In one of his final acts, Elijah Cummings signed subpoenas for immigration agencies

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published 18 October 2019

The late House Oversight and Reform Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) was working right until the end, signing two subpoenas for documents related to an immigration policy change hours before he died.

The subpoenas are for documents connected to the Trump administration's decision to end the medical deferred action program, which protects immigrants with severe illnesses from deportation while they receive treatment. In September, a House Oversight subcommittee held a hearing on the matter, with recipients sharing their stories; one 16-year-old boy from Honduras said he would die if he had to go back, as the country does not offer medical treatment for his cystic fibrosis.

After public outrage, the decision to end the program was reversed, but lawmakers are still scrutinizing the administration's initial decision. A Democratic committee aide told CNN that staffers drove the subpoenas to Baltimore so Cummings could sign them, adding, "Chairman Cummings felt so strongly about the children, that he was going to fight until the end." The subpoenas were sent to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Wednesday afternoon. Cummings' death was announced early Thursday morning.

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

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