Services to Continue for Illegal Immigrants : County: Local agencies will still provide health and social welfare benefits until receiving direction from the state on how to put Prop. 187 into action.

Ventura County will continue to provide health and social welfare benefits to illegal immigrants until it receives direction from state agencies on how to implement a ballot measure intended to halt those services, officials said Tuesday.

In the meantime, the county has been advised by state health officials not to “attempt to interpret and implement Proposition 187 on an individual basis,” county Counsel James L. McBride said.

County officials are awaiting emergency regulations for enforcing the measure from the state departments of Health Services, Social Services, Corrections and other state agencies, McBride said.

“Generally, those regulations will guide what everyone does,” said McBride, who presented an update on the status of Proposition 187 to the county Board of Supervisors.

McBride said the county will be monitoring the outcome of several lawsuits that have been filed to block the measure’s implementation, which could ultimately determine when, or even if, the county will be able to enforce its provisions.

A hearing is scheduled today in federal court in Los Angeles on a motion made by civil rights attorneys to suspend the measure. In a separate case, a judge last week temporarily barred the enforcement of the proposition’s requirement that illegal immigrants be excluded from public schools.

“Who knows what’s going to happen?” McBride said.

Indeed, county officials said there is little they can do until they get more guidance from the state or the courts on how to proceed.

“Everything about 187 is tied up in one lawsuit or another,” said Supervisor Maria VanderKolk. “Nothing can be done until we hear back from the courts.”

Currently, illegal immigrants are eligible to receive restricted Medi-Cal cards that entitle them to state-funded prenatal services and long-term care. Emergency services are required to be provided without regard to immigration status.

The day after he was reelected, Gov. Pete Wilson signed an executive order calling for the termination of prenatal and long-term health care for illegal immigrants.

But in a recent memo from the state Department of Health Services, the county was advised that those programs cannot be discontinued without proper notice to the beneficiaries, which could take at least 60 days. The memo goes on to say that illegal immigrants already receiving long-term care will remain covered.

Meanwhile, county health officials said they have only received a handful of calls from people asking questions about Proposition 187 since the measure was approved by voters Nov. 8.

“There hasn’t been much of a drop-off in the number of clients requesting services,” said Paul Lorenz, administrative director of Public Health Services. The agency, which does not check the immigration status of beneficiaries, operates health clinics in Ventura, Oxnard and Simi Valley that provide immunization, physical examinations for children and birth control programs.

Barbara Fitzgerald, deputy director of the county’s Public Social Services Agency, said she also has not seen any noticeable decline in the demand for the agency’s services, which range from providing food stamps to offering financial assistance.

Fitzgerald said this may be because many of the agency’s programs already require that an applicant’s citizenship be verified. Only two of the agency’s programs, child and adult protective services, do not require such background checks, she said.

“We don’t ask if they are illegal aliens,” Fitzgerald said, adding that beneficiaries of these programs are usually the victims of some type of physical or mental abuse.

Until her agency receives more direction from the state, Fitzgerald said, “it’s going to be business as usual.”