibly spend tax dollars on broader issues such as access to health care and social services because, as citrus grower and central Florida Sen. JD Alexander explains, too many of the farmworkers are illegal immigrants and therefore a problem for the federal government to address, not the state.

This political standoff is what makes a Florida State University College of Medicine plan to provide better health care to poor migrant families in Southwest Florida so worthy of applause.

The plan is in keeping with the med school's founding mission of addressing the needs of the medically underserved, including rural areas such as Immokalee. That's where a primary health-care clinic and medical training program will be established, thanks to a partnership between FSU and NCH Healthcare, which will donate a 28,000-square-foot building and land to the FSU Foundation.

The partnership also puts to shame comments such as Mr. Alexander's, who told the Associated Press, "On a human level, these folks are our brothers and sisters. But politically, I'm sure a large part of my district would not approved of benefits for illegal immigrants."

University President T.K. Wetherell said FSU will now ask the Legislature for $2.2 million in recurring dollars to operate the center, plus a one-time allocation of $5 million to renovate the donated facility.

We hope that lawmakers will see the human, not political, virtues of supporting this medical training that also, by the way, may improve the lives of migrants, who toil our fields and keep our produce and citrus industries alive.