California lawmakers are moving two Senate bills aimed at tightening protections for patients who are in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody when they are brought to medical facilities. The proposals would focus on whether immigration enforcement officers can isolate hospitalized patients from family and attorneys, influence medical decisions, and leave caregivers and legal representatives unable to locate them in urgent situations, the Associated Press reported.
SB 915, authored by Democratic Sen. Caroline Menjivar of the San Fernando Valley, seeks to largely bar hospitals from using so-called “blackout policies” for people in immigration custody. Menjivar’s approach would allow those policies only when a health care provider determines the patient is a credible risk to themselves or others and documents the risk in the patient’s medical record, and it would also preserve patients’ ability to receive visitors.
Menjivar’s bill would further bar immigration enforcement from entering patients’ rooms unless agents can show legal authorization to be there, according to the Associated Press account. If agents remained in the room, it would require staff to ask them to leave during medical exams and discussions about care, and it would require health care workers to document the agent’s refusal if the officers would not leave.
SB 1323, authored by Democratic Sen. Susan Rubio of the San Gabriel Valley, would require hospitals to ensure that when detained patients want families informed, staff and relevant volunteers respond accordingly. The bill would also require posted notices at facility entrances describing visitation and access policies, while building on a provision that already says patients can agree to have loved ones notified they are in the hospital.
Advocates and health care workers supported the bills at a recent Senate hearing where more than 20 people voiced support, according to the report. Hector Pereyra, a political manager with the Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice, said in support of the measure: “This state must do everything in our power to protect against these abuses and ensure detainees have the right to contact their loved ones when they are hospitalized and in critical conditions.”
The debate has focused on reports that hospitals have used blackout-style procedures and on specific accounts of patients being kept from family contact while agents remained on site. The Associated Press story cited reporting by KFF Health News that described hospitals facilitating patient isolation through policies that can include registering people under pseudonyms, withholding their names from directories, and preventing staff from contacting relatives to disclose location and condition.
KFF Health News, as described in the AP story, also reported a case involving 43-year-old Julio César Peña, who was held at a hospital in Victorville for nearly two weeks before his attorney and family learned where he was. KFF Health News said Peña, who had terminal kidney disease, was shackled to his hospital bed and guarded by immigration agents, and that his wife said he was told he was not allowed to disclose his location; the account added that he suffered a seizure and later died Feb. 25, less than two months after he was released to go home.
While the bills are intended to close what supporters describe as gaps between legal protections and hospital practice, some medical and hospital groups raised concerns. The California Hospital Association and the California Medical Association told lawmakers that directing staff to document badge numbers and ask agents to leave could create conflict and pose safety risks, with Vanessa Gonzalez, a vice president of state advocacy for the hospital association, saying, “While we understand that this is an important issue, we want to ensure the bill strikes the right balance and does not create conflicting or unclear obligations for hospitals and their staff and clinicians, particularly in real-time interactions with federal officers.”
The Associated Press reported that the federal Department of Homeland Security, which oversees immigration enforcement, did not respond to a request for comment. Both bills passed the Senate Health and Judiciary committees along party lines and will be heard next by the Senate Appropriations Committee.