Illegal immigrant with tuberculosis fears county will turn him over to immigration

Skagit Valley Herald ^ | 11/23/2005 | Jennifer Carter

[conservative cat]

Health officials say they may have no other alternative

The tuberculosis eating at Ricardo’s lungs makes him a public health threat. His fear of being picked up by immigration authorities has sent him into hiding.

A hard-to-treat combination of medical problems left the young farmworker tired, without an appetite and, because of the tuberculosis, quarantined in a hotel room for weeks.

But last week, Ricardo, who is also an illegal immigrant, heard that Skagit County Public Health, which has treated him for months, might have reported him to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Ricardo has been deported to Mexico once before and said he doesn’t want to go again — especially now that he’s sick.

So he left his county-paid hotel room, where he was ordered to stay to avoid infecting family members with the highly contagious disease.

Ricardo did not want to reveal his last name to the Skagit Valley Herald, and privacy laws prevent the county from revealing his name. The newspaper verified through sources that Ricardo is the same man the county has been treating for TB.

Public Health Director Peter Browning said Monday the county hadn’t yet made a formal report to federal immigration officials. But the county department’s budget is strained, and Ricardo’s complex health problems have made it tough to make him noncontagious, Browning said. Browning said calling immigration may be the only option.

An immigration medical facility would give Ricardo the care he needs and take a huge financial burden off county public health, Browning said.

“We’re looking at our toughest financial year ever,” he said. “I don’t see where the money will come from if we have to continue to treat this man.”

Critics say even the suggestion of turning a patient over to immigration will destroy the health department’s credibility with Skagit County’s illegal immigrants, who make up a large proportion of its clients.

Rogelio Rojas, executive director for Sea Mar Community Health Centers, said he heard that the health department was considering calling immigration last Wednesday and called Browning to urge him against it.

Rojas said Browning told him he had already reported the patient, but Browning later told the Skagit Valley Herald that he only meant that he had talked to state health officials about the possibility.

Browning said he talked to state health officials on Nov. 16 about the possibility of getting the young man into a hospital run by federal immigration authorities in Tacoma. That facility treats illegal immigrants for contagious disease before they are deported.

Rojas said in his 27 years of working in community health, the possibility that a health department would report a client as an illegal immigrant is unprecedented and would be “a huge mistake.”

“The consequences may be substantial for the county,” Rojas said.

In a Monday letter to Gov. Christine Gregoire, Rojas wrote, “Mr. Browning has made it clear that Skagit County Public Health is willing to have people deported to save money, even at the risk of spreading infectious disease.

“Now it will be just about impossible to get undocumented people to come in for care, especially if they have an infectious disease,” the letter states.

Browning said an immigration officer has been leaving messages for him, but they haven’t spoken yet. What the county will do remains unclear.

The health threat

Skagit County Public Health has a responsibility to protect the health of all of the county’s residents, and one patient with contagious TB has the potential to expose many, Browning said.

“Unless we can get him well, he will continue to be a risk in our community,” he said.

Tuberculosis is caused by bacteria that usually attack the lungs, sometimes causing symptoms including weakness, weight loss, fever, night sweats, coughing, chest pain and coughing up blood, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The bacteria are spread from person to person through the air, when an infected person with active TB coughs or sneezes and people nearby breathe in the contaminated air.

Many people who get infected may not get sick, though. Some people have a latent TB infection that doesn’t cause symptoms and can’t be spread to others. Sometimes the latent TB becomes active later, if the bacteria manage to overcome the person’s immune system.

TB can kill if left untreated. Treatment can mean months or years of taking combinations of expensive drugs. People with latent TB infection also can be treated so they won’t develop the active disease.

Tuberculosis was once the leading cause of death in the United States. Cases have declined since the 1940s, but climbed again between 1985 and 1992. Renewed efforts to control it helped, but around 14,000 cases were reported in the United States in 2003.

Skagit County has seen a spike in TB cases this year, and several have been expensive to treat, Browning said.

Skagit County Public Health has seen six cases of active TB this year, said Sandi Paciotti, communicable disease nursing supervisor. The department records zero to three cases in a typical year, she said. Usually at least half of those involve foreign-born patients, she said.

