WAXMAN. for his support of efforts by myself and my colleague. Mr. LOWERY. to provide Federal assistance for trauma centers that are struggling under the additional burden of providing care for undocumented persons. Many of these hospitals. including R.E. Thomason General Hospital in El Paso are already in crisis as they attempt to deal with the effects of increased drug and gangrelated violence. and the increasing number of uninsured. But that crisis has been worsened by the Federal Government. which has asked these hospitals to also provide trauma care to undocumented persons in our country as a result of the Federal Governments immigration policy. That is unfair. the taxpayers of El Paso County and San Diego should not have to shoulder the burden of this Federal policy alone. In 1985. Thomason Hospital in El Paso was placed under a court order that forbid them from asking any questions to determine whether patients who came into the emergency room were U.S. citizens. The lawsuit behind this court order has recently been settled. but Thomason Hospital is still understandably reluctant to serve as an agent of the immigration service. Despite this lack of hard numbers. however. some estimates place the number of Thomason patients who are undocumented as high as 20 percent. Thomason Hospital continues to fulfill its mission: to serve the medically needy residents of El Paso County. It fulfills that mission as best it can. by using its limited resources to provide desperately needed care. not by asking questions to collect immigration data. I support that mission. and I am pleased to see that the Federal Government is finally going to shoulder a part of its responsibility and play its role in supporting that mission as well.
Keywords matched
undocumented immigration