San Antonio Express-News: Border Patrol to expedite emergency medical patients through checkpoints

The Border Patrol has told agents to quickly process emergency vehicles through immigration checkpoints and reminded them they have discretion at "sensitive locations," such as hospitals.

Border Patrol acting Chief Carla Provost outlined the policy in a memo Friday, a little more than two months after the agency was criticized for its treatment of a 10-year-old girl who crossed through a checkpoint north of Laredo on her way to a hospital in Corpus Christi.

It's not clear how much Provost's memo would impact immigrants in the same situation as Rosa Maria Hernandez, the 10-year-old from Mexico who was followed by agents to a hospital in Corpus Christi after crossing the checkpoint on U.S. 59. Because Hernandez is in the country illegally and wasn't accompanied by a guardian, she was put in deportation proceedings and taken to a government child care facility, the Border Patrol said at the time.

Activists working on Hernandez's behalf initially said the girl, who was being taken to a children's hospital for emergency gall bladder surgery, was in an ambulance when she passed through the checkpoint, but the Border Patrol later said she was in a nonemergency medical transport vehicle.

Provost's memo tells agents they can "expedite transit through or around a checkpoint" during "immediate emergency operations." It also instructs the Border Patrol's liaisons with the community to encourage medical service providers to alert the agency before sending patients through checkpoints. Lastly, it reminds agents they do have some discretion about taking medical patients into custody.

"In the event that a follow-up inspection or immigration interview of the vehicle occupants is conducted at the hospital, sectors are reminded to be cognizant and familiar with the sensitive locations policies when applying this guidance," Provost wrote.

Hospitals and churches are among the sensitive locations where Department of Homeland Security policy instructs agents to avoid operating. In October, when Rosa Maria was put in government custody, the Border Patrol said it had no choice but to refer her to the Department of Health and Human Services because she wasn't accompanied to the hospital by her parents, both of whom live in Laredo but are also in the U.S. illegally.

Border communities don't offer the same medical services as larger cities, so undocumented immigrants are often faced with a difficult choice when referred to a hospital or doctor north of one of the Border Patrol's interior checkpoints, said Sam Robles, the communications director at the Workers Defense Action Fund, which advocated on behalf of Rosa Maria.

"When you think about the resources in South Texas, especially about medical assistance, it's not always available in the first 15 or 20 miles or whatever our internal border inspections are," Robles said. "So we hope this is a relief for our families in South Texas who desperately need medical attention and no longer have to fear being stopped or being deported. I think for us and other advocates, we want to see what happens next."

"This announcement appears to represent some progress so that others will not have to endure what Rosa Maria's family experienced," said U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-San Antonio, who was critical of how the Border Patrol handled Rosa Maria's case. "This would not have happened without the outcry from local advocates. I commend their success on the very challenging immigration front. Continued vigilance is required."

Alex Galvez, a California attorney who's representing Rosa Maria in immigration court, called the memo "just a bureaucratic answer."

"It doesn't acknowledge that anybody who's recuperating from an operation is not going to be approached by an immigration officer or that an interview will not be conducted," Galvez said. "It doesn't answer any of the community's concerns regarding how Rosa Maria was treated. It doesn't set any boundaries or limitations."

An official with Customs and Border Protection, which oversees the Border Patrol, who was authorized to speak with the media but insisted on anonymity said the memo "is to remind agents of the procedures they should be taking when encountering medical services vehicles."

"There's a difference between vehicles that are emergency and nonemergency. They're asking agents to continue and engage so we can get notification ahead of time and we can facilitate that transit," the official said.

Galvez said Rosa Maria is in deportation proceedings but has not had a court date set.