If ICE comes to a hospital, nurses must protect patients

By Kimberly Galindo, especially for CalMatters

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Armed men in dark armored vests entered my hospital ward shortly before dawn on June 19 and began loudly demanding that I take them to the patient’s room.

Agents asked for confidential information, saying the patient they were looking for had been detained before. They showed no official identification or warrant.

I immediately knew they were from Immigration and Customs Enforcement. ICE raids have spreading terror in our communities. Federal agents have targeted workplaces, schools and court buildingsbut that morning they would turn their attention to Riverside Community Hospital, a Level 1 trauma center.

As an experienced nurse I knew I should not comply with their request and refused to give them any information about the patient or where the patient was. After repeatedly but calmly denying ICE agents access, they eventually left my floor.

A less experienced nurse may not have the confidence that comes with many years on the job. I knew the agents’ requests were a clear violation of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, the federal law protecting the privacy of all patients.

Riverside Community Hospital is part of HCA Healthcare, one of the nation’s largest for-profit hospital chains, serving more than 43 million patients annually. HCA and all hospitals have a responsibility to protect patients and support the nurses who serve their communities every day.

That means issuing clear, formal policies that outline what to do when ICE enters the hospital. And that means training nurses, doctors and all front-line staff to uphold our ethical and legal responsibilities, even in the face of outrageous federal overreach.

What happened that day was a clear violation of federal and state law. I believe any nurse would call it a “never” – a serious, preventable and potentially costly mistake – that should not happen to any patient, under any circumstances.

ICE reportedly showed up at hospitals in Oxnard and Glendale and a surgery center just outside Los Angeles. These actions instill fear and confusion. They disrupt patient care, violate privacy, and violate state and federal patient protections.

As a direct result, many immigrant patients avoid care generally, fearing that they or a family member might be arrested.

Nurses are also placed in impossible positions, forced to choose between our livelihood and our duty to care for, protect and defend our patients. Nurses pledge to speak up for patients, not report them. We are ethically and legally bound to protect private health information.

The men of that day acted as if our ethical and legal duty was merely an annoying inconvenience to them.

Fortunately, California lawmakers recently took action to protect hospital patients from ICE’s reach. Lawmakers passed and Gov. Gavin Newsom signed it Senate Bill 81which prohibits ICE agents from accessing non-public areas of California hospitals when they do not have a warrant.

It also expands patient privacy protections to include immigration status and place of birth. And it requires hospitals to train staff on how to respond when ICE agents request access to secure areas or patient information. Now all California hospitals must comply.

In this unprecedented climate, it is the duty of hospital operators across the country to create an environment of protection and peace of mind. Healthcare professionals should never be pressured to identify patients based on nationality or immigration status. If hospitals were to force healthcare workers to do so, they would be breaking the law.

Even worse, they will compound the trauma that ICE has already inflicted on many communities and compromise the trust that should underpin health care.

Unfortunately, we are now seeing the Trump administration completely disregard an existing law in California that prohibits ICE from making arrests in courthouses. Hospitals should anticipate that ICE will continue to come and quickly increase education and training — to protect patients and prepare nurses.

This article was originally published on CalMatters and is republished under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives license.