{"id":524221,"date":"2026-01-18T03:15:17","date_gmt":"2026-01-18T03:15:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/524221\/"},"modified":"2026-01-18T03:15:17","modified_gmt":"2026-01-18T03:15:17","slug":"homeland-security-audits-hennepin-healthcare-employee-records","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/524221\/","title":{"rendered":"Homeland Security audits Hennepin Healthcare employee records"},"content":{"rendered":"

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is auditing Hennepin Healthcare\u2019s employment records, causing fear among employees that the agency is looking for undocumented workers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

According to a statement from Hennepin Healthcare, DHS issued a subpoena to begin inspecting the organization\u2019s I-9 forms on Jan. 8. Hennepin Healthcare \u201chas supplied the information required by the subpoena,\u201d the statement says.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Upon starting employment, all employees in the United States are required to complete an I-9 form to verify their identity and work authorization. An I-9 form contains information such as the employee\u2019s citizenship or immigration status. Employers retain the I-9 form records, and the federal government may request them in audit. Hennepin Healthcare employs about 7,000 people across its hospital, Hennepin County Medical Center, and several neighborhood clinics.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sara Franck, president of AFSCME Local 2474, which represents workers at Hennepin Healthcare, said the organization employs a diverse workforce, and employees are \u201cdeeply concerned\u201d about the audit.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Health care workers already have stressful jobs, and this audit, as well as recent news surrounding immigration, are adding to that stress, Franck said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re worried about your patients, you\u2019re worried about your fellow co-workers,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s pulling at your heart.\u201d<\/p>\n

Franck said the union asked Hennepin Healthcare to not supply the information. But the organization is required to supply it by law, according to immigration employment attorneys.\u00a0<\/p>\n

DHS did not respond to a request for comment before publication.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The audit comes as health care workers and Minnesota leaders speak out against the ICE presence in HCMC.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI do not think it is a coincidence,\u201d said Matthew Webster, senior immigration attorney at the Minneapolis law firm of Fredrikson & Byron.<\/p>\n

Last week, advocates said that ICE agents shackled a patient to their hospital bed<\/a> and guarded their bedside. The agents eventually left \u201cafter Security asked for documentation to support their continued presence,\u201d according to a statement from Hennepin Healthcare. About 100 people, including HCMC workers, advocates and elected officials gathered outside the hospital demanding better policies surrounding ICE access to hospitals.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Earlier this week, health care workers spoke<\/a> at a Hennepin County Board of Commissioners meeting. Some asked for Hennepin County sheriff\u2019s deputies to remove ICE officers from the hospital if they don\u2019t show a warrant. Health care workers and an advocate from Unidos Minnesota also told Sahan Journal that ICE has been guarding the bedside of another patient.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Webster said that he\u2019s seen a substantial increase in I-9 audits in Minnesota since thousands of federal immigration officers came to the state. He said that I-9 investigations are typically targeted, but the recent surge has been \u201cindiscriminate.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cJust like ICE officers going door-to-door in neighborhoods like we\u2019ve been seeing in the Twin Cities, the same is true with the service of these I-9 audits, we\u2019re seeing it pretty indiscriminately,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ana Pottratz Acosta, a visiting professor at the University of Minnesota Law School and a clinical professor of law at Mitchell Hamline School of Law, said the audits put businesses \u201cunder a microscope,\u201d and they can face significant fines during an I-9 audit if they have issues with their paperwork or are employing someone who does not have work authorization.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The campaign of I-9 audits may be part of a \u201cweaponization of the power of the federal government to come after the state of Minnesota,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

In the first year of the second Trump administration, humanitarian protections have been terminated for individuals from many countries, which had granted those immigrants work authorization.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think that\u2019s kind of the impetus for the I-9 audits, but I will say that has significantly complicated employers\u2019 ability to do these I-9\u2019s,\u201d Webster said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In response to the audit and local immigration impacts, Franck said that health care workers are planning to participate in a statewide day of action to stand against ICE on Jan. 23. As essential workers, Hennepin Healthcare workers are unable to strike, but will stand in a \u201cunity break\u201d outside the hospital.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we\u2019re just taking it day by day,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is auditing Hennepin Healthcare\u2019s employment records, causing fear among employees that the…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":524222,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[210,1141,1142,126975,229746,5410,17635,3676,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-524221","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health-care","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-health-care","10":"tag-healthcare","11":"tag-hennepin-county","12":"tag-hennepin-county-medical-center","13":"tag-ice","14":"tag-minneapolis","15":"tag-u-s-department-of-homeland-security","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-unitedstates","18":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115913931223015690","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/524221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=524221"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/524221\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/524222"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=524221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=524221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=524221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}