Health needs, insurance woes compound fears for Minnesota families amid ICE operations
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Health care providers across the Twin Cities say the federal immigration enforcement surge is causing people to cancel their doctor’s appointments and postpone treatments — even if they are U.S. citizens or have other legal status in the country. Fears of losing health insurance are also mounting.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have turned up in hospitals and health care clinics in recent weeks, leading some patients to opt for telehealth appointments to avoid the risk of visiting the clinic, said Munira Maalimisaq, co-founder of Inspire Change Clinic in Minneapolis.
“When you are the most vulnerable, whether it’s someone going through a situation where they don’t feel safe, coming to a health care organization is a place where people feel like they could come to and get the resources that they needed,” Maalimisaq said.
Those concerns are compounded now by the loss of health insurance. Minnesota lawmakers last year voted to end affordable health insurance coverage for undocumented immigrants aged 19 and older.
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The state had offered coverage through MinnesotaCare, a health insurance program for low-income people. The Minnesota Department of Human Services said more than 15,000 undocumented adults were enrolled as of September. That coverage option ended Dec. 31.
The Legislature’s decision to end coverage drew a rebuke from the Minnesota Medical Association, which noted that when people have insurance “regardless of immigration status, we reduce the total number of emergency room visits, reduce rates of untreated chronic conditions and most importantly, help ensure that Minnesota communities are healthier.”
Maalimisaq said she is worried that the rollback of MinnesotaCare coverage will mean that a lot of people will not get preventive care and end up eventually in the emergency room.
‘Afraid to come to the hospital’
More than 480,000 immigrants live in Minnesota. A brief published by the Minnesota Budget Project and Unidos MN, an immigrant advocacy nonprofit, estimates that about 81,000 people living in Minnesota as of 2019 are undocumented.
“Minnesota is known for having high rates of access to health care and health insurance overall. In 2023, of the state’s population of roughly 5.7 million people, only 4.6 percent were uninsured, although immigrant Minnesotans had a much harder time getting the health coverage they need,” according to the brief.
Health care professionals at Twin Cities hospitals and clinics contacted MPR News and said the Trump administration's immigration and enforcement policies are causing many undocumented patients to withdraw into isolation, especially Latino and Somali families.
“They are afraid to come into the hospital,” Dr. Janna Gewirtz O’Brien, president-elect of the Minnesota chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, told reporters last week outside HCMC hospital in Minneapolis.
Lex Martin, a registered nurse at HCMC, echoed Gewirtz O’Brien’s concerns, noting that patients are scared, regardless of their immigration status.
“When the fear of being sick, injured, or the fear of your child being sick or injured is then compounded with the fear that you might be taken away and never see your loved one again — or that your family member might be detained at the hospital and never go home — that adds a level of fear and uncertainty that no person deserves,” Martin said.
‘Scary,’ heavy conversations
Maalimisaq’s clinic offers culturally responsive health care and education to marginalized communities and to anyone in Minnesota who needs assistance, regardless of their ability to pay.
Losing coverage adds unnecessary stress and acts as a barrier for individuals, families, and communities, she said.
“If we looked at statistics, even for people with insurance, for being a brown or black person, you are at a higher risk for so many different things,” Maalimisaq said. “This is just an added component now that is just going to make those numbers worse.”
Maalimisaq said over the past couple of weeks, large health care organizations have been reporting a decline in patient volume due to ICE activity. Providers are responding by working together to ensure that pregnant women, for example, receive timely prenatal care with midwives and obstetricians volunteering their time.
She said her goal is to make certain that care is delivered humanely, especially since she and her team have witnessed individuals being apprehended by ICE agents outside her clinic.
“The conversations are different. They’re heavier. They are scary,” Maalimisaq said about her interactions with her staff. “You go home, and you’re like, ‘I need five minutes to not even go inside the house, and I need to sit in my car, just so I can get normal before I go in to see my kids.”’
