Step-By-Step Guide
• Stay Calm: Don’t panic. Do not confront ICE agents directly.
• Notify Hospital Designated Point of Contact.
• Request Documentation: Politely ask for identification and a judicial warrant signed by a judge or magistrate. Review the warrant.
Administrative warrants or subpoenas issued by DHS/ICE/HSI do not automatically grant permission, but the hospital may choose to
comply.
• Defer to Designated Representative: Calmly tell agents that you are not authorized to provide information or access to private areas,
but that, following protocol, a designated representative has been alerted.
• Protect Patient Care: Ensure medical care is not interrupted or delayed.
• Advocate for Patients: Inform patients of their rights, including the right to legal representation and the option to decline speaking to
ICE. Advise patients not to run from or confront agents. You may offer contact information for local immigration legal aid organizations,
if available.
• Request Location of Detainees: If agents remove any patients or employees, ask the agents where they are being taken.
• Document the Incident: Record agent names, departments, badge numbers, times, visit purpose, warrant details, how agents were
dressed, actions taken and/or outcomes, and any deviations from the scope of the warrant or other possible misconduct by agents (eg,
leading employees or patients to believe they could not move or leave) for hospital records.
Always prioritize patient safety and care in compliance with hospital policies and laws.
President Trump’s whittling away from 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In January, the Trump administration rescinded a Biden-era policy that protected certain areas like churches, schools and hospitals from immigration enforcement.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.
