Some hospitals and healthcare organizations impacted by President Donald Trump’s immigration ban are coming under fire for hosting high-profile fundraisers at the president’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, which his administration has called the "Winter White House."
Boston’s Dana-Farber Cancer Institute has a large fundraiser planned at Mar-a-Lago on Feb. 18, but calls for the institute to cancel the event in response to the ban have prompted Dana-Farber officials to say they’ll avoid selecting venues that may inspire a similar response in the future, according to a statement released Thursday.
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“Because this event has become such a lightning rod for some, in the future we will avoid controversial venues that may distract from our focus on cancer care and research,’’ Dana-Farber’s president, Laurie Glimcher, M.D., and board chairman Josh Bekenstein said in the statement.
Dana-Farber had been reliable customer of @realDonaldTrump, renting Mar-a-Lago for galas. Got $496K frm Trump Fdn, but $0 frm Trump himself. https://t.co/Gox99UtnFU
— David Fahrenthold (@Fahrenthold) February 9, 2017
This will be the seventh year that Dana-Farber has held the fundraising event at Mar-a-Lago, but Harvard Medical School students have pushed for the institute to call off the high-profile fundraiser, writing in an online petition that continuing with the fundraiser is “tantamount to endorsing” Trump and his executive order.
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The Dana-Farber petition calls the decision to host the event “an unconscionable prioritization of profit over people.” Researchers coming to the U.S. to work with Harvard and the affiliated Brigham and Women’s Hospital were restricted by the president’s ban, according to the petition. More than 2,600 have signed the petition to date.
Dana-Farber has heard the concerns but noted that canceling would also be seen as a political move, according to the statement, which also pointed out that the fundraiser is inherently nonpartisan as cancer effects everyone.
Cleveland Clinic faced similar controversy over a planned fundraiser at Mar-a-Lago. More than 1,000 clinicians signed an open letter to CEO Toby Cosgrove urging him to cancel the event in the wake of the immigration ban. An internal medicine resident who works at Cleveland Cleveland Clinic was detained and sent back to Saudi Arabia under the ban, but she has since returned to the United States.