Search for Woman’s Family Pushed

Authorities continued to search Tuesday for the family of a mentally disabled illegal immigrant now under the care of Ventura County public health workers for tuberculosis and diabetes.

Health workers have tapped immigration agencies, the Mexican consulate and even a U.S. congressman for help in finding relatives of Amada Morales, a 53-year-old Oxnard woman in need of long-term care for a host of health problems.

While Morales is on medication and no longer at risk of spreading tuberculosis, health officials said she has the mental capacity of a 6-year-old and will require a permanent caretaker to meet her ongoing medical needs.

But officials said because she is an undocumented immigrant and not eligible for long-term, nonemergency care in the country, they have been forced to go to extraordinary lengths to find Morales’ family in Mexico.

“No matter who we called up and down the state, we could not find any social support services out there because she is not documented,” said Paul Lorenz, director of the Ventura County Public Health Department. “The most logical and humane way for us to do that was to find relatives in Mexico who can provide that support system for her.”

In that area, Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-Simi Valley) has been leading the charge, prodding various agencies for help in finding the woman’s family.

Until that occurs, Gallegly said Tuesday, the only responsible and humane course of action is for health workers to continue ensuring that Morales takes her medication so her tuberculosis does not reemerge in a more virulent form.

“Our intent right from the get-go was to focus on public health and try to come up with some resolution to protect the community and also help this woman,” said Gallegly, known for his tough, anti-illegal immigration stance.

“This is a very significant problem with lasting consequences,” he said.

“It’s not like a broken leg or a broken finger where you just take the cast off and send the patient on her way. This is something that’s going to take a long-term, indefinite health-care process.”

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Morales came to the attention of public health workers in May when she showed up at Ventura County Medical Center with tuberculosis.

The disease was rendered noncommunicable with antibiotics, but she remained under the daily supervision of public health workers to ensure she continued to take her medication.

People infected with tuberculosis are given a series of antibiotics until they test negative for the illness, a process that can take up to nine months. A story on Morales in The Times last week incorrectly stated that process takes two weeks.

Health officials said Morales returned to the hospital in late June or early July when the Oxnard family she lives with dropped her off before they left on a trip. At that time, Morales was admitted to the hospital because of further complications caused by diabetes.

The Times last week inaccurately reported Morales remained in the county hospital receiving treatment for her health problems.

In fact, she was released in early July and is again living with the Oxnard family that found her on the streets three years ago and took her in. She is visited daily by a public health worker who ensures she takes her medication.

But health officials said it has become increasingly clear that a longer-term solution is needed.

Gallegly said he believed health-care workers were at one time seeking his help in securing citizenship for her or some type of legal immigration status so she could have access to welfare and health benefits.

Gallegly now says he was mistaken and the idea actually had been floated by a member of his staff. Gallegly said the idea was investigated but that there is no legal mechanism for securing such a status for the woman.

In the meantime, Gallegly said the case has opened an interesting immigration question, one he says he has never had to wrestle with before. He said his office will do everything it can to help find the woman’s family and urge the Mexican government to step up and provide long-term care for her.

“The line in the sand is still there. I don’t make any apologies for it, but there are always exceptions,” Gallegly said of his tough immigration stance.

“It just shows you how complicated these issues can be,” he said. “When you have someone who basically has the brain capacity of a child and who has a life-threatening illness, you just don’t take her down to the border and drop her off.”