In recent months, federal agents They set up camp in the hall from a hospital in Southern California, guarded detained patients – some of them in handcuffs – in hospital wards th stalked an immigrant gardener even inside a surgery center.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents also showed up at community clinics.
Medical workers say they tried enter the parking lot where there was a mobile clinic, they pointed them at the faces of doctors treating the homeless, and detained a passerby, putting him in an unmarked car in front of the district clinic.
In response to these immigration controls at clinics and hospitals, Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the law last month. SB 81which prohibits health centers from allowing federal agents access to private premises, including areas where patients receive treatment or discuss health issues, without a valid search warrant or court appearance.
While the bill has received broad support from medical groups, health care workers and immigrant rights advocates, legal experts say California cannot prevent federal authorities from carrying out their duties in public spaces such as hospital lobbies and waiting rooms, medical center parking lots and surrounding areas – places where recent ICE activity has sparked outrage and fear.
In January, the Trump administration rolled back previous federal immigration restrictions in or near sensitive areas, including health care facilities.
“The problem that states face is supremacy clause“said the lawyer Sofia GenoveseProfessor at Georgetown Law School. He explained that the federal government has the authority to conduct immigration enforcement activities and that there are limits to what a state can do to prevent such activities.
California law defines a patient's immigration status and place of birth as protected information that, like medical records, cannot be disclosed to authorities without a court order.
It also requires health care facilities to establish clear procedures for handling requests from immigration authorities, including training staff to immediately notify a designated administrator or legal counsel if agents attempt to enter private areas or view patient records.
Other Democratic-run states have passed laws protecting patients in hospitals and health care facilities.
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis signed the bill into law in May. Civil Rights Protection Immigration Statuswhich punishes hospitals for unauthorized release of information about people in the country illegally and prohibits ICE agents from entering the private premises of medical centers without a court order.
It took effect in Maryland in June. law it requires the attorney general to create rules prohibiting ICE from visiting medical centers. New Mexico implemented new protection for patient data and Rhode Island banned health care providers ask patients about their immigration status.
Republican-run states have joined federal efforts to prevent health care costs for illegal immigrants.
These immigrants are not eligible for comprehensive Medicaid coverage, but states bill the federal government for coverage. urgent Care in certain cases. According to the law, which entered into force in 2023Florida requires hospitals accepting Medicaid to ask about a patient's immigration status. In Texas, hospitals are now required to report how much they spend caring for undocumented immigrants.
“Texans should not bear the cost of health care for illegal immigrants,” Gov. Greg Abbott said in a speech. decree last year.
California's efforts to limit enforcement of federal laws come at a time when a state where more than a quarter of its residents They were born abroadbecame the target of President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown.
Newsom signed SB 81 into law as part of package of laws which prohibits immigration agents from entering schools without a warrant, requires agents to identify themselves and prohibits the wearing of masks. SB 81 passed on a party-line vote without formal opposition.
“We are not North Korea,” Newsom said during a bill signing ceremony in September. “We reject these authoritarian tendencies and the actions of the current administration.”
Some bill supporters and legal experts said the California law could prevent ICE from violating patients' existing privacy rights.
These rights include the Fourth Amendment, which prohibits unauthorized searches in places where people have a reasonable expectation of privacy. valid court decisions They must be issued by the court and signed by the judge. However, ICE agents often use administrative warrants to try to gain access to private areas where they do not have authority, Genovese said.
“People don't always understand the difference between an administrative order, which is a simple document, and a court order, which is enforceable,” Genovese said. He added that court orders in immigration cases are rarely issued.
This was announced by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). will not comply with the ban on the use of masks nor the identification requirements for California law enforcement officers, calling them unconstitutional. The department did not respond to a request for comment on the state's new rules for health care facilities, which take effect immediately.
Tanya Brodeur, senior counsel at the National Immigration Law Center, said detentions of immigrants in medical facilities are relatively rare. But the federal decision to remove protections for sensitive areas, he said, “has created fear and uncertainty throughout the country.”
Many of the most prominent news stories about immigration agents in medical facilities have occurred in California, primarily involving detained patients who were transferred to a medical facility for medical care.
The California Nurses Association, the state's largest nurses union, co-sponsored the bill and raised concerns about the treatment of Milagro Solis-Portillo, a 36-year-old Salvadoran woman who was under constant ICE surveillance at Glendale Memorial Hospital over the summer.
Trade union leaders too They condemned the presence agents at California Hospital Medical Center, south of downtown Los Angeles. Officers brought the patient in on Oct. 21 and remained in her room for nearly a week, according to Anne Caputo-Pearl, a labor and delivery nurse and senior union representative at the hospital. Diary Los Angeles Times reported that Carlitos Ricardo Parias, a TikTok content creator, was taken to the hospital the same day after being shot during an immigration enforcement operation in South Los Angeles.
Caputo-Pearl said ICE's presence intimidated both nurses and patients and led to restrictions on visitors at the hospital. “We need a clearer explanation,” he said. “Why are these agents allowed in the room?”
However, hospital and clinic officials said they already comply with the law, which greatly increases extensive recommendations released by state Attorney General Rob Bonta in December.
Los Angeles County community clinics, which serve more than two million patients a year, including a significant immigrant population, have been implementing the attorney general's recommendations for months, said Louise McCarthy, president and CEO of the Los Angeles County Community Clinic Association.
He added that the law should help ensure uniform standards in all health facilities to which clinics refer patients, and give them confidence that procedures are in place to protect them.
However, immigration raids in the community cannot be prevented, causing some patients and even health workers afraid to go outsideMcCarthy noted. There have been several incidents near the clinics, he said, including the arrest of a bystander outside an East Los Angeles clinic that a security guard recorded on video.
“We heard clinic staff asking, 'Is this safe for my come out?” he said.
General Director St. John's Community Health, a network of 24 community health centers and five mobile clinics in South Los Angeles and the Inland Empire, Jim Mangia agreed that the new law may not prevent all immigration enforcement activity, but said it gives clinics a tool to defend themselves if agents show up, something his staff has already had to do.
Mangia said St. John staff met with immigration agents twice over the summer. In one, he blocked armed officers from entering the locked parking lot of a drug rehabilitation center where doctors and nurses were treating patients in a mobile clinic.
Another incident occurred in July when immigration agents They arrived at MacArthur Park. on horseback and in armored vehicles in a show of force from the Trump administration.
Mangia said officers wearing masks and full tactical gear surrounded the street medical tent where St. John's Hospital staff were treating homeless people, yelling at them to leave and pointing a gun at them. Medical workers were so shaken by the incident that they had to turn to mental health professionals to help them feel safe returning to the streets, Mangia said.
A DHS spokesperson told CalMatters that on rare occasions when agents enter certain sensitive locations, officers need to OK second leader.
Since then, St. John's has stepped up its efforts to support and train staff and offer home visits and meal delivery options for patients afraid to go out. Patient fears and ICE activity have subsided since the summer, Mangia said, but thanks to the DHS plan hire 10,000 additional agentsdoubts that this situation will continue.
