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Federal agents in fatigues gather in Minneapolis last month. Health care workers in Minnesota and other states say ICE is increasing its presence in health care facilities, deterring people from seeking medical care. (Photo by Nicole Neri\/Minnesota Reformer)<\/p>\n
Last month, the parents of a 7-year-old girl whose nose wouldn\u2019t stop bleeding took her to Portland Adventist Health in Portland, Oregon, for urgent care. Before the family could get through the doors, federal immigration agents reportedly detained<\/a> them in the parking lot and took them to a detention center in Texas.<\/p>\n At Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis, workers say<\/a> U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers hang around the campus, asking patients and employees for proof of citizenship. Last month, tensions came to a head when ICE agents used handcuffs to shackle a 31-year-old Mexican immigrant to his hospital bed. ICE claimed the man, who had broken bones in his face and a fractured skull, had run headfirst into a wall on purpose while handcuffed and trying to flee.<\/p>\n And last summer, ICE agents chased an immigrant into the Ontario Advanced Surgery Center in Ontario, California, precipitating a confrontation with two surgery center workers<\/a> wearing scrubs. The two workers were later indicted<\/a> by a federal grand jury, charged with assaulting and interfering with federal immigration officers.<\/p>\n As the Trump administration intensifies its immigration crackdown, health care workers in multiple states say ICE is increasing its presence in health care facilities, deterring people from seeking medical care and creating chaos that jeopardizes the safety of their patients.<\/p>\n Even before Trump took office last year, Republican-led states such as Florida and Texas began mixing health care and immigration enforcement<\/a> by requiring hospitals to ask patients about their immigration status. Now that ICE has extended its enforcement activities to hospitals and health care facilities \u2014 areas that were largely off-limits during the Biden administration \u2014 an increasing number of Democratic-led states are pushing back.<\/p>\n Last month, Massachusetts Democratic Gov. Maura Healey filed legislation<\/a> \u201cto keep ICE out of courthouses, schools, child care programs, hospitals and churches,\u201d and signed an executive order<\/a> to limit ICE actions on state-owned property.<\/p>\n In December, Illinois Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker signed a measure<\/a> that bars health care providers from sharing sensitive health information with federal immigration agents and requires hospitals to develop policies around how they will interact<\/a> with agents.<\/p>\n And in September, California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom signed legislation<\/a> that makes immigration status and place of birth protected health information, and prohibits agents from entering nonpublic, patient-sensitive areas of health care facilities without a warrant signed by a judge.<\/p>\n Other Democratic states \u2014 including Maine<\/a>, New Jersey<\/a>, New York<\/a>, Oregon<\/a> and Washington<\/a> \u2014 are considering similar bills.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Republican<\/a> lawmakers in Arizona are pushing legislation<\/a> that would require hospitals accepting Medicaid patients to include a question on intake forms about immigration status.<\/p>\n Whether or not ICE presence is actually increasing at health care facilities, it\u2019s clear that people living in the country illegally are being deterred from seeking medical care, said Drishti Pillai, director of immigrant health policy at the health policy research group KFF.<\/p>\n A KFF and New York Times survey<\/a> released last November showed that 43% of respondents identifying as immigrant parents living in the country illegally skipped or delayed health care for their children over a 12-month period because they were concerned about immigration enforcement. Even among lawfully present immigrants,10% said that they avoided seeking medical care for their children due to immigration-related concerns.<\/p>\n The one part that is really hard to know is people who are not showing up to the hospital when they usually would.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u2013 Dr. Paula Latortue, an OB-GYN who volunteers with the Migrant Clinicians Network<\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Pillai also pointed to the Trump administration\u2019s efforts to consolidate<\/a> the bits of personal data held across federal agencies, creating a single trove of information on people who live in the United States.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are expecting that these fears have further been exacerbated this year since the data sharing agreement was made public, and there are certain concerns around privacy of data going forward,\u201d Pillai told Stateline.<\/p>\n Dr. Paula Latortue, an OB-GYN in Washington, D.C., who volunteers with the Migrant Clinicians Network, a nonprofit group that provides health care to immigrants, said it\u2019s unclear how many people are avoiding health care, and how often.<\/p>\n \u201cThe one part that is really hard to know is people who are not showing up to the hospital when they usually would for some sort of urgent or emergency complaint,\u201d Latortue said in an interview. \u201cBut I think there\u2019s a concern for many physicians in the community that has happened.\u201d<\/p>\n The Biden<\/a> and Obama<\/a> administrations directed ICE to avoid enforcement activities in \u201csensitive\u201d places such as hospitals, schools and churches unless it received permission from top leaders at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.<\/p>\n In January 2025, however, the Trump administration rescinded<\/a> those guidelines, opening up these spaces to immigration enforcement.<\/p>\n Stateline reached out to the White House and the Department of Homeland Security multiple times but did not receive a response. When the administration changed the guidelines, the Department of Homeland Security said that opening up \u201csensitive\u201d areas to agents \u201cempowers the brave men and women in CBP [Customs and Border Protection] and ICE to enforce our immigration laws.\u201d<\/p>\n The previous guidelines didn\u2019t prohibit ICE from operating in those locations, but it did \u201cstrongly discourage\u201d them, according to Sophia Genovese, a legal fellow specializing in immigration law at Georgetown University.<\/p>\n She added, however, that states and cities can enact laws to protect such spaces, even though they are limited in their capacity to \u201cinfringe and engage in immigration lawmaking.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWarrants are always needed to conduct searches or investigations in private, nonpublic areas, and these warrants need to be signed by a judge. This is just a basic Fourth Amendment right,\u201d Genovese said. \u201cWhen it comes to ICE entering hospitals and gaining access to private areas of hospitals, that\u2019s an issue of individual hospital policy.\u201d<\/p>\n Genovese said states also can require that hospitals standardize their policies on where law enforcement agents can go within a medical facility and create protocols to ensure agents are presenting a warrant before entering the premises.<\/p>\n Those moves are exactly what health care workers in many states are asking for.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a high level of fear and anxiety. Nurses see the videos of what\u2019s happening around the country, and nurses have experienced it themselves,\u201d Peter Starzynski, spokesperson for the Oregon Nurses Association, told Stateline.<\/p>\n Last month\u2019s incident involving the 7-year-old girl and her parents in Portland highlighted the importance of protecting health care spaces from ICE, he said.<\/p>\n \u201cThat should never happen. That\u2019s disgusting,\u201d Starzynski said.<\/p>\n The Oregon Nurses Association also has condemned<\/a> ICE\u2019s presence at Legacy Emanuel Medical Center in Portland, claiming<\/a> agents are violating hospital policies, including on access to patients. Legacy has disputed the union\u2019s allegations, saying that no ICE officers have entered its facilities \u201cunless accompanying a patient in custody.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNurses in emergency rooms deal with local law enforcement on a regular basis, and those relationships are built on mutual respect, where law enforcement understands what they need to do once they enter a hospital,\u201d Starzynski said. \u201cThat has changed with the increase in federal agents in Oregon.\u201d<\/p>\n Stateline reporter Shalina Chatlani can be reached at schatlani@stateline.org<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\nSkipping medical care<\/h4>\n
\n\n<\/div>\n\n\nStates step in to protect sensitive locations<\/h4>\n
Health care workers want protections<\/h4>\n