The county’s 2005 budget for TB monitoring and treatment is $160,000, including staff time, medications and X-rays.

Browning said he estimates the county has already spent $16,000 on treatment and housing for Ricardo, and testing and treatment for others who may have been exposed by him. Because Ricardo’s case is hard to treat, that number could easily climb to $100,000 and higher, and there’s still no guarantee of making him noncontagious, Browning said.

Skagit County Public Health’s policy is not to ask patients about their immigration status, though it might be inferred, Browning said. He said other immigrants shouldn’t be afraid to come to the health department.

While it’s unclear what will happen with Ricardo’s case, Browning said the department has a history of caring for the immigrant population.

Three Spanish-speaking nurses work in the community to get people immunized and treated for disease. During the summer, nurses are sent to camps set up by Skagit County farmers to check on farmworkers housed there.

“We do a very good job of treating a tremendous amount of undocumented people in our community, and we have forever,” Browning said.

Ricardo’s story

Ricardo is a thin, shy 25-year-old who speaks little English. The Skagit Valley Herald interviewed him at a location arranged by an intermediary.

Assisted by a translator, he said he was born in Guerrero, on Mexico’s Pacific Coast. He was raised by his grandfather in a small town with no electricity or running water.

He said he first came to Mount Vernon several years ago.

Working the fields in Guerrero from dawn to sunset, Ricardo said he earned about $30 a week. In the fields of Skagit County, he could earn more than $30 per day.

Last year, Ricardo said, authorities came to the trailer park where he was living. He was deported to Tijuana. He stayed there and worked cleaning houses in exchange for food.

After about seven months, his sister and a friend in Skagit County sent him enough money to return. He took a bus to Nogales, on the border with Arizona. He paid immigrant smugglers, known as coyotes, $2,000 to bring him back to Skagit County.

Ricardo said he and 12 others ran for half an hour to cross the border. They were taken in a van to a trailer where they could eat and bathe. Then Ricardo was driven in a car to Skagit County.

He said he arrived in late July and moved in with his sister and brother-in-law and their three children, the youngest of whom is an infant. He got a job right away cutting cabbage.

Ricardo said he started to feel sick in Tijuana but thought it was something he ate. A couple of weeks after starting his job here, he started to feel tired and his throat felt sore. He went to the Sea Mar Community Health Clinic and was given some pills, which made him feel better for a while.

But he was soon sick again, coughing, tired and with no appetite. A friend took him to the county health department, where tests showed he had active tuberculosis.

Ricardo said he hasn’t worked since that day. He was in the hospital for a while, and he spent many weeks in a hotel room, paid for by the health department, to protect his sister’s young children from being exposed to TB.

County nurses brought him medicine, and his sister brought him food once a day, he said.

Eventually, tests showed Ricardo was no longer contagious. He was told to go home. But after a couple of weeks, Ricardo said, the whites of his eyes became yellow. Tests showed that his liver was not handling his medications well, and he had to stop taking them.

Around Nov. 14, tests showed his TB was contagious again. He was told to go back to the hotel.

But since he heard last week that health department officials were considering calling immigration about him, he has been too scared to stay in the hotel.

Roger Capron of the ecumenical migrant-outreach group Tierra Nueva said the family came to staff there Wednesday night, afraid to go home.

“They fear that they may be under surveillance,” Capron said.

Some who work with immigrants say irrevocable damage has been done to the county’s and the state’s public health mission.

“I think it has statewide impact, quite frankly,” Rojas said.

Capron said he wonders how many other people will avoid medical treatment because they’re afraid of being turned over to immigration.

“You’re just kind of closing the health doors on a lot of people who need it,” he said.

Browning said he rejects the idea that this one incident could undo all that effort.

“I’d hate to see anyone suggest that one case could unravel a very successful program,” he said.

[raybbr]

Nice...sliding backwards into the abyss of the third world, thanks to our worthless leaders and the greed of a few of our fellow citizens.

Garandgal

It's not a third world - it's the "new America".

​ ​​​​We are now one of the largest Spanish-speaking nations in the world. We're a major source of Latin music, journalism and culture.

