These doctors are equally concerned about their inability to ensure follow-up care for patients released to the ICE processing facility known as B-18 in downtown L.A.<\/a>, where critics say some detainees have been held for days on end with no proper beds or medical care.<\/p>\n HOW TO REACH THE REPORTER<\/p>\n If you have a tip about this or any other story, you can reach me on Signal. My username is @jillrep.79.<\/b><\/p>\n Why this matters<\/p>\n White Memorial is part of a network <\/a>of private, nonprofit hospitals affiliated with the Seventh-day Adventist Church, with $7 billion in annual revenue. The hospital has been operating for more than 110 years. Its calling is to \u201chelp improve the lives of our friends and neighbors in East Los Angeles and Boyle Heights,\u201d according to its website<\/a>.<\/p>\n Five physicians at White Memorial shared the details with LAist about ICE\u2019s presence at the hospital and hospital administrators\u2019 response on the condition that they not be named for fear of retaliation from their employer or from immigration authorities. LAist reviewed internal emails supporting their claims.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have an ethical and moral duty to provide excellent medical care and to serve the patient\u2019s interest,\u201d one doctor at White Memorial told LAist. But the doctor said the frequent presence of masked, armed immigration agents in the hospital makes it \u201cvery difficult to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n The physicians told LAist they believe the directives from their bosses conflict with the responsibilities all doctors have<\/a> to their patients and with guidance from<\/a> the California attorney general.<\/p>\n White Memorial did not respond to a request for an interview from LAist or to our emailed list of questions.<\/p>\n In a statement, a White Memorial spokesperson said the hospital\u2019s staff \u201care passionately committed to providing the highest standard of medical care to all who come through our doors, regardless of their circumstances\u201d and that the hospital has \u201cprotocols in place that are designed to help support the lawful respect of patient rights.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe are doing everything in our power to provide safe and compassionate care to our community during this time of unrest,\u201d the statement reads. It also urged people not to “delay the medical care you need.\u201d<\/p>\n Tricia McLaughlin, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, which includes ICE, did not respond to specific questions from LAist or agree to an interview.<\/p>\n In a statement, she wrote that \u201cICE is not denying any illegal alien access to proper medical care or medications.\u201d McLaughlin said it was \u201clongstanding practice to provide comprehensive medical care from the moment an alien enters ICE custody.\u201d<\/p>\n She added that she hoped LAist \u201cwould consider NOT writing this garbage\u201d in the wake of the recent shooting<\/a> outside an ICE detention center in Texas, where one detainee was killed and two injured. <\/p>\n \u201cThese types of smears are contributing to our officers facing a 1000% increase in assaults against them,\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n An analysis of federal court filings for assault on a federal officer by Colorado Public Radio<\/a> shows a sharp increase in charges in recent months. The data is far short of the scale suggested by officials<\/a>.<\/p>\n The bigger picture<\/p>\n A version of the conflicts described at White Memorial is happening across the state and the country<\/a> as hospitals are forced to contend with fallout from the Trump administration\u2019s mass deportation program. Caught in the middle are doctors and other medical professionals who have a legal duty<\/a> to provide medical care to patients and ethical concerns about policies they feel affect the traditional standards of care.<\/p>\n The five doctors who spoke with LAist say the conflicts are especially acute at White Memorial, a hospital whose patient and surrounding population is mostly Latino and where several doctors told LAist they\u2019re seeing two to three detained patients per shift.<\/p>\n The situation also raises questions about medical privacy at a time when the federal government is seeking access to sensitive <\/a>personal information<\/a>, including medical information<\/a> from both immigrants and U.S.-born citizens.<\/p>\n Lorenzo Antonio Gonz\u00e1lez is a physician who volunteers with Uni\u00f3n del Barrio<\/a>, which patrols Boyle Heights and other neighborhoods to warn people about ICE raids. He does not work at White Memorial but is aware of the doctors\u2019 concerns. He said he fears ICE\u2019s frequent presence at the hospital will further the chilling effect already causing many Boyle Heights neighbors \u2014 where more than 80% of households speak Spanish<\/a> and a quarter of residents are noncitizens \u2014 to forgo medical care and avoid leaving their homes. Gonz\u00e1lez called White Memorial\u2019s alleged behavior \u201can \u200aerosion of trust within this pillar of a community.\u201d<\/p>\n Anti-ICE protestors march out of Mariachi Plaza during the ‘Reclaim Our Streets” event in the Boyle Heights neighborhood on July 1, 2025. <\/p>\n (<\/p>\n Mario Tama<\/p>\n \/<\/p>\n Getty Images<\/p>\n )<\/p>\n How we got here<\/p>\n As immigration raids ramped up in Los Angeles this year, some detainees have needed urgent medical care, either because they were injured while being detained, had a pre-existing illness, or because they became ill while being held at the downtown immigration facility.