U.S. Department of State
Other State Department Archive SitesU.S. Department of State
U.S. Department of State
U.S. Department of State
U.S. Department of State
U.S. Department of State
The State Department web site below is a permanent electronic archive of information released online from January 1, 1997 to January 20, 2001. Please see www.state.gov for current material from the Department of State. Or visit http://2001-2009.state.gov for information from that period. Archive sites are not updated, so external links may no longer function. Contact us with any questions about finding information. NOTE: External links to other Internet sites should not be construed as an endorsement of the views contained therein.
U.S. Department of State


Feature Story:

Making Christmas Come True

By Nikolai Wenzel
The author was a consular affairs officer serving in Mexico City when he wrote this article. He has since left the Foreign Service.

 
 


Burn victims in Mexico City.

Founder Virginia Lemaitre, standing and holding child, with child burn victims in Mexico City after being treated at the Shriner's Hospital in Galveston, Texas.
Photo courtesy U.S. Embassy Mexico City

The cellular phone rang mid-morning. As the consular duty officer at the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City, I was expecting a call from the Fundacion Michou y Mau para Niños Quemados,a foundation for burned children.

"The air ambulance is on its way," the foundation representative said, "but neither the child nor her mother has a Mexican passport or a U.S. visa."

U.S. immigration law necessarily is very strict. Basic documentary requirements, reflecting complex laws, underlie the visa issuance process.

But the U.S. government does have a heart. And this situation was different, so I headed to the embassy to prepare the relevant emergency papers.

U.S. immigration law provides humanitarian avenues within its strict criteria. In this case, a waiver of the passport and visa requirements was available. The success, though, lay in getting the necessary information and satisfactory answers to several questions. Was the condition of the child such that treatment was unavailable locally? Had the Shriner's Hospital formally accepted the case and confirmed financial arrangements? Who would accompany the child to the hospital? What documentation did the accompanying adult have?

Absent documentation, how could I be convinced that the adult was related to the child and did not have a history of violations of U.S. immigration law? How could I get all these necessary documents and answers quickly, without jeopardizing the child's life? How could I stress, gently but firmly, the need for certain documents to parents who had just lost their house to a fire and feared losing their child?

The whole case walked a fine line between the urgency of obtaining medical care and the due diligence of following the law and guarding against potential fraud.

A few hours and many urgent telephone calls and faxes later, I had the necessary information. I prepared the waiver and signed the State Department portion of the authorization. Fortunately, I had bumped into the embassy's Immigration and Naturalization Service district director earlier that morning. I thus avoided disturbing the INS duty officer and obtained INS concurrence for the waiver--but not until I had convinced him with a full explanation supported by documents. I hastily faxed the waiver to the U.S. port of entry where the air ambulance would land a few hours later, getting a badly burned child the specialized medical care she so urgently needed.

The Fundacion Michou y Mau para Niños Quemadoswas founded by Mexican television celebrity Virginia Lemaitre, after her daughter, Michou, and grandson, Mau, died from burns. "My daughter's death was not preventable, but my grandson didn't have to die," Ms. Lemaitre said during a joint meeting with consular and INS representatives. Advanced burn treatment facilities are unavailable in Mexico, but the Shriner's Hospital in Galveston, Texas, will treat Mexican children free of charge--if they can make their way to Galveston via an air ambulance trip that costs $7,000.

Ms. Lemaitre started the foundation to disseminate information on burn prevention and treatment andtocollect funds to pay for the victims' transportation. Shortly after the foundation's inception, she charged expenses for the first air ambulance trip to her credit card, uncertain as to how she would recover the funds to pay the bill.

The foundation has since been very active in fundraising efforts and has sent 65 children to the Shriner's Hospital. Some children live near the border and do not require air transportation. When necessary, however, the foundation pays for air ambulance transportation and organizes logistics with the Shriner's Hospital and embassy officials. The hospital treats the children free of charge and provides housing for the accompanying parents. As burns heal extremely slowly, some children must stay as long as 90 days.

The foundation has saved many children, but problems remain. Most of the burns occur in poor, undeveloped areas, where children must dodge open-air fires and water boiled for cleaning and cooking. This, of course, means that most burn victims lack even basic identification and live hours away from Mexican government agencies. There is often no time to issue an emergency passport to a child whose life depends on quickly getting to Galveston. In other cases, documents burn along with the house. Fortunately, that small part of the tragedy has been solved through State-INS cooperation.

Since the first frantic telephone calls and frenzied preparations of visa waivers, we have streamlined the process. Consular officers have met at length with INS and foundation representatives at the embassy to systematize the waiver issuance and develop thorough standard operating procedures for future duty officers. (Since this article was written and the SOP has been in place, the embassy has been involved in about 50 cases involving burned children, according to nonimmigrant visa chief Paul Doherty.)

For sure, the same questions must be asked, the same documents must be produced and the same assurances obtained. But the interagency cooperation helps clear bureaucratic hurdles and obtain emergency medical care for the burn victims.

Homepage | Previous Feature | Next Feature