The Doctor Was In--at the Church : Amnesty Seekers Get Medical Exams for $5

Elizabeth Alcaraz, 5, was dressed in her Sunday best for the event. Sporting a red dress with white frills, red shoes and a red hair bow, the little girl smiled politely as her family threaded from line to line inside St. Mary’s, a weathered Roman Catholic church in East Los Angeles.

It was hours before Mass started at the Boyle Heights parish, and the Alcaraz family had a little business to attend to.

Gerdo Alcaraz, his wife, Fildele, and daughter Olga, all immigrants from Mexico, are applying for amnesty. Like all aliens who came to the United States before 1982 and want to stay legally, the three elder Alcarazes must prove they are healthy to get residency status. And on this Sunday, inside the small church, medical services were on sale. The family could not pass up the bargain: a chance to meet one amnesty requirement at an affordable price.

For $5, each participant was immunized and given a thorough physical by volunteer doctors. Normally, immigrants applying for amnesty must pay up to $50 for the services--the cap for the health checks dictated by the Immigration and Naturalization Service.

Almost 400 parishioners of St. Mary’s, mostly middle-aged, low-income Latinos, visited the church on Sunday for the examinations

It all was part of Amnesty Day at St. Mary’s, a project sponsored by the Stephen S. Wise Temple, Linda Vista Medical Center, White Memorial Hospital, United Neighborhood Organization and the church.

The project began in August when the sponsors acquired a list of 2,000 immigrants waiting to apply for amnesty. Volunteers gave orientation meetings for aliens in August, and a month later, the two hospitals provided free chest X-rays and blood tests. The scene was set for Amnesty Day, when final touches for the medical reviews could be completed.

For Carmen Munoz of Boyle Heights the event at St. Mary’s bolstered her chances of eventually gaining amnesty--a necessity, she believes, for an immigrant saleswoman with four children.

“I’m still a little scared, because I don’t know what the (INS) will say,” said Munoz, whose 17-year-old son, Jesus, translated for her. “But now we’re going to be safer. It’s going to feel good. We’d be very sorry if we had to go back to Mexico. I’m an old lady now, and it would be very hard to find a job back there.”

Munoz, who makes $4 an hour, pointed emphatically to the church as she and her family were leaving. “Thanks to the people. Thanks,” she said repeatedly.

The $5 fee, a bargain for amnesty applicants, barely covered the cost of medical supplies, such as tongue depressors, needed for the exams. Donations of time and manpower made up the rest. The temple, an affluent synagogue in Bel-Air, supplied about 100 volunteers, who escorted parishioners to tables and exams. Almost 20 were doctors, who gave physical examinations in an adjacent Sunday school building. Twenty student nurses from East Los Angeles Junior College assisted in the task.

For most of the participants, the exam was the first time they had been thoroughly checked by a doctor, said Dr. Michael Lutsky, who has a private practice in Santa Monica. Lutsky’s patients in Santa Monica tend to come from the middle- to upper-income brackets.

“People are people,” Lutsky said, pausing between exams. “In some ways, this is more fun.”

Many participants were fearful only of the results. The doctors were checking for communicable diseases, and applicants who tested positive would be referred to a local clinic for treatment and counseling. However, they still most likely would be medically eligible for amnesty, officials said.

Doctors reported finding several cases of venereal disease and tuberculosis during the day, but said the applicants generally were in good health.

Meanwhile, volunteers of the Catholic Charities of Los Angeles, an overhead organization for about 20 charities, helped the immigrants fill out papers and scheduled each for an appointment with the INS. The appointment is the last step in determining whether an alien is eligible for amnesty.

The charity group charged $55 each for the assistance, which upped the cost to Sunday’s applicants to over $240: a flat $185-per-person fee required by the INS, $5 for medical services and the fee for the help with paper work and scheduling. A hefty sum for low-income workers to pay, but a bargain compared to the alternatives, officials said.

The emphasis on low-cost services and the volunteer nature of Amnesty Day, which sponsors say is the first large-scale project of its kind in the country, prompted INS officials to add a provision to its regulations allowing medical eligibility required for amnesty to be determined by authorized volunteers.