St. John’s Community Health Clinic in South Los Angeles is buzzing with patients, but community health worker Ana Ruth Varela is concerned that the hustle and bustle may soon turn into an eerie silence. Many patients, she explains, are afraid to leave their homes amidst the looming threat of immigration raids.
The fear of mass deportations following Donald Trump’s return to the White House has gripped immigrant communities across the nation. For years, a longstanding policy prevented immigration agents from making arrests in or near sensitive locations like schools, places of worship, hospitals, and health centers. However, Trump swiftly overturned this rule in January, shortly after taking office.
Benjamine Huffman, acting secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), revoked the directive on January 21st. A DHS spokesperson stated that this move would assist agents in targeting immigrants with criminal records. The administration emphasized that they would not hinder law enforcement efforts and instead trust agents to use common sense in their operations.
The swift policy shift caught Darryn Harris off guard. As the director of government affairs and community relations at St. John’s, Harris is racing to train over 1,000 employees on reading judicial orders while preparing them for a new role—educating patients about their constitutional rights.
In California, Attorney General Rob Bonta advises clinics to disseminate information regarding patients’ right to remain silent and connect them with legal aid organizations. Bonta also urges healthcare providers not to disclose patients’ immigration status in billing or medical records. While staff are not obligated to physically impede immigration agents, they are not required to assist in arrests, according to Bonta’s office.
Despite occasional immigration arrests in hospitals during Trump’s first term, the overarching policy maintained respect for “sensitive locations.” The DHS now argues that these previous rules hindered law enforcement efforts by creating safe havens for undocumented individuals to evade detention.
Matt Lopas, from the National Immigration Law Center, stresses the importance of having trained individuals in healthcare settings to interpret and validate judicial orders when immigration officers seek access to health information or private spaces like examination rooms.
In the San Francisco Bay Area, Zenaida Aguilera has been tasked with reading arrest warrants for La Clínica de La Raza. As the compliance, privacy, and risk officer for the clinic network, Aguilera is on standby at the organization’s 31 community clinics if immigration agents appear. She is also responsible for training hundreds of healthcare employees.
Aguilera is concerned that California may be a target for immigration law enforcement due to its large undocumented population, the highest in the nation according to the Pew Research Center. With approximately 2 million undocumented residents in the state, she worries about the implications of heightened enforcement actions.
La Clínica plans to display posters outlining patients’ constitutional rights in clinic lobbies and provide resources such as legal assistance contact information. Aguilera expresses a desire for the clinic to focus on patient care rather than training staff on responding to potential ICE incursions.
The challenges faced by St. John’s Community Health and La Clínica de La Raza underscore the broader implications of immigration policy changes on healthcare delivery and community well-being. As frontline workers navigate these uncertain times, their dedication to patient care remains unwavering.
