Ramona Rakestraw, 59, was born at Parkland Hospital in Dallas in 1966. She has never left Dallas County — not for a trip, not for a job, not for any reason. But the federal government has decided she is “not lawfully present in the U.S.”
Why?
Because she is sick.
Rakestraw has struggled with kidney disease for many years.
She had a transplant. Then she went back on dialysis. In 2024, she was diagnosed with cancer. She has stayed alive with Supplemental Security Income — her only source of money — and Medicare Part B.
Then, in October, her payments stopped.
Why? Because her “immigration status” was suddenly being checked.
“I’m not an immigrant,” she said.
“I’ve never even left Dallas County — let alone the country.”
Think about that.
A lifelong Texan. Born in an American hospital. Fighting cancer. Forced to go to a Social Security office with her birth certificate to prove she belongs in the country she was born in.
And yet, she got a letter saying: “We can’t pay you benefits because you are not lawfully present in the U.S.”
This is the human cost of a system that is too focused on finding “illegals” that it can’t tell the difference between a Dallas native and someone who crosses the border.
Her Medicare was finally restored.
But her SSI — her only income — was not.
Now she is fighting an appeal, drowning in paperwork while getting dialysis and cancer treatment.
She has 60 days to fight a bureaucratic mistake that shouldn’t have happened in the first place.
This isn’t just about errors in paperwork.
It’s about a government that treats citizenship as something it doubts and sees vulnerable Americans as expendable.
Ramona Rakestraw isn’t asking for anything special.
She just wants the benefits she is legally allowed to have — the benefits she paid for through a life of lawful existence in this country.
Born in Dallas.
Fighting for her life. Now forced to fight her own government just to survive. That’s not just bad management. That’s a system that has lost its sense of humanity.
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