Just go to Miami, or San Antonio, Los Angeles, Chicago or West New York, New Jersey ... and close your eyes and listen. You could just as easily be in Santo Domingo or Santiago, or San Miguel de Allende.

For years our nation has debated this change -- some have praised it and others have resented it. By nominating me, my party has made a choice to welcome the new America.

George Bush from a campaign speech in Miami, August 2000.

[Hardastarboard]

Let's don't forget last year's epidemic of Whooping Cough, which I will guarantee you was brought here by illegals.

[Bon mots]

We should find all the Mexicans with TB and send them to Skagit County, otherwise, they will suffer.

Then all the Africans with AIDS too.

[WasDougsLamb]

---I agree. Alot of people could be effected and infected by him.

[Itzlzha]

The tuberculosis eating at Ricardo’s lungs makes him a public health threat. His fear of being picked up by immigration authorities has sent him into hiding.
A hard-to-treat combination of medical problems left the young farmworker tired, without an appetite and, because of the tuberculosis, quarantined in a hotel room for weeks.

(Snip)...

Ricardo has been deported to Mexico once before and said he doesn’t want to go again — especially now that he’s sick.
So he left his county-paid hotel room, where he was ordered to stay to avoid infecting family members with the highly contagious disease.

(snip)...

Critics say even the suggestion of turning a patient over to immigration will destroy the health department’s credibility with Skagit County’s illegal immigrants, who make up a large proportion of its clients.

OMG! So we have a Health Bomb, spreading a virulent and HIGHLY communicable disease to the entire populace because this selfish ILLEGAL P.O.S. doesn't want to be deported again?!?!

And the "advocates" say we can't do ANYTHING because then other ILLEGALS may not seek aid?

TOUGH!!!

Here's a Quartet...call someone who cares!

May I suggets Jorge Arbusto at La Hacienda Blanco? If he's so much in favor of elimination the "Eurocentric" America, and refocusing us on Mexican Immigration to the point of allowing and ENCOURAGING Illegal immigration...maybe he and Mamasita Laura could give hospice care to all these sick Illegals in THEIR home...let THEM face the exposure and risks that "Americans Won't Risk!"

Shut the Borders NOW...or risk Impeachment for a REAL reason...derreliction of Duty to America and the Constitution, and Treason!

[devane617]

There was an article in the local news for SW Georgia about a prison camp there that had about 250+ positive tests for TB. It was all traced back to one inmate, but as I expeced a name was with held. I suspect it was an illegal.

[Nea Wood]

OUTRAGE.

[VOA]

Cure him.
Ship him home.

Of course, I'm biased. That's because I had one episode of being on
a bus in Los Angeles that was boarded by a (likely) illegal who
was about to cough up a lung.
I got off at the next stop...and that wasn't quick enough.

[Amish with an attitude]

It's Bush's fault.

[Travis McGee]

Not to mention their infected kids are sitting around ours in the public schools.

[bigsigh]

brought to you by our current administration and well-meaning cities and local police departments who don't give a damn.

[stephenjohnbanker]

BTTT

[Reaganwuzthebest]

But the county department’s budget is strained, and Ricardo’s complex health problems have made it tough to make him noncontagious, Browning said. Browning said calling immigration may be the only option.

Why are we needlessly inflicting this sort of danger on the American population, is cheap labor that important to our government? It's time to close the borders and enforce the laws before these type diseases become an epidemic.

[jordan8]

Here's another story about hard workin' undocumented migrant virii, furrin bugs just killing the 'mericans that 'merican germs won't.

[detsaoT]

Critics say even the suggestion of turning a patient over to immigration will destroy the health department’s credibility with Skagit County’s illegal immigrants, who make up a large proportion of its clients.

Good grief. It's obviously MUCH better for us to bankrupt ourselves catering to these people than it would be to DEFEND OUR CITIZENS... There's no excuse for this.

[Gritty]

I am at a loss for words.

Putting this guy in "quarantine" in a public motel is good policy?

What about the other guests in the adjoining rooms or going by in the hallways?

How dooe Public Health know he is staying in his room 24/7,... his "word"?

