Parents to inter Jesica (Santillan) in N.C. (To avoid being sent back to Mexico)

Herald Sun ^ | February 27, 2003 | C.D. Kirkpatrick

[mykdsmom]

DURHAM -Jesica Santillan’s parents plan to inter their daughter in a mausoleum in North Carolina instead of returning her body to southern Mexico and risk being barred from re-entering the United States.

The father, Melecio Huerta, has worked here legally and does not want to threaten his status, said Mack Mahoney, a family friend. Huerta and Magdalena Santillan, the mother, are also weighing a possible lawsuit against Duke University Hospital.

But Magdalena Santillan worries about taking money from her daughter’s death, Mahoney said.

"The attorneys are just now getting into the investigation," Mahoney said Thursday. "Her momma’s worried because I think she promised God [she wouldn’t take money] ... She wants the doctors to go to jail like they would in Mexico. But I told her we don’t do that here; the way we punish them here is to take their money."

The couple and their three children crossed the border illegally about four years ago seeking medical care. After three years, Jesica Santillan received a heart and lungs of the wrong blood type Feb. 7 at Duke University Hospital. Santillan’s story and search for compatible organs became a media free-for-all with such wide-ranging appeal it drew The New York Times and People magazine to the story.

After 12 days of damaging life support and then a second transplant, the teenager, just 80 pounds when she entered the hospital, was too far-gone. Duke doctors declared her dead two days later on Saturday.

That was six days ago, and since then the family has struggled with what to do next. The family met with immigration lawyer Jack Pinnix of Raleigh on Thursday, Mahoney said. Reached at his home, Pinnix would not comment.

Huerta, a bricklayer, works here under a government guest worker program. An employer, in this case, the [Mack] Mahoney Building Co., filed an application on his behalf.

Huerta is working for his green card and plans to divorce his first wife so he and Magdalena Santillan can marry and raise their two remaining children in the United States, Mahoney said. It is common in heavily Catholic Mexico for couples to marry too young and then separate, he said. They start fresh but do not divorce because of social stigma.

The couple, who speak very little English, has had some powerful and sophisticated help from Washington, D.C., over the past four years.

Mahoney, a Republican fund-raiser, paid for some of Santillan’s initial care. But Duke wanted a full transplant bill, promising to be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. So Mahoney began a charity called Jesica’s Hope Chest. Someone in the county read the story and called the Immigration and Naturalization Service, Mahoney said.

Mahoney drove to Washington and spoke with then-U.S. Sen. Jesse Helms, who promised if the family did not break the law he would help them stay, Mahoney said. Huerta applied for a labor certificate.

U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole’s office would only say Thursday that it was contacted Tuesday and sent a letter on behalf of Santillan’s parents to "the appropriate federal agency," said Mary Brown Brewer, spokeswoman for Dole. Brewer would not give details.

Dole also was said to play a minor, but pivotal, role in softening Duke University Hospital administration toward Mahoney, who was critical of the hospital for not publicizing the transplant error sooner. Dole’s office said the senator only called to wish Santillan and her family well.

[Dimensio]

I'm confused.

They are in the country illegally. There is no disputing this. What is keeping INS from deporting them RIGHT NOW?

[Catspaw]

The headline is a bit incorrect. They could go back to Mexico. They just might be barred from returning to the US. Given the intercession of Jesse Helms and Elizabeth Dole, they're probably going to stay in North Carolina for the forseeable future.

[dwilli]

Go back to Mexico? They will have an oceanfront home
and a mountaintop home and a luxury coach to drive between
the two here in NC.

What a suprise, Senor Jesse gonna dump his wife
south of the border and fufill his God-fearing desire to marry the plantiff.

[sinkspur]

Her momma’s worried because I think she promised God [she wouldn’t take money] ... She wants the doctors to go to jail like they would in Mexico. But I told her we don’t do that here; the way we punish them here is to take their money."

If this clownish Mahoney keeps running his mouth, there won't be an impartial jury pool east of the Mississippi.

And those of us west of the Mississippi despise trial lawyers.

Momma should thank God for the generosity of the United States of America and for the time she had with her daughter. Duke will likely offer a nice settlement; she should accept it and go graciously into anonymity.

[mykdsmom]

They're just betting on public outcry if NC tries to send them back and thinking that burying their daughter here will help with that. The father is here on a guest worker permit apparently obtained after he came here illegally.

I agree that Helms and Doles involvement will probably assure they stay here.

MKM

[Catspaw]

That's my read of the situation.

[The Coopster]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/853617/posts


Duplicate post..........

[Henrietta]

In my humble opinion, no person here in the country illegally should have standing to take advantage of any of our laws, and should have NO standing to sue anyone for anything.

Kick their sorry butts out, and without compensation for Duke's screw-up. They are no worse off now than they would have been had they not ILLEGALLY snuck into our country to FREELOAD and get medical care intended for citizens.

[Conservababe]

I am sick to death of the likes of them.

Americans daily lose their assets because they have no insurance and incur high medical bills.

But illegal aliens can waltz across the border, get quality health care, and then sue.

Why are we so stupid as to allow this to happen?

[alisasny]

What is getting me ill is how Mahoney speaks on behalf of the family as if they are idiots. Ok, the only difference I gather at this point is the language barrier....this family has been here 3 years and now I get new info that Jessicas father is married to another woman still in grand Ole Mexico...

I am actually starting to pity the mother of Jessica.... I used to hold pure disdain but now its pity....

[E. Pluribus Unum]

She wants the doctors to go to jail like they would in Mexico.

Illegally sneak into the US of A for FREE medical care, then put the doctors in jail because the FREE procedure did not work out as planned.

What could be more fair?

[mass55th]

They're here illegally for four years, and speak little English? What the hell have they been doing all that time that they couldn't even bother to learn the language of the country that had taken them in? Where have they been living? And how have they earned money to live on? If they worked for wages during the past four years and didn't pay taxes or social security, I think it's imperative that they find out who employed these folks illegally and file charges.

[alisasny]

And the simple fact remains..had this child not been here this mixup probably would NOT have happened..... It seems Mahoney creates many of the troubles that are befalling this family now.....

Didn't I read that Mahoney lost a child and has some kind of vengeance thing going on????

[alisasny]

The family's mouthpiece Mahoney seems to have employed the girls father.....(who is not married to the girls mother but has a wife he left back in good Ole Mexico......

I am starting to smell a big time RACKET going on.....

[mass55th]

"The family's mouthpiece Mahoney seems to have employed the girls father.....(who is not married to the girls mother but has a wife he left back in good Ole Mexico......"

You'll notice it doesn't mention how many children he left back in Mexico with that first wife.

[537 Votes]

Given the intercession of Jesse Helms and Elizabeth Dole, they're probably going to stay in North Carolina for the forseeable future.

I wish my US Senators would do something for me. But why bother? I'm just an American citizen, just one of the cattle with 'PROPERTY US GOVT' branded on my butt.

[Tarheel]

Didn't I read that Mahoney lost a child and has some kind of vengeance thing going on????

I don't know if it is a vengeance thing but he lost a child to kidney(?) disease several years ago, there is an appearance of a personal agenda on his part.

The Tarheel

[org.whodat]

Mahoney

Seems to me that this clown is just importing some cheep slave labor for his construction business.

[537 Votes]

"Her momma’s worried because I think she promised God [she wouldn’t take money] ... She wants the doctors to go to jail like they would in Mexico. But I told her we don’t do that here; the way we punish them here is to take their money."

Prison sentences must be a wonderful incentive for staying out of medical school -- or getting out of Mexico.

If she says she promised God she would take their money, that means that she's already decided she will.