Federal agents in uniform gathered 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 facilitate. (Photo: Nicole Neri/Minnesota Reformer)
Last month, the parents of a 7-year-old girl whose nose wouldn’t stop bleeding took her to Portland Adventist Health in Portland, Oregon, for emergency care. Before the family could get through the door, federal immigration agents apparently detained them in the parking lot and took them to a detention center in Texas.
Employees at Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis to talk U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers roam the campus, asking patients and employees for proof of citizenship. Tensions came to a head last month when ICE agents used handcuffs to restrain a 31-year-old Mexican immigrant to his hospital bed. ICE says the man, who suffered broken facial bones and a fractured skull, intentionally hit his head against a wall while handcuffed and trying to escape.
Last summer, ICE agents chased an immigrant into the Ontario Advanced Surgery Center in Ontario, California, resulting in… confrontation with two employees of the surgery center wearing scrubs. Two employees were later accused by a federal grand jury, charged with assaulting and obstructing federal immigration officials.
As the Trump administration steps up its crackdown on immigration, health care workers in many states say ICE is increasing its presence in health care facilities, deterring people from seeking medical care and creating chaos that threatens patient safety.
Even before Trump took office last year, Republican-led states like Florida and Texas had started combining health care and immigration enforcement by requiring hospitals to ask patients questions about their immigration status. Now that ICE has expanded its enforcement efforts to hospitals and health care facilities — areas that were largely off-limits during the Biden administration — an increasing number of Democratic-led states are pulling back.
The request was introduced last month by Massachusetts Democratic Gov. Maura Healey legislation “to keep ICE out of courts, schools, child welfare programs, hospitals and churches,” and he signed executive order limiting ICE activities on state property.
In December, Democratic Governor of Illinois J.B. Pritzker signed the measure that prohibits health care providers from sharing sensitive health information with federal immigration agents and requires hospitals to develop policies specifying how they will do so interact with agents.
It was signed into law by Democratic Governor of California Gavin Newsom in September legislation which makes immigration status and place of birth protected health information and prohibits agents from entering non-public, patient-sensitive areas of health care facilities without a warrant signed by a judge.
Other democratic countries – incl Maine, New Jersey, New York, Oregon AND Washington — are considering similar bills.
Meanwhile, Republican Arizona lawmakers insist legislation it would require hospitals accepting Medicaid patients to include a question about immigration status on their intake forms.
Skipping medical care
Whether or not ICE presence in health care facilities is actually increasing, it is clear that people living in the country illegally are discouraged from seeking medical care, said Drishti Pillai, director of immigrant health policy at KFF’s health policy research group.
KFF and New York Times questionnaire released last November found 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 feared immigration enforcement. Even among legal immigrants, 10% said they avoid seeking health care for their children because of immigration concerns.
The only part that’s really tough to know is the people who don’t show up at the hospital when they usually do.
– Dr. Paula Latortue, obstetrician-gynecologist, volunteer at the Migrant Clinicians Network
Pillai also noted the Trump administration’s efforts consolidate fragments of personal information held by federal agencies, creating a single source of information about people living in the United States.
“We expect these concerns to have become even more acute this year since the data-sharing agreement became public, and there are some concerns about data privacy going forward,” Pillai told Stateline.
Dr. Paula Latortue, an obstetrician-gynecologist in Washington who volunteers with the Migrant Clinicians Network, a nonprofit group that provides health care to immigrants, said it’s unclear how many people avoid health care and how often.
“One part that’s really hard to know is people who don’t show up at the hospital when they normally would because of an urgent or emergency complaint,” Latortue said in an interview. “But I think a lot of doctors in the community are concerned about what happened.”
Countries step in to protect sensitive locations
The Biden AND Obama Authorities have directed ICE to avoid enforcement actions in “sensitive” places such as hospitals, schools and churches unless it obtains permission from top leaders of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
In January 2025, however, the Trump administration invalidated these guidelines, opening up these spaces for immigration enforcement.
Stateline has repeatedly reached out to the White House and the Department of Homeland Security but has not received a response. When the administration changed its guidance, the Department of Homeland Security said opening “sensitive” areas to agents “empowers the brave men and women of CBP [Customs and Border Protection] and ICE to enforce our immigration laws.”
The previous guidelines did not prohibit ICE from operating in these locations, but they “strongly discouraged them,” according to Sophia Genovese, a lawyer specializing in immigration law at Georgetown University.
But she added that states and cities can pass laws to protect such spaces, even if their ability to “violate and engage in immigration law” is circumscribed.
“Warrants are always needed to conduct searches or investigations in private, non-public areas and they must be signed by a judge. This is simply a fundamental Fourth Amendment right,” Genovese said. “Regarding ICE entering hospitals and gaining access to private areas of hospitals, that is a matter of individual hospital policy.”
Genovese added that states could also require hospitals to standardize their policies on where law enforcement officers can be in a medical facility and create protocols to ensure that agents present a warrant before entering the facility.
Health care workers want protection
These moves are exactly what health care providers in many states are asking for.
“There is a high level of fear and anxiety. Nurses are watching videos of what is happening across the country and have experienced it themselves,” Peter Starzynski, spokesman for the Oregon Nurses Association, told Stateline.
Last month’s incident involving a 7-year-old girl and her parents in Portland highlighted the importance of protecting health care facilities from ICE, he added.
“This should never have happened. It’s disgusting,” Starzyński said.
The Oregon Nurses Association does this too convicted ICE presence at Legacy Emanuel Medical Center in Portland, affirmatively agents violate hospital policies, including those regarding access to patients. Legacy disputes the union’s allegations, saying no ICE officers entered its facilities “unless accompanying a patient in custody.”
“Emergency department nurses regularly interact with local law enforcement, and that relationship is based on mutual respect, where law enforcement understands what they need to do once they enter the hospital,” Starzynski said. “That changed as the number of federal agents in Oregon increased.”
Stateline reporter Shalina Chatlani can be reached at: schatlani@stateline.org.
This story was originally produced by state linewhich is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network that includes the Ohio Capital Journal and is supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity.
