California nurses are considering the presence of ice in hospitals: “Intervention in Patient Care” | Ice (United States for Migration and Customs) customs enforcement)
Diane Sposito, 69 -year -old nurse, focuses on providing care for anyone entering the emergency room at the University of California in southern California, where she works.
She said that this task was difficult despite one week in June, when a federal immigration agent prevented her from treating a migrant who was screaming a few meters away in front of her in the hospital.
Sposito, a nurse with more than 40 years of experience, said that her hospital is among many who faced hostile meetings with immigration and customs enforcement agents (ICE) amid the escalating immigration campaign for the Trump administration.
The nurse said that the ice agent – wearing a mask, sunglasses and a hat without any clear identity – has already brought a woman to the hospital. The patient was screaming and trying to get out of Gurney, and when Sposito tried to evaluate her, the agent banned her and told her not to touch the patient.
“I have worked with police officers for years, and I have not seen anything like that,” Sposito said. “It was very frightening because the person behind him screams and screams and I don’t know what is happening with it.”
The man confirmed that he was an ice agent, and when Sposito asked his name, his badge and his charge, he refused to give her his identity and insisted that he did not need an order. The situation escalated until the accusation nurse is called the hospital administration, which intervened to deal with it.
“They interfere in the care of patients,” said Spusito.
After the accident, Sposito said that the hospital administration held a meeting and shows that Ice agents are only allowed in public areas, not rooms, and employees must contact the hospital administration immediately if the agents are present.
But for Sposto, the guidelines are short, because hostility is not similar to anything that I saw more than two decades ago as a nurse, as she said ..
“[The agent] You will not see anything. You do not know who these people are. I found that he was very horrific, and the fact that they were preventing me from a patient – the patient might die. “
Marie Turner, head of national nurses, the largest organization for the nurses registered in the country, said that the Trump administration has risen to arrest migrants at the beginning of the summer, the nurses are witnessing an increase in the presence of ice in hospitals, as it brings the patients to the patients to the facilities.
Turner said: “The presence of ice factors is very annoying and creates an inappropriate and afraid environment for patients, nurses and other employees,” Terner said. “The immigrants are our sick and colleagues.”
Although there is no national activity to track the ice activity in hospitals, many regional unions said they have seen an increase.
“We have recently heard from Ice agents or ICE contractors inside hospitals, which have never occurred before this year,” said Salie Roselli, the honorary head of the National Union of Health Care workers.
Turner said that the nurses have stated that factors sometimes prevent patients from communicating with family or friends and that ice factors have listened to talks between patients and health care workers, which are the procedures that violate HIPAA, federal law protects the patient’s privacy.
In addition, Turner said, the nurses reported concerns that the ICE patients will not get the care they need. “Hospitals are supposed to remove a patient with instructions to the patient and/or who will take care of them while they are doing,” Terner said.
The increase in the presence of immigration agents in hospitals comes after Donald Trump issued an executive order He turned the long -term situation for hospitals and healthcare facilities Schools are “sensitive sites”, where the enforcement of immigration was limited.
The nurses, in California and other states across the country, said they fear that the new policy, in addition to deterring care in medical facilities, will prevent patients from seeking care when they need it.
“Allowing unnecessary ice to access hospitals and clinics, elderly care homes and other health care institutions is very immoral, and unlike public health,” George Griemeh, President of the New York State Nurses Association said in a statement. “We should not put in locations where we are expected to help them, or disable federal agents while sweeping our institutions and trying to detain patients or their loved ones.”
Immigration enforcement policies vary through healthcare facilities. In California, the province’s general health care systems must adopt Policies The State Prosecutor, who limits the participation of information with immigration authorities, is required to facilitate to inform patients of their rights and identify employee protocols to register, document and inform immigration employees. However, only other health care entities are encouraged to do this. Each facility develops its own policies based on the laws and regulations of the relevant federalism.
Among the most High -level California ice presence in California outside Los Angeles in July. Ming Tanigawa Lao, a lawyer for the immigrant law firm, Milgaro Solis Portilo, a 36 -year -old Silvadorian woman who was reserved by ice outside her home in Sherman Oaks and was hospitalized on the same day in Glendel Memorial, where detention officers kept the lobby around the clock.
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Solis Portlelo was forcefully removed from Glenel Memorial against her doctor’s orders and transferred to the Annheim International Medical Center, another regional hospital, according to her lawyer. Once I got there, ICE agents prevented her from receiving visitors, deprived her of reaching the family and their lawyer, and prevented private conversations with doctors and stopped on a phone call with Tanigawa-LAU.
“I have repeatedly asked to tell me ICE of the law or the policy they were referring to that allowed them to refuse visits, especially reaching her lawyer, and they have never responded to me,” said Taniga Lao.
Ice officers sat at the hands of Solis Portlelo bed and often spoke directly to the medical staff on her behalf, according to Taniga Lao. Tanigawa Lau said this level of observation violated both the patient’s secrecy and the rights of the detainee, and interfered in its care and shock.
Since then, Solis Portilo has been transferred between the facilities, from the Los Angeles treatment center to a federal prison and at the end outside the state to a prison in Clark Province, Indiana.
in statement“The hospital cannot restrict law enforcement law or law trustees from a legal point of view from attending in public areas that include the lobby/waiting area in the hospital,” Glendale Memorial said.
“Ice does not conduct enforcement operations in hospitals and does not interfere with medical care for any illegal foreigner,” said the Assistant Minister of the Ministry of Internal Security, Tricia McLeulin. “It is a long -term practice to provide comprehensive medical care from the moment when an ice custody enters. This includes access to medical dates and emergency care 24 hours.”
The federal government has strongly responded to health care workers who are united by migration agents in medical facilities. In August, the US Department of Justice accused two employees at the advanced Ontario Center in San Bernardino Province in California, accusing them. From the assault on federal agents.
The accusations of events stem on July 8, when ICE agents chased three men in the facility. One of the men, an immigrant from Honduras, escaped on foot to evade the application of the law and was briefly arrested in the parking lot at the center, then liberated and ran inside, according to the indictment. The government said that there are employees at the center, who tried to protect the man and remove federal agents from the building.
“The employees tried to block the arrest by locking the door, and prohibiting law enforcement vehicles from the transition, and even the policemen called on the claim that there was” kidnapping. ” The Ministry of Justice referred questions about the case to DHS.
Migrants were eventually detained, and health care workers, Jesus Ortega and Daniel Nadine Davila “were charged with assaulting immigration officers in the United States and interfering in their attempt to detention them legally.”
Oliver Clerei, who represents Davila, said a video He explains that ICE claim that Davila attacked the agent.
“They say this because she put her body between them, and this is qualified as a strike.” “It is clear that the judicial precedent requires a strike in physical strength, and you can say that this has not happened.”
The trial is scheduled to start on October 6.