This week, NBC's medical drama Chicago Med premiered another episode glorifying illegal immigration.
In the fall, the show introduced a new character, Dr. Nellie Cuevas (Lilah Richcreek Estrada), who is a recipient of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. The series uses her dialogue to excuse or condone the crime of entering the United States illegally.
On Wednesday's episode, "What You See Isn't Always What You Get," Dr. Cuevas helps a Spanish-speaking family with an unexplained medical crisis. Their daughter, Maria, is experiencing troubling symptoms that a nearby hospital was unable to diagnose. For bureaucratic reasons, the family's insurance will only cover Maria's care if she returns to the previous hospital where she was initially admitted.
The family wants to stay at Chicago Med because the doctors may be better able to unravel her mysterious illness. The daughter doesn't want to burden her family financially, so she insists they return to the other hospital.
Luckily, Chicago Med's doctors discover the cause of her sickness before she leaves and are able to provide the other hospital this information.
Somehow, the daughter's willingness to go to the other hospital reminds Cuevas of the "sacrifice" her illegal immigrant parents made.
When discussing her DACA renewal with the hospital's chief administrator, Sharon Goodwin (S. Epatha Merkerson), Cuevas praises her parents for illegally entering the United States.
Cuevas: I suppose it's time to talk about my DACA renewal. I know I've been dragging my feet.
Goodwin: It's been a long day. We can speak in the morning.
Cuevas: No. No, I'm ready.
Goodwin: Yeah? All right.
Cuevas: Truth is, I've been thinking about leaving Med.
Goodwin: Really?
Cuevas: I've always been in school or protected by my residency, so my immigration status has always been stable. But my parents, despite them always having jobs, could never solidify theirs, so they moved to Canada.
Goodwin: Hmm.
Cuevas: But they can't enter the country to come visit me. And if I leave to go see them, I might be denied reentry. So... I haven't hugged my parents in a decade.
Goodwin: Ugh. That's--that's heartbreaking.
Cuevas: But Maria today, her bravery, what she was willing to sacrifice for her family, reminded me that "No one puts their child in a boat unless the water is safer than the land."
Goodwin: Warsan Shire. Oh, that's a beautiful poem.
Cuevas: So... My parents' sacrifice to get me here put me in this boat, which is why I have to stay.
Goodwin: And Dr. Cuevas, I believe that you will find a way to see your parents again. But until that day, know that you have family here in us at Med.
Warsan Shire is a young, lousy poet whose work leftists promote to push the ideology of open borders. It's unsurprising that the characters would mention her in a scene praising illegal immigrants.
Television shows routinely soft-pedal the issue of illegal immigration. Nobody ever asks why the characters refused to immigrate to a legally accessible country or seek valid means of entrance to the U.S.
Chicago Med is unlikely to do an episode discussing how hospitals are overwhelmed by these migrants.
The parents of DACA children are heroes in television scripts while the nation that insists people follow its laws and respect its borders is somehow always wrong.
After decades of such propaganda, it's all so old and tiresome.
