Thread: Injured Mexican returned to Mexico for treatment UPDATED

This is a first to my knowlege, actually sending someone to Mexico for medical care. Usually the local hospitals have to pay, since the Federal Govt. refuses to take responsibility!

http://azstarnet.com/allheadlines/120470

1 D-M gate-crasher sent to Sonora facility
By Carol Ann Alaimo
Arizona Daily Star
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 03.17.2006
advertisementThe driver of a pickup truck that ran a checkpoint at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base on Tuesday headed back to his native Mexico in an ambulance Thursday and may never be prosecuted, Tucson police said.
The driver, an illegal entrant, was taken from University Medical Center to a medical facility in Sonora, said Sgt. Mark Robinson, a Tucson Police Department spokesman. Police had no choice but to let him go, Robinson said, because their investigation isn't finished and no criminal charges have been filed against the man.
"There are times when people leave the jurisdiction before we can make a criminal case," the sergeant said.
Though the driver recovered enough from his injuries to be transported, police were not able to interview him before he left. They also have not interviewed the passenger, who remains at UMC. The passenger is not suspected of wrongdoing at this time.
The two were in a 1999 Dodge pickup truck that sped through a D-M entrance checkpoint at South Swan and East Golf Links roads and crashed into a roadblock aimed at preventing illegal base entry. Both were seriously injured but their conditions improved and they were listed as fair on Thursday.
Police have identified the driver as 28-year-old Fidel Antonio Lopez-Sanchez of Nogales, Sonora, and the passenger as Saul Cazares Carrillo, 24, of the 16000 block of West Greenwald Street, near Three Points, about 20 miles west of Tucson.
Police said the driver, Lopez-Sanchez, was found with a loaded handgun at his feet and possible cocaine in his pocket. They also said the truck's cab smelled heavily of alcohol at the time of the accident.
Test results that will determine whether narcotics or DUI charges are warranted won't be back from the overburdened state laboratory for a few more weeks, Robinson said.
Charges still could be filed at that point and a warrant issued for the driver's arrest. But he is not likely to be arrested unless he returns to Southern Arizona and has another run-in with police, Robinson said.
Authorities don't know why the men crashed into D-M, but they suspect it was because they were confused about their location.
UMC spokeswoman Katie Riley said it is not unusual for the hospital to send foreign patients back to their homeland for treatment if conditions allow. UMC doctors determined Lopez-Sanchez was in good enough shape to be moved, she said.
She wouldn't say whether Lopez-Sanchez requested the move, citing medical privacy laws. Police have not been able to contact the owner of the Dodge truck, which is registered to a resident of Nogales, Ariz. The vehicle has not been reported stolen, Robinson said.

The thing that most concerns me about this story is the lack of quick, decisive action on the part of the MPs guarding this federal facility. What if this had been a terrorist and not just a confused illegal (might I add, too, that according to the story he had a gun)? How far might he have gotten, what kind of damage might he have done? When someone runs a military checkpoint, they should be considered a national security threat and neutralized immediately. I live on a military base and not too far from an access point. We have had illegals violate the integrity of our base and even try to set up temporary quarters (I'm not kidding) in the middle of critical tactical areas. They have been apprehended and turned over to immigration enforcement, but I always wonder--what about the day when it's someone who really has a bad purpose in their heart....

http://www.kvoa.com/Global/story.asp?S=4647072

Man who crashed truck on air base being returned to Mexico
March 17, 2006, 12:17 PM MST
A suspected illegal immigrant who was injured when he crashed a pickup truck into a security barrier at an Air Force base here is being transferred by ambulance, without facing criminal charges, to a hospital in Mexico, authorities said Thursday.

No U.S. law enforcement agencies intended to charge the man, Fidel Antonio Lopez-Sanchez, because doing so would cause them to take responsibility for the man's medical expenses for treatment at University Medical Center since Tuesday, officials said.

"We do this about fairly routinely if there's a foreign national who has no means of paying," said University Medical Center spokeswoman Katie Riley.

"When the city of Tucson has somebody in custody in a local hospital, we can be held responsible for the costs incurred in treating that person," said Tucson Police spokesman Sgt. Mark Robinson. "He was never charged, so he was never in custody."

Lopez-Sanchez also was not in police custody during his three-day stay at UMC, authorities said.

Robinson said police "have been unable to determine that he is in this country legally... so more than likely he is undocumented."

Riley said Lopez-Sanchez had been in a regular patient unit, not intensive care, and that under federal privacy regulations she could not disclose how much his care had cost nor to which border city he was being transferred.

But Riley said the hospital conducts probably five to six such medical transfers monthly.

In addition, during the first six months of the current fiscal year, UMC had incurred about $7 million of billing charges to foreign nationals that have not been paid, she said.

Results of a blood test had not been returned yet to determine whether Lopez-Sanchez had been under the influence of alcohol, which officers detected on approaching the truck after Tuesday's crash at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, or whether he had any narcotics in his system.

Tucson police reported Wednesday that Lopez-Sanchez was found in possession of a white, powdery substance believed to be cocaine. Beneath his feet, officers found a loaded .45-caliber revolver, police said.

Davis-Monthan authorities did not place any charges against Lopez-Sanchez or his passenger, Saul Cazares Carrillo, 24. Tucson police did not charge Cazares either, and the U.S. Border Patrol did not expect to become involved in the transfer, a spokeswoman said.

Robinson said police did not interview Lopez-Sanchez.

An arrest warrant will probably be issued for Lopez-Sanchez after his return to Mexico, and he would be subject to arrest if he ever returned, entered in the National Crime Information Center's database, Robinson said.

But he also added that Tucson authorities would only seek his extradition from within a short distance; not, for instance, from New Mexico or Texas.

Investigators ruled out any connection between the unauthorized entry onto Davis-Monthan and the barrier crash with any terrorist activity.

But he also added that Tucson authorities would only seek his extradition from within a short distance; not, for instance, from New Mexico or Texas.

what does this means?

It means they wouldn't want to pay to bring him to Tucson from any greater distance if he happened to show up from one of those named farther locations. It also means they don't give a darn.

Originally Posted by mapwife

It means they wouldn't want to pay to bring him to Tucson from any greater distance if he happened to show up from one of those named farther locations. It also means they don't give a darn.

This is a bunch of bull. I guess if he knocks on the front door at the police department, they might let him surrender. Yeah, sure.