Workers describe ‘disruptive’ ICE presence inside Minneapolis’ Hennepin County Medical Center

Sahan Journal, a nonprofit digital newsroom dedicated to reporting for immigrants and communities of color in Minnesota, reported that dozens of healthcare professionals and community members expressed concern about the presence of federal immigration officers at Minneapolis’ Hennepin County Medical Center (HCMC) at a Hennepin County Board of Commissioners meeting Tuesday.

The outlet reports that healthcare workers described the presence of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in the hospital as creating “immense fear for patients and hospital staff alike,” has made it difficult to do their jobs, and that “patients who are undocumented are not coming in to get care over fears they may encounter ICE.”

“Our staff are afraid for their safety, afraid for the safety of their patients, and it is causing incredible disruption to the work that’s happening at Hennepin Healthcare,” said Brian Muthyala, MD, MPH, a physician at Hennepin Healthcare.

Some of the workers, including physicians, called for Hennepin County Sheriff’s deputies to remove federal agents for trespassing if they don’t show a warrant. They reported that hospital security personnel who have asked federal agents to leave the facility have been met with noncompliance.

Sahan Journal quoted Dillon Kurila, MD, a surgical resident at HCMC, about one of his patients who is in ICE custody. “I am here on behalf of myself as well as my fellow residents who are being prevented from providing proper care for this patient,” he said at the Hennepin County board meeting.

Other HCMC providers, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Sahan Journal that ICE agents have been at the bedside of the patient for the past several days, and at one point shackled the patient’s legs together. One said federal agents have been working in shifts inside the hospital, with typically two and up to four agents in the patient’s room at a time.

A hospital employee said multiple providers confronted the agents about restraining the patient, including a verbal argument in the hallway, with the shackles eventually removed. “It felt like the ICE people just thought that the person was just less than a person, or, like, less than an animal or something,” the healthcare worker told Sahan Journal.

“It has been extraordinarily frustrating to know that private areas of our hospital have been infiltrated … by ICE agents,” Hennepin County Commissioner Angela Conley, whose district includes HCMC, told Sahan Journal. “It is our position that we don’t believe that they should lawfully be in that building.”

Read Sahan Journal’s full report here.