Boy Gets Last Wish Before Death

He didn’t want a trip to Disneyland, a horseback ride or a visit from his favorite celebrity. Arturo Medina’s final wish was to become legal.

The 10-year-old leukemia-stricken Mexican boy was granted his last wish Friday morning, just hours before his death. Ernest Gustafson, the Immigration and Naturalization Service’s Los Angeles district director, personally handed Arturo his very own temporary residence card earlier in the day.

“He was afraid to go back, because he didn’t know Mexico. He couldn’t remember. And he was afraid of the unknown. . . . He said, ‘I want to die here,’ ” Arturo’s mother, Gloria Medina, 33, told a press conference at Childrens Hospital earlier on Friday, as the boy lay on his deathbed.

Too Sick to Attend

The dying boy, in an upstairs room at the time, was too sick to attend. But his absence did not prevent the INS from staging the media event with the participation of Arturo’s visibly anguished and distressed parents. None of Arturo’s four older brothers attended.

In response to a question, Gloria Medina said that, even though Arturo was born in Mexico, he had been living in the United States since he was 1 month old. The father, the mother and his older brothers had been granted temporary residence status recently, but not Arturo because he was too sick to attend the required INS interview.

“He wanted his card because other kids were taunting him in school. And he said that he didn’t want to get kicked out of” the United States, said the boy’s mother.

At one point during the press conference, she broke into tears, no longer able to contain her emotions. She would say no more.

Her husband, Ramon Medina, 42, looked down at the floor.

So Gustafson picked up where the mother left off, saying:

“I gave him the card and said, ‘Welcome.’ His eyes grew wide and he smiled a little. And he held on to that card so tight that I’m surprised that he gave it up for a while so we could show it” at the press conference.

In Spanish, Gustafson told the media gathering heavily attended by Latino reporters, that he “could hardly sleep last night” because of Arturo’s condition. “I hope he gets to spend Christmas.”

Although the wish would be denied, Gustafson, in answer to yet another question in the painfully long press conference, said he believed that his gesture showed that the INS is sensitive to the needs of immigrant families.

The press conference came on the heels of Thursday’s congressional vote in Washington which allows the INS to expel spouses and children of aliens with newly gained residence status.

After the Medinas left the first-floor pressroom to return the precious card to Arturo, Gustafson told reporters that the INS was committed to keeping the immediate family together, and that Thursday’s vote does not change that.

The INS official ended the briefing by telling reporters not to lose sight of the “main story.”

It was not about his, Gustafson’s, reaction to Thursday’s congressional decision.

The story, he pointed out, was that the INS had granted Arturo his wish.

Arturo died at 1:30 p.m. at the hospital, surrounded by his family.

“It was sad,” said hospital spokeswoman Judy Baur. “He fought very hard.”