Learn this art form in Spanish:Workers in CLICA communities receive constitutional protections while participating in immigration networks.
Patients are crammed into the foyer of this South Los Angeles St. John’s Community Health facility. Ana Ruth Varela, a community health worker, is concerned that things will soon become much quieter. She claimed that a lot of patients are scared to leave their houses.
I had a conversation with one of the patients the other day. She said, “I’m not sure.” Do I have to attend my appointment? Do I need to cancel? I am at a loss on what to do. “Just come,” I said.
Immigrant communities have been terrified of mass deportations by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement ever since Donald Trump returned to the White House.
A long-standing rule forbade federal immigration officers from conducting arrests at or close to sensitive sites, including as hospitals, health facilities, schools, and houses of worship. It was among the first policies that Trump reversed in January, a few hours after taking office.
On January 21, Benjamine Huffman, the acting secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, withdrew the instruction. A DHS official stated in a press release that the step will help agents look for criminally involved immigrants. According to the statement, the Trump administration trusts our courageous law enforcement to exercise common sense and will not restrain them.
Darryn Harrisby was caught off guard by how quickly things changed.
Harris, St. John’s principal government affairs and community relations officer, stated, “I thought we had more time.”
As they prepare for a new position teaching patients their constitutional rights, Harris is vying to teach over 1,000 St. John’s employees how to interpret warrants.
Darryn Harris instructs medical staff at the St. John’s Community Health clinic in South Los Angeles about patients’ constitutional right to silence when they are being arrested for immigration violations.According to KFF Health News, Jackie Forti
Clinics are being advised by Democratic California Attorney General Rob Bonta to post information on patients’ right to remain silent and to give them the contact details of legal assistance organizations.
Additionally, Bonta is advising medical professionals to refrain from mentioning a patient’s immigrant status in invoices and medical records. Although his office instructs employees not to physically block immigration officers, they are not required to help make an arrest.
Despite the fact that throughout Trump’s first term, immigration arrests occurred at hospitals, the general approach remained one of respect for sensitive sites. However, DHS now claims that the earlier regulations made it more difficult for law enforcement to enforce the law by establishing locations where individuals without legal status might avoid being apprehended.
According to Matt Lopas, director of state advocacy and technical support for the National Immigration Law Center, immigration agents need a judge-signed warrant before they can obtain health records or visit private areas like exam rooms.
Every healthcare facility should have a qualified individual who can interpret those warrants and assess their legality, according to Lopas.
Zenaida Aguilera has been recruited to read warrants for La Clínica de La Raza in the San Francisco Bay Area. She serves as the clinic network’s compliance, privacy, and risk officer. She is available at all 31 of the organization’s community clinics in case immigration officials arrive.
Aguilera is also now in charge of training hundreds of health staffers. The bulk of that labor is still to come, but she has already trained roughly 250.
“We probably have a thousand more employees,” she remarked.
She worries that the Trump administration would target California for immigration enforcement since, according to the Pew Research Center, the state has the biggest number of people without legal status—roughly 2 million. Eleven million individuals entered the United States illegally in 2022.
According to Aguilera, La Clinica will display patients’ constitutional rights in the clinic lobby and offer resources like legal aid organizations’ contact details.
Instead of teaching our employees what to do in the event that an ICE officer tries to enter our clinics, we would prefer to focus on providing patient care, Aguilera stated.
— KFF Health News’ Jackie Forti, second
One of the main programs at KFF, an independent source of journalism, polling, and health policy research, is KFF Health News, a nationwide newsroom that specializes in in-depth reporting on health-related topics. Find out more about KFF.
