Federal immigration agents are more routinely showing up at California medical facilities as the Trump administration ramps up deportations.
CalMatters reports ICE agents may come to the emergency room, bringing in someone who's suffering a medical crisis while being detained. They may wait in the lobby, as agents did for two weeks at an L.A.-area hospital waiting for a woman to be discharged. Or they may even chase people inside, as federal agents did at a Southern California surgical center.
The sight of these agents -- often armed and with covered faces -- makes many wary and may keep people from seeking care.
Hospital officials said existing hospital policies guide operations when law enforcement brings in a person under arrest.
Yet immigration attorneys, advocates and health workers have expressed concerns over the handling of some of these cases, both by immigration officers and by some administrators at medical facilities.
Specifically, they're worried about the application of protocols like visitation rules, about threats to patients' legal and privacy rights, and about risks to hospital workers themselves.
