Doctors describe fear and missed care as immigration enforcement expands
Doctors in Minnesota described a growing health-care crisis tied to federal immigration enforcement, saying patients are avoiding appointments and staff are afraid to work. At a state Capitol news conference in St. Paul on Tuesday, Dr. Roli Dwivedi, past president of the Minnesota Academy of Family Physicians, said, “Our places of healing are under siege.” He said he has never seen the level of chaos and fear he described, including at the height of the COVID-19 crisis.
Dwivedi and other doctors told reporters about individual cases involving delayed or disrupted treatment. The Associated Press described a pregnant woman who missed a medical checkup because she was afraid to visit a clinic during what it called the Trump administration’s sweeping Minnesota immigration crackdown, later giving birth at home after a nurse found her already in labor.
The AP also described a patient with kidney cancer who vanished without his medicine in immigration detention facilities, with legal intervention later sending the medication to him; doctors said they were unsure whether he had been able to take it. In other examples, the AP said a diabetic person was afraid to pick up insulin, and a patient with a treatable wound deteriorated enough to require an intensive care unit stay.
At Minneapolis’ Hennepin County Medical Center, a nationally known trauma hospital, doctors and nurses have shifted some communications about the crackdown to an encrypted group chat, the AP reported. The AP said staff described run-ins with Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials, including an incident in which an officer was accused of unnecessarily shackling a patient. The AP said the hospital, which has the busiest emergency room in the state, serves as a safety net for uninsured patients, including people in the U.S. illegally.
Nurse says staff are using encrypted chats; ICE official denies hospital enforcement
One nurse, who the AP said was not authorized to speak to the media and agreed to speak anonymously, described plainclothes ICE officers as a fixture around the hospital. The AP reported that the nurse said the officers focused on people of color and asked patients and employees for paperwork as they leave, and that staff were left asking, “How is this all happening?”
The nurse told the AP, “I can’t believe we’re having to resort to this,” describing the facility’s use of encrypted communications and plainclothes enforcement presence. The AP said staff also told of patients and employees too scared to come to work, including staffers from Latin America, Somalia, Myanmar and elsewhere.
A Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman, Tricia McLaughlin, denied that federal officers interfere with medical care. In a statement carried by the AP, McLaughlin said, “ICE does not conduct enforcement at hospitals—period,” adding that federal officers would only go into a hospital if there were an active danger to public safety or to accompany detainees.
McLaughlin also said, “If anyone is impeding Minnesotans from making appointments or picking up prescriptions, it’s violent agitators who are blocking roadways, ramming vehicles, and vandalizing property,” according to the AP.
Other states see similar concerns; unions cite pressure to speed discharges
The AP said concerns are not limited to Minnesota. It cited a claim by Sandy Reding, a vice president of National Nurses United and president of the California Nurses Association, that immigrants were “absolutely” avoiding medical care due to fear of being targeted, and said some hospitals in Southern California have seen declining numbers of patients.
In Oregon, the AP said the Oregon Nurses Association raised concerns about ICE officers bringing detainees to Legacy Emanuel Medical Center in Portland. In a letter to the hospital, the union wrote that officers pressured nurses and doctors to skip assessments, tests or monitoring to have detainees discharged more quickly, according to the AP.
The AP reported that the letter also said nurses observed ICE insist on removing a patient in a way that “effectively” forced discharge over clinical advice, and said detainee patients had little or no opportunity to participate meaningfully in such decisions, with officers telling staff, “We’re going,” before removing patients.
In an emailed statement, Legacy Health told the AP it had reviewed its policies to ensure protection for impacted communities while complying with state and federal laws. The company said it is “committed to providing medical care to everyone who needs it, including individuals who are in custody and regardless of immigration or citizenship status,” the AP reported.
DHS says it sent 2,000 officers; doctors say pregnant patients are missing care
The AP said the Minnesota crackdown began late last year and surged in January, when the Department of Homeland Security said it would send 2,000 federal agents and officers to the Minneapolis area as part of what it described as the largest-ever immigration enforcement operation. The AP reported that the DHS said more than 3,000 people in the country illegally were arrested during what it called Operation Metro Surge, citing a Monday court filing.
Dr. Erin Stevens, legislative chair for the Minnesota section of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, said the effects were showing up in obstetric care. The AP reported that Stevens said, “Our patients are missing,” describing pregnant women missing prenatal care, and said requests for home births had increased significantly. Stevens said, according to the AP, this included patients who had never previously considered a home birth and others for whom it is not a safe option.
The AP said heightened tensions have included clashes between activists and immigration officers in the Twin Cities, with city and state officials blaming the federal government and the federal administration blaming local officials. The Associated Press also said a mother of three was shot by an ICE officer, with federal officials describing it as self-defense and local officials describing it as reckless and unnecessary.
The AP reported that the most recent flare-up came Sunday in St. Paul, when protesters disrupted a service at a church whose pastor leads the local ICE field office. The AP said protesters walked up to the pulpit and chanted “ICE out,” and that the U.S. Department of Justice said it opened a civil rights investigation into the church protest.