Should EMS report Illegal Aliens?

[AnthonyM83]

My point is we have an obgliation to report all crimes that are told to us. If he said he was illegal heck yeah report him.

Where does this obligation come from? Do doctors have the same obligation? Grocery clerks? Should we never worry about people not calling 911 for fear of police? (Refer to my previous example of child not calling for mother's CP b/c daddy was taken by police once.)

I stand corrected.

So, does that change your stance? Or still report everything?

Lines have to be drawn somewhere. Out of all the things you might report, I just don't get why on earth you'd pick an illegal immigrant (especially without being sure sure). They're a dime a dozen. If LE was hurting to pick these up, they'd just raise our local hardware stores each day. They're not in demand and not immediate public threat.

[Arizonaffcep]

Where does this obligation come from? Do doctors have the same obligation? Grocery clerks? Should we never worry about people not calling 911 for fear of police? (Refer to my previous example of child not calling for mother's CP b/c daddy was taken by police once.)

So, does that change your stance? Or still report everything?

Lines have to be drawn somewhere. Out of all the things you might report, I just don't get why on earth you'd pick an illegal immigrant (especially without being sure sure). They're a dime a dozen. If LE was hurting to pick these up, they'd just raise our local hardware stores each day. They're not in demand and not immediate public threat.

Not always true. I have been to MANY MVC's involving UDA's and high speed chases. I'm not commenting on how appropriate these chases are, other than to say, they happen. This does lead to a DIRECT and IMMEDIATE threat to public safety, as ultimately they tend to end in badness. Other than that, in the Southern Arizona area, UDA's break into people's homes all the time (general statement, have known 1 person whose house was broken into no less than 4 times by UDA's in 1 year, several guns and cars were taken). But it is not that uncommon. So...it's not an accurate threat. Besides, what about a threat to themselves?

EDIT: Reference the 1 person whose house was broken into, I know many others, he's just been lucky enough to have repeat visitors.

[Richard B the EMT]

I think that there is a Pandora's box here. We are talking about undocumented aliens, questioning if care should be rendered (Yes, it should!).

We cannot live by "what if's", but how about the non English speaking foreigner, who falls victim to a common street mugging? Without entering the discussion of other countries medical care (which will be a big time separate string to follow), if I was visiting a different country, and got sick or injured, I'd want medical care, no matter what my entry status to that country was. Would they supply it? Probably.

[VentMedic]

People here are presenting their own opinions when all they have to do is find out what the policy is from their local healthcare system. There may be a mandated reporting system established. The hospital will have some idea about the legal status at check in time. I mean for those that are really concerned about this, find out what the correct procedure and laws are for your area so that the patient can still get care and your do gooder law abiding conscious can get some satisfaction.

[ambodriver]

The is the stupidest topic ever on these forums.

[krumel]

If any health care provider here would inform the cops that his or her patient is an illegal immigrant would be directly loose the license due to the fact that especially health care providers have very strict rules on the professional discretion.

Technically the cops weren't even allowed to use this information (although of course most of them would schedule a routine check or something like that.... ).

By federal and state laws were only allowed to inform the cops when we gain knowledge about so called "severe crimes" like rape, murder, arson, child abuse which has not been commited yet. In cases of crimes already commited the rules are even harder, in this case is has to be something like "terrorism", murder, etc.

Even in cases of rape or heavy assault we're not allowed to inform the cops as long as the victim shows no sign of aberration.

Child abuse is a very strongly discussed topic here. By federal law child abuse is not a "crime which is a severe danger to the public" and so we are normally not allowed to report it to the law enforcement. BUT: Due to a series of child abuse with death results they changed the law that Doctors are allowed to report it under special circumstances. AND we're not allowed to leave a child which needs help at home (in some special cases even together with the cops and against the will of the parents). So: Technically we're not reporting child abuse..We're just transporting the abused child to someone who is able to inform the cops.

[Arizonaffcep]

I think that there is a Pandora's box here. We are talking about undocumented aliens, questioning if care should be rendered (Yes, it should!).

We cannot live by "what if's", but how about the non English speaking foreigner, who falls victim to a common street mugging? Without entering the discussion of other countries medical care (which will be a big time separate string to follow), if I was visiting a different country, and got sick or injured, I'd want medical care, no matter what my entry status to that country was. Would they supply it? Probably.

I have to disagree with you on this Richard...if you look at the poll questions, while the first has some very varied answered, yet the "would you render care" question was 100% yes-as it should be. Wallet biopsies and "country biopsies" have no place when rendering care to a patient. Now...after care is done and patient has been transfered to the hospital (or wherever is appropriate), then maybe report them. Here in Southern Arizona, Border Patrol doesn't seem to care about the individual UDA, but do like groups of UDA's-in other words, they don't do anything for the lone UDA, but will for group ones. But, regardless of nationality or what not, we MUST render care. One thing that I found interesting was that the U.S. has a mandate for immigrants/visitors/etc, that if you enter the country healthy, the U.S. has the responsibility to treat and correct the situation if you get sick/injured. One of the reasons why we get Fed $ for people who do not have citizenship.

[Dustdevil]

The is the stupidest topic ever on these forums.

Contribute or STFU.

[spenac]

The is the stupidest topic ever on these forums.

Thank you for a post that does nothing to contribute to what has been an interesting discussion of peoples views of what is a very current issue in the USA.

If any health care provider here would inform the cops that his or her patient is an illegal immigrant would be directly loose the license due to the fact that especially health care providers have very strict rules on the professional discretion.

Technically the cops weren't even allowed to use this information (although of course most of them would schedule a routine check or something like that.... ).

By federal and state laws were only allowed to inform the cops when we gain knowledge about so called "severe crimes" like rape, murder, arson, child abuse which has not been commited yet. In cases of crimes already commited the rules are even harder, in this case is has to be something like "terrorism", murder, etc.

Even in cases of rape or heavy assault we're not allowed to inform the cops as long as the victim shows no sign of aberration.

Child abuse is a very strongly discussed topic here. By federal law child abuse is not a "crime which is a severe danger to the public" and so we are normally not allowed to report it to the law enforcement. BUT: Due to a series of child abuse with death results they changed the law that Doctors are allowed to report it under special circumstances. AND we're not allowed to leave a child which needs help at home (in some special cases even together with the cops and against the will of the parents). So: Technically we're not reporting child abuse..We're just transporting the abused child to someone who is able to inform the cops.

What country are you in? In the USA we must file a seperate report of suspected child abuse from what the doctor does.

[Richard B the EMT]

1) New York State is a mandatory reporting state for suspected child abuse. LEOs, EMTs, Paramedics, Teachers, and probably Fire Fighters, are mandated to make such reports.

2) Speaking to the subject of reporting illegal aliens who happen to also be patients, would that not violate the HIPPA standards, rules and regulations?