President Trump’s whittling away of protected places for immigrants has fueled fears among health care workers that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents will arrest patients in or around hospitals.
In January, the Trump administration rescinded a Biden-era policy that protected certain areas like churches, schools and hospitals from immigration enforcement. And lawmakers in at least one state have introduced legislation aimed at making it easier for ICE to make arrests in hospitals.
As the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) seeks to ramp up ICE raids at hotels, restaurants, farms and other sites, nurses worry their workplace could be next.
“We were all worried about what this meant,” Michael Kennedy, a nurse at a University of California, San Diego health facility located very near the U.S.-Mexico border, said of the policy changes under Trump.
“As we’ve seen these immigration raids ramp up, our first thought is about our patients and what that means for them.”
ICE agents made a record number of migrant arrests in a single day this month and have appeared outside of courthouses in Seattle and stores in the New York City area. The agency’s workplace raids in Los Angeles spurred days of protests, which in turn prompted a heavy-handed response from the Trump administration.
Sandy Reding is a nurse at a hospital in Bakersfield, Calif., which serves communities of farm workers and employs a diverse staff.
“There is a lot of concern [about] ICE agents showing up with FBI or with the military, because we’ve seen a lot of reports on TV, and we have reports in our area where this is happening as well,” she said.
Reding and her fellow nurses, she said, are also worried that the news of increased ICE raids will deter some patients from coming to the hospital to seek care.
“What we are going to see is a large burden on communities and hospitals if people delay care,” Reding said. “And there are worse outcomes.”
Nancy Hagan, an intensive care unit nurse at Maimonides Medical Center in New York City, said those concerns have come to fruition at her hospital.
In May, she said, an immigrant New Yorker had appendicitis but waited too long to go to the emergency room. Their appendix burst, spreading infected tissue and bacteria to other organs, which ultimately killed them.
“Once patients hear that a hospital is no longer a safe place for them to go, they are afraid to come to the hospital,” she said.
Hagan, a Haitian immigrant, added that she and her colleagues, who work at hospitals across the city, have noticed that emergency rooms appear to be emptier in recent months.
Kennedy, the nurse in San Diego, said the Level 1 trauma center, which is typically packed, has been emptier than usual. He admitted the decline in patient visits could be seasonally related, but he said he believes that the possibility of ICE agents arresting immigrants is having a “chilling effect.”
“I can’t see how this doesn’t affect our patients’ willingness to seek care,” he said. “I’m willing to bet that a lot of people are delaying care because they’re afraid.”
ICE did not get back to The Hill in response to questions on whether agents have arrested people in or around hospitals, or if there are plans to do so.
DHS announced in January that it had rescinded former President Biden’s guidelines on immigration enforcement at “sensitive locations” that were first issued under former President Obama.
“The Trump Administration will not tie the hands of our brave law enforcement, and instead trusts them to use common sense,” a DHS spokesperson said at the time.
The National Immigration Law Center said that while immigrants no longer have special protections at hospitals and other “sensitive locations,” they still have basic rights.
“Instead, individuals will need to rely on basic constitutional protections in these spaces,” it said in a fact sheet. “Specifically, the Fourth Amendment protects all individuals from unreasonable searches and seizures, and the Fifth Amendment ensures the right to remain silent when confronted by law enforcement.”
The Emergency Medicine Residents’ Association has distributed a flyer with step-by-step guidance for health care workers on dealing with ICE agents if they do enter hospitals.