What about the employees who work in this motel or clean up his room? Are they aware of the deadly threat to their health in residence here?

How about the next unsuspecting guests who stay in the same room after this Typhoid Mary guy finally leaves his "free" digs?

Is the Public Health Department going to completely and competently decontaminate the infected room from this deadly disease?

Would anybody here volunteer to be the next unsuspecting paying guest in this room? Will the motel even tell the next paying guests who was last staying in their rented room and sleeping in their bed for weeks, or do they even know?

I am at a loss for words at the utter stupidity and craven incompetence on open display here in this story!

[bitt]

Quicker than I could say "Boo", he would be

a. reported

b. picketed

c. threatened

Maybe we should get him to hang around with the Hollyweirds' kids. That might convince a few of them...Like the "Curb Your Enthusiasm"'s episode when Larry brought home the child molestor and all the "libs" went insane about him being near THEIR kids...

[devolve]

Tell me about it!

I went in for pre-op tests at one of our hospitals

It took about 4 hours

3 hours of which were spent in waiting areas with about 95% illegal aliens

The hospital clerical and techs were great

The illegal aliens were kind enough to further invade.....

.....my lungs with their impoerted pneumonia

That of course cancelled my serious surgery scheduled for two days later -

And after a long period of time I am almost at 50% of what my health should be as it was before

Yet the surgery has not been done yet - what should have been routine surgery with only one night afterwards in the hospital as a precaution - is now something that is not as routine

I favor the old "bounty" system the feds had

At one time any US citizen turning in illegal aliens received a reward

Excpt this time I favor giving me 50% of any illegal aliens assets, real estate property, business value, bank accounts and stocks and bonds, vehicles, hidden offshore assets, etc

The other 50% to be split between local LEOs and the feds and state

Door #2 is reloading more .44-40


The party is over

Crooked employers must go to prison and have assets seized

The same with crooked DMV, IRS, SS, Social Services, "ignorant groups", politicians

These creeps, Fox, illegal aliens sure did their darnedest to kill me

Illegal aliens are stealing our assets, stealing our paychecks thru exploding deductions, bankrupting our ERs and hospitals, endangering the health of honest US citizens - including physicians, nurses, and medial techs - killing, raping, stealing vehile and property, no driver's insurance, no income taxes, ripping off welfare, SSI (big bucks per "challenged" kid using fake or bribery purchased IDs), stealing public housing that the elderly - disabled - injured - should only be getting, food stamps, state supplements, bank mortgages under the rate honest US citizens can get, - using multiple IDs to collect "Earned Income Credit" refunds from the IRS (a biggie!), etc......

They have multiple state driver's licenses (as Atta & Co. did)- so they are never without "documents" if stopped by LEOs

The majority of violent felons in many prisons or jails are illegal aliens

The topper:

(this should infuriate American blacks and hispanics)

The DOJ/FBI Uniform Crime Report - every year - breaks down crimes as "white" - "black" - "other" - "unknown"

The high number "perps" of all crimes - especially violent crimes - is not broken down as to "US citizen" or "foreign" or "illegal alien" by the feds, states, cities

Otherwise the blame for the disproportional much higher crime rate is blamed on Americans who are minorities!

"The fact of the matter" (patented liberal sound byte!) is that US blacks anf hispanics are not guilty of committing all of those high percentages of violent, drug, theft, murder, rape crimes you are told they are committing

The damage is enormous.

Illegal aliens often "skate" because of "sanctity cities or states" and pressure, or "run for the border", or are deported - and are back multiple times to again terrorize, steal, cheat, rip off, whatever -

American minorities catch too much of the blame - and some of their "leaders" are in Presidente Fox's pocket

How many (%) of the violent crimes and rip offs and thefts and other crimes are actually committed by illegal aliens?

Ask you politicians and LEOs

They will tell you of course.....




Door #2 is on the table right now


The clock is running down


Do not test me

[gophomaxx]

Texas already has an group of aliens (17) in forced quarantine with a drug resistant TB strain.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17915965/

[devolve]

  Surrender Accomplished - Herb Alpert & Tijuana Brass

  Immigration Scam - Sen. Jeff Sessions & Clara Peller