<\/p>\n Some of these incidents became headlines. In July, a Salvadoran woman was brought to Glendale Memorial Hospital with injuries suffered during a raid. In that case, camera crews descended<\/a> on the hospital as activists protested the presence of ICE agents in the public lobby.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, White Memorial stayed out of the news. In June, a hospital leader sent an email to colleagues, flagging several incidents involving immigration detainees, including one in which agents remained in the room with a detained patient during the patient\u2019s entire stay at the hospital. The email also noted that agents told doctors they could not call the patient\u2019s family members when the patient couldn\u2019t remember her medications, according to the email and doctors who spoke with LAist.<\/p>\n Doctors at White Memorial and other hospitals told LAist it\u2019s not typical for law enforcement officers to remain in the room during patient care, even with criminal detainees, unless there\u2019s a serious security risk. People in ICE custody are civil, not criminal detainees. Doctors also told LAist it\u2019s common practice to call family members, with a patient\u2019s permission, to inquire about their medical history and current medications.<\/p>\n So the doctors at White Memorial pressed hospital administrators for a clear policy and legal guidance on how to balance ICE agent demands with the hospital\u2019s responsibilities for patient care.<\/p>\n The answer that came back from hospital administrators: defer to the agents.<\/p>\n Hospital leaders told doctors \u2014 both verbally, doctors say, and in writing in several emails reviewed by LAist \u2014 that immigration agents are allowed to be present at all times, even during discussions about a patient\u2019s sensitive medical information. Doctors also were told they could not call a detained patient\u2019s family member without an agent\u2019s permission. In one email to subordinates, a hospital leader told White Memorial staff that doing so could be a \u201csecurity risk.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s like encouraging medical negligence,\u201d one White Memorial doctor told LAist in response to this guidance.<\/p>\n At least one doctor told LAist they are defying hospital leaders\u2019 guidance, deferring instead to their medical duty to the patient and to follow medical privacy laws. <\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s no way you can get me to not call a patient\u2019s family if they\u2019re hurt and need support,\u201d the doctor said.<\/p>\n Why detainee care is under scrutiny<\/p>\n The concerns about White Memorial come at a time when the care of people in ICE custody is under scrutiny. In August, a man was severely injured while being detained at a car wash in Carson. Agents brought him to Harbor-UCLA medical center for treatment and remained by his bed, to which the man was cuffed, for over a month, according to a recent court ruling<\/a>. He was never charged with violating any immigration laws, and in October, a federal judge ordered the agents monitoring him to leave the man\u2019s hospital room and remove restrictions on the man\u2019s \u201cability to make telephone calls to family and friends and to confer confidentially with counsel outside the presence of ICE agents.\u201d<\/p>\n X’tiosu is located on the corner of Wabash and Forest avenues in Boyle Heights<\/p>\n Concerns about the medical care of detainees also extends to formal ICE detention centers. In September, Ismael Ayala-Uribe, a Westminster man who was being held at the Adelanto ICE Processing Center, became the 17th person to die in ICE custody<\/a> this year. Last year, 12 people died in ICE custody, according to agency statistics.<\/p>\n Ayala-Uribe, 39, was a former DACA recipient who supporters say had lived in the country since he was 4 years old. He was picked up in an ICE raid in Fountain Valley in August and sent to Adelanto<\/a>. From there, a medical provider at the detention facility sent Ayala-Uribe to a nearby hospital, where he was evaluated for an abscess, scheduled for surgery and sent back to the facility. He died in custody the following day.<\/p>\n Earlier this year, as immigration raids ramped up, the advocacy group Disability Rights California interviewed 18 people detained at the Adelanto ICE facility. In a subsequent report<\/a>, the group concluded that “due to the surging numbers of people at Adelanto, conditions appear to have quickly deteriorated.\u201d The report claimed detainees faced “inadequate access to medical treatment, such as life-saving medication and wound care and exposure to widespread respiratory illnesses.”<\/p>\n In response to LAist\u2019s emailed questions about medical care for ICE detainees, McLaughlin, the ICE spokesperson, said detainees received \u201cmedical, dental and mental health intake screening within 12 hours of arriving at each detention facility, a full health assessment within 14 days of entering ICE custody or arrival at a facility and access to medical appointments and 24-hour emergency care. This is the best healthcare \u2026 many aliens have received in their entire lives,” she wrote.