Represented by Florida Legal Services_ Migrant Farmworker Justice Project, Guardian of Undocumented Immigrant Fights Immigrant_s Midnight-Discharge and Deportation to Guatemala
Legal Services E-lert
Bibliographic Info:
Source: Montejo v. Martin Memorial Medical Center
Date: 5/5/2004
The guardian of Luis Alberto Jimenez, an undocumented immigrant from Guatemala with brain damage, has obtained a ruling from the Florida District Court of Appeal for the Fourth District reversing a trial court_s order authorizing Martin Memorial Medical Center to discharge the patient and fly him back to Guatemala. Jimenez_s guardian is represented by Florida Legal Services_ Migrant Farmworker Justice Project. The hospital had intervened in Jimenez_s guardianship proceeding, claiming that the guardian_s plan for Jimenez_s continued care was not in his best interests. After the trial court approved the hospital_s alternative plan, Jimenez_s guardian appealed the court_s ruling and sought a stay pending appeal, but in the middle of the night before the court could rule, the hospital discharged Jimenez and flew him back to Guatemala. The Florida Court of Appeal held that because federal immigration law preempts state courts_ authority to order deportation, the trial court did not have jurisdiction to authorize Jimenez_s discharge and deportation. It also held that the hospital_s discharge procedure for Jimenez violated federal Medicare regulations. Finally, it held that the appeal is not moot, despite Jimenez_s return to Guatemala, and that even if it were, the problem would be justifiable because of the likelihood of it recurring. JoNel Newman, an Migrant Farmworker Justice Project attorney, says that the Guatemalan hospital to which Jimenez was transferred did not provide him with any medication and kept him for only three weeks, and that he is now living on the floor of his mother_s one room home. Newman says, _It_s unconscionable. People are essentially invited here to work and we use these workers everyday in our economy and then if they get hurt, the health care industry expects to be able to just ship them back to their countries of origin where they will receive no medical care at all._ The Florida hospital is seeking an en banc hearing before the Fourth District Court of Appeal and a review by the Florida Supreme Court. Montejo v. Martin Memorial Medical Center, Inc., No. 4D03-2638 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. May 5, 2004); also based on original reporting by Brennan Center staff.