California lawmakers alarmed by the treatment of people brought to hospitals by federal immigration agents want to strengthen protections for detained patients receiving care at medical facilities, including by making it easier for their families and attorneys to find them.
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Two bills moving through the state Senate seek to prevent immigration enforcement officers from isolating patients from their loved ones and interfering with their ability to get legal help. Analyses for both bills cite reporting by KFF Health News that found family members and attorneys have faced extreme difficulty locating and supporting patients hospitalized while in immigration custody.
KFF Health News found that some hospitals have facilitated patient isolation through what are known as blackout policies, which can include registering people under pseudonyms, withholding their names from the hospital directory, and preventing staff from contacting patients’ relatives to let them know their location and condition.
A bill by Democratic state Sen. Caroline Menjivar of the San Fernando Valley, SB 915, would largely prohibit the use of blackout policies for patients in immigration custody and ensure they retain the right to have their families and others notified of their whereabouts and condition. Blackout policies would be allowed when the health care provider determines the patient is a credible risk to themself or others and the risk is documented in the patient’s medical record. Patients would also be allowed to receive visitors.
It seeks to address reports of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents guarding patients in their hospital rooms while they undergo medical exams or talk with doctors, interfering with medical decisions, and pushing for patients to be discharged prematurely to detention facilities ill-equipped to provide follow-up care.
“These are actions that have no place in health care, and it is a clear violati …