Hen Party

At the weekly insult orgy down at Pruitt's on Saturday, nativists waved signs that read, "Fire Grant Woods!" See, Woods has been hired by Cochise County to prosecute a Border Patrol Agent charged with second-degree murder in the death of an illegal immigrant. To nativist noggins, he might as well be U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton (sometimes referred to as "Johnny Satan"), the guy who prosecuted Border Patrol Agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean for shooting a fleeing, unarmed illegal in the butt.

"[The mayor's] decision to review the sanctuary policy is a good first step," wrote American Freedom Riders founder Danny Smith to his fellow pro-immigration-control bikers. "But a quick look at the panel he named indicates that he has stacked the deck to maintain the most liberal enforcement he can get away with."

Later, Smith told The Bird that AFR's membership is prepared to support a recall of the mayor if one arises, particularly if the mayor's panel suggests only minor changes.

Smith reckons the majority of the electorate's on his side. And they may be, for the moment. A November 28 Rocky Mountain Poll found that 58 percent of Arizonans support local cop enforcement of immigration laws. But when pullin' over Pedro for Driving While Brown interferes with regular police work, that number drops to 47 percent. And when the public's asked to pay for these added immigration duties, support for a new policy drops even further, to 39 percent.

Maybe AFR members would be willing to auction off their Harleys and pick up the tab for the program they're agitatin' for. Ultimately, Smith and his people want vigorous local enforcement of federal immigration laws, not just some middling, namby-pamby compromise on current cop protocols.

"It's almost a McCarthyism atmosphere," Romley told me of the Tennessee turkey shoot he and his fellow panel members are traipsing into. "I've been disappointed in some of our leaders in our community . . . I think they're poisoning the well."

Rick Romley knows the mayor's panel is being denounced by both sides, and that the anti-immigration forces won't be easily placated. He says he's still studying the legal issues involved, but that "If I'm asked to recommend something that's unconstitutional or violating civil rights, I won't do it. I'll walk away."

Admirable stance. But as far as Mayor Gordon goes, you don't go into a knife fight prepared to do your Neville Chamberlain impersonation. Certain elements in the immigration debate cannot be appeased. And by trying to, Gordon's laid a big fat egg that closely resembles a hand grenade.

SAINT JOSEPH

As reported by this worm-wrangler's online bloggin' cousin Feathered Bastard, North High School senior Joe Arvizu was laid to rest in the soil of his native Mexico last week, in a small town near the Mexican city of Agua Prieta, across the border from Douglas, Arizona.

The precise cause of his death is unclear, though the teenager had recently been diagnosed with leukemia by St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix. Teachers and staff who knew the kid say that in October, Arvizu sustained some sort of a head injury. Around October 20, he was taken to St. Joe's for emergency treatment.

St. Joe representatives couldn't discuss specifics because of medical privacy regulations. But according to various sources, Arvizu underwent brain surgery while at St. Joe's. A week later, after the diagnosis of leukemia, the not-for-profit hospital, founded 112 years ago by the Sisters of Mercy, transferred Arvizu to a hospital in Mexico. On Monday December 3, around 2 a.m., Arvizu died.

As family, friends and faculty mourn the popular young man, who had passed all of his AIMS tests and was set to graduate from high school in May, there are questions about why Arvizu was transferred to Mexico while he was sick. Though he'd been in America at least during his high school years, Arvizu was undocumented and uninsured.

Medicaid covers emergency care for those here illegally. Beyond that, there's only charity or "uncompensated care," as they refer to it in the medical profession. Sister Margaret McBride, vice president of Mission Services for the hospital, informed The Bird that Arvizu's case was considered by St. Joe's charity committee, but it was decided to send Arvizu to Mexico. According to McBride, illegal immigrants aren't eligible to receive transplants, including bone-marrow transplants, in the United States.

McBride stated that one to five undocumented patients from St. Joe's are transferred every week to Mexico. She said the hospital had no choice but to send Arvizu to a facility in Sonora.

"We don't deport anyone," she said. "We don't call INS. We don't want to be a part of that. Our goal is to take care of the patients that come to our door . . . We take care of them for the acute phase of the illness or the injury, and at some point it becomes a long term care issue."