Fear of ICE is driving patients away from medical care

State of play: ICE agents have been reported at and near hospitals around the Twin Cities as President Trump's immigration crackdown continues.

• At a news conference last week, Minnesota OB-GYN Erin Stevens said she's seen an increase in requests for home births from patients afraid to enter hospitals.
• "Many of our patients, undocumented immigrants, naturalized citizens and U.S.-born citizens alike, fear leaving their homes for access to health care," Stevens said at the news conference. "They expressed to us a feeling of being hunted."
• Family physician Roli Dwivedi described a mother and child being forcibly separated in a clinic parking lot while visiting to fill a prescription. Some patients are even hesitating to make telehealth appointments because they're scared to take phone calls, she said.

Zoom out: Similar incidents have been reported elsewhere. Agents reportedly detained a mother, father and child outside of a Portland, Oregon, hospital earlier this month as the family was on their way into the emergency room.

• Over the summer, ICE agents detained a man inside a California surgery center, per local news outlets. At another hospital in the state, agents waited at the facility for more than two weeks for a woman they'd arrested to be discharged, CalMatters reported.
• Nearly 30% of immigrant adults across the country reported skipping or postponing care since January 2025, per a KFF/New York Times survey. About 1 in 5 cited immigration concerns as the main reason.

Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in an email to Axios that ICE does not conduct enforcement at hospitals.

• "If anyone is impeding Minnesotans from making appointments or picking up prescriptions, it's violent agitators who are blocking roadways, ramming vehicles and vandalizing property," she said.
• Officers will accompany detainees who need medical care to the hospital for monitoring and safety, in line with standard procedure for law enforcement, McLaughlin said.
• "We would only go into a hospital if there were an active danger to public safety," she said.

Yes, but: Health care providers say federal agents' presence is keeping them from doing their jobs.

• Providers have reported ICE agents refusing to leave patient rooms for private exams or while patients are being bathed, Lisa Mattson, president of the Minnesota Medical Association, told reporters at last week's news conference.
• "Their mere presence in the emergency departments make a difficult job even more stressful for all the staff," she said.

• The American Medical Association said in a statement Monday that immigration enforcement in and around hospitals "impedes the ability of physicians to render care, and ultimately undermines basic trust in our health care institutions."

Catch up quick: The Trump administration last January rescinded a Biden-era policy that made hospitals, as well as schools and churches, off limits to immigration enforcement.

• ICE agents can enter public spaces like waiting rooms and parking lots at any time but need a warrant to enter private areas, including hospital exam rooms.
• "We've been advising hospitals [that] they cannot put enough signage out there now that says restricted access, not public area, that kind of thing," said Alan Rothenbuecher, a partner at law firm Benesch, told Axios.
• He's also told health systems to recommend their employees keep political opinions off social media.
• "This is frustrating, because one of the big things about American rights is the freedom of speech. But ... we encourage people right now, if there's something you want to say, maybe you just don't say it," he said.

What we're watching: Trump on Monday signaled a willingness to decrease ICE presence in Minnesota. But the killing of 37-year-old nurse Alex Pretti last weekend by Border Patrol has infuriated health workers across the country.

• "ICE agents have been kidnapping hard working people — mothers, fathers, and children — and now murdered a registered nurse, one of the most trusted professions in the country," National Nurses United, the largest union of registered nurses in the country, said in a statement calling for the abolition of the agency.