Posted on 04/04/2002 3:36:51 PM PST by Joe Hadenuf
At least five migrants hurt in recent accidents simply walked away from area hospitals instead of into Border Patrol custody.
How that could happen highlights some interesting issues of how health care and the Border Patrol interact.
Hospitals say they concentrate on helping injured migrants people heal. They have no legal obligation to track them for the Border Patrol...
The Border Patrol often does not take injured people into custody until their hospital stay is over. Under that system the patrol sometimes loses migrants and the hospitals frequently lose money.
Hospitals kicked into high gear after two vehicle rollovers in two days sent a total of fifty-one migrants to area hospitals. But when the migrants were well enough to leave Border Patrol was not waiting to pick up every one. Border Patrol says at least five were able to simply walk away.
Border Patrol rarely arrests anyone while they're still in the hospital.
The Border Patrol chief for this area says patrol agents can't arrest anyone unless they have reason to believe that person is here illegally. That would usually involve interviewing the suspect----and they rarely interview anyone who's flat on his back in the hospital.
"You have to remember our enforcement posture is on the border.” says Chief David Aguilar, “now in order for us to respond to the hospital and interview a person who may or may not be in this country illegally that's going to detract from our enforcement posture on the border."
If a patient's in Border Patrol custody the patrol's responsible for the medical bill.
If there's no arrest, hospitals like university medical center shoulder the burden. UMC says last year it lost about $6 million on foreign patients who didn’t pay for their care.
Chief Aguilar says there's absolutely no policy that says the patrol should save money by not arresting suspects in the hospital.
UMC's chief says one way or the other, it's draining his budget.
"My opinion is that Border Patrol is first, last and always a law enforcement agency, says UMC CEO John Duval,” and so providing for health care is not necessarily part of their mission and so you're always gonna have an embedded conflict whenever you're asking a law enforcement agency to go spend its' precious dollars to fund other types of missions."
Chief Aguilar says the Border Patrol recognizes hospitals are strained by paying for foreign patients but the patrol simply cannot arrest someone until there's adequate evidence.
UMC’s chief says Senator John McCain and Congressman Jim Kolbe are trying to get the federal government to cover the costs but their only allies in Congress are from the other states that share borders with Mexico. So that's four states with lawmakers that may want to help and forty six states with lawmakers that may not be interested.
I wish I could get treated at the hospital and just wake away and forget the bill. More insanity that we are all paying for!
Hospitals kicked into high gear after two vehicle rollovers in two days sent a total of fifty-one migrants to area hospitals.
Fiftyone people in two vehicles? Is everyone getting this? Hello taxpayers!
If a patient's in Border Patrol custody the patrol's responsible for the medical bill.
Taxpayers foot the bill again, at gun point!
They wouldn't admit you until they knew you could pay and wouldn't release you until you did.
Solution: Renounce U.S. citizenship; violate any law you feel like, pay no bills; when you get convicted for something, don't worry: the courts have ruled that you cannot be held indefinitely if no country will take you (you're stateless now, so no one will), and you will be released into the populace again, scot free.
Beats worrying about the laws.
Isn't that the truth. Being an American citizen and taxpayer, they would see us coming.
Either we control our borders, or lose the country.
"This is a safety issue," DPS Sgt. E.J. Nuñez said after a House Transportation Committee public hearing in El Paso. "The most common problem is brakes that are out of adjustment," he explained. "We see it daily ... five to eight out of 10 brakes out of adjustment on trucks that carry 79,000 to 80,000 pounds of weight."
Inspectors also stopped trucks from Mexico for flat or bald tires, cracked axles, loose or missing suspension parts and other equipment malfunctions. Some drivers also lacked a commercial driver's license and insurance.
Mexicans come over and get completely free health care while we deny it to our own citizens. If we weren't paying their complete way, we'd probably have more than enough for prescription medicines for elderly and much more.
Very interesting!
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