KVCR: Health care workers want better guidance on handling immigration encounters. New law aims to help.
New reporting from NPR-affiliate KVCR probes the impact of ramped-up immigration enforcement on healthcare, including incidents where ICE has shown up in hospitals, terrifying patients and undermining patient care. A new California law, backed by healthcare unions, may offer a solution. SB-81 prohibits ICE from entering sensitive areas in hospitals and expands patient privacy protections to include immigration status and country of origin. The law also requires hospitals to train frontline staff on how to handle with ICE encounters.
SEIU 121RN Vice President Monique Hernandez spoke about an incident at Riverside Community Hospital in June, when ICE agents aggressively demanded patient information from nurses without properly identifying themselves.
“This is not something that [Nurses] should be dealing with,” said Hernandez. “You’re dealing with the life that is in your bed. You’re not dealing with the semantics, the politics behind it.”
A nurse at an Inland-Empire area hospital shared a first-hand account of visiting an undocumented woman in her home because was too fearful to seek care at the hospital.
“I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, you need to get this reviewed right away,” Connie said. “You could lose your limb. You could lose your finger.’ But telling her all of that…she was more fearful of immigration.”
SEIU 121RN will work to hold hospitals accountable to the new law.