<\/p>\n McLaughlin did not respond to LAist\u2019s follow-up email asking her to specifically respond to questions about hospital care for detainees outside of detention centers or to questions about the availability of health care at the B-18 processing center, which unlike the Adelanto facility, is not an official detention center.<\/p>\n In a recent, ongoing lawsuit over the L.A. immigration raids, the ACLU and other groups called out alleged unsanitary conditions and a lack of medical care at B-18. <\/p>\n \u201cIndividuals with conditions that require consistent medications and treatment are not given any medical attention, even when that information is brought to the attention of the officers on duty,\u201d reads the initial complaint<\/a>, filed in July.<\/p>\n One doctor at White Memorial told LAist she had called ICE supervisors at the holding center on several occasions to inquire about follow-up care for patients and was told there were no doctors at the facility and there was no way to obtain medication.<\/p>\n What this all means for detainees \u2014 and doctors<\/p>\n Other groups have tried to bring attention to the problems associated with immigration agents in hospital settings. The Committee of Interns and Residents<\/a>, which is is part of the Service Employees International Union, publicly denounced<\/a> the presence of ICE agents at University of California hospitals in July, saying it creates \u201can unsafe environment that \u2026 directly contradicts our mission to provide safe, effective and quality healthcare to every member of our community.\u201d<\/p>\n Mahima Iyengar, a doctor at L.A. General hospital and secretary-treasurer of the committee, told LAist that having a law enforcement officer present during doctor-patient conversations can compromise care.<\/p>\n \u201cThere’s that level of trust that people have with their doctor that they don’t necessarily have when somebody else is listening,\u201d Iyengar told LAist. \u201cYour doctor is then not getting as much information as they need, and that information \u2026 very well could be what helps them come up with a diagnosis or what helps them decide what treatment [the patient] is going to be on.\u201d<\/p>\n Iyengar said doctors also are unlikely to feel comfortable asking a patient important non-medical questions when an ICE agent is present. <\/p>\n \u201cA lot of what determines our patients’ health are all of these social determinants, like where they’re living, how they’re getting to the hospital, if they have money, if they have kids that need childcare right now while they’re hospitalized,\u201d she said. \u201cAll of those questions are important questions to ask that I would not personally feel comfortable asking if an officer was standing right there.\u201d<\/p>\n McLaughlin, the ICE spokesperson, did not respond to LAist\u2019s specific questions about whether the agency recognizes detained patients\u2019 privacy rights at hospitals.<\/p>\n What do legal experts say?<\/p>\n Last December, California Attorney General Rob Bonta issued \u201cguidance and model policies<\/a>\u201d for health care facilities in responding to the anticipated increase in immigration enforcement. The guidance is not mandatory for private hospitals, like White Memorial, but all health care facilities were \u201cencouraged to adopt\u201d model policies. Doctors who spoke with LAist said they had read the guidance and felt beholden to it.<\/p>\n The document states that:<\/p>\n A spokesperson for Bonta told LAist the attorney general could not comment on whether the office had received complaints about ICE privacy breaches in health care settings because they are confidential. <\/p>\n \u201cWe continue to monitor compliance with all state and federal laws,\u201d the spokesperson said in an email.<\/p>\n LAist also asked two health care legal experts about White Memorial\u2019s direction to staff to allow ICE agents to be present during patient exams and bar calls to detained patients\u2019 family members. Both said the guidance could violate medical privacy laws and ethical standards.<\/p>\n \u201cFrom a patient safety perspective, it certainly raises red flags,\u201d said Paul Schmeltzer<\/a>, an L.A.-based health care and data privacy lawyer, referring especially to the prohibition on calling a detained patient\u2019s family member. Schmeltzer also said letting an ICE agent remain next to a patient throughout their hospital stay without the patient\u2019s consent is likely illegal. Patient privacy is protected under the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA<\/a>, and California\u2019s Confidentiality of Medical Information Act<\/a>. Both generally prohibit doctors and hospitals from disclosing a patient\u2019s medical information without their permission or a search warrant or other court order.<\/p>\n Schmeltzer said he saw \u201cno permissible situation\u201d under these laws for \u201cdisclosing\u201d a detained patient\u2019s hospital treatment to an ICE agent. <\/p>\n \u201cThe fact that an ICE agent is present in the room while this patient is receiving treatment, that’s a disclosure,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Deven McGraw, chief regulatory and privacy officer for the company Citizen Health<\/a>, \u200aa patient data platform, agreed. <\/p>\n \u201c\u200aYou’re basically saying, \u2018Yeah, patient, you don’t have a choice but to disclose your medical information to this law enforcement official,’\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n
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