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Bill to allow fingerprinting at hospitals to stop terrorism - 2005-06-15

By ELIZABETH PIERSON

elizabethp@valleystar.com

512-323-0622

AUSTIN — Police could take fingerprints of patients at hospitals on the border if a bill by a Rio Grande Valley lawmaker passes.

The intent of House Bill 805 is to prevent terrorists from entering the United States untracked, said state Rep. Armando "Mando" Martinez, D-Weslaco, author of the bill.

Civil rights groups are opposed to the bill, saying it violates freedoms and could prevent injured people from seeking medical care.

The bill says that a law enforcement officer could take fingerprints of a patient who receives emergency medical services to verify the person’s identity. It would apply only if the patient does not have identification or refuses to provide identification.

"When that does occur, we can contact these law enforcement officers to come in and just do a fingerprint and keep it on the patient’s file as a way of tracking the individual in case something does happen," said Martinez, introducing his first bill to a committee as a freshman lawmaker.

The bill applies only to counties that border Mexico.

Martinez said that recent explosions in Mexico, including one in Nuevo Progreso, brought to mind that terrorists could fake an injury in order to enter the country since U.S. Customs officers do not ask questions when someone is crossing to seek medical care, Martinez said.

"What is to prevent a terrorist from staging a possible bombing or explosion, acting like they’re injured ... and we get them to a hospital and once they’re in a room and everybody walks out and they can just get up and walk out AMA (against medical advice)?" Martinez said.

In addition to terrorist prevention, the bill could help medical workers identify unconscious patients, including Spring Break students injured at South Padre Island who are often wearing bathing suits and not carrying identification, Martinez said.

Emergency medical workers testified in favor of the bill, saying they regularly transport patients from the international bridges to Valley hospitals without knowing the identity of the patients.

The bill would not allow them to require identification before providing care, but might deter terrorists from riding in an ambulance if they knew they would be fingerprinted at the hospital, Martinez said.

Opposed to the bill are the American Civil Liberties Union, the League of United Latin American Citizens and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund.

Among their concerns are that people will not seek medical treatment for fear of being turned over to police, said Ana Correa, national LULAC legislative liaison for the Southwest.

"If you’ve been told that a law enforcement person can be in the emergency room, and if they choose they can fingerprint you, then the automatic assumption is that they are going to deny care," she said.

Correa said she thinks Martinez’s intentions are good, but worries that the bill could have a discriminatory effect if an amendment were added and it were expanded to the entire state.

Martinez said he is working closely with those groups to address their concerns.

State Rep. Joe Moreno, D-Houston, said he wants to work with Martinez to address concerns about how the fingerprints would be handled.

"I’m concerned about who’s got access to the fingerprints?" Moreno said. "Where are they going to be stored? What do you do with them after the guy’s not a terrorist, what do you do with the fingerprints?"