Doctors warn ICE presence is harming patient care across Minnesota
Go Deeper.
Create an account or log in to save stories.
Like this?
Thanks for liking this story! We have added it to a list of your favorite stories.
Dozens of physicians from across Minnesota say patients are suffering due to the presence of U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in hospitals and clinics.
Sen. Matt Klein, DFL-Mendota Heights, is a physician of 35 years and reported encountering violations of patient rights for the first time in his career since thousands of ICE agents have poured into the state. He has heard accounts of people avoiding medical care due to fear of ICE, and patients’ privacy compromised while in federal custody.
“Patients are afraid to come in and seek care. When they do come in, ICE is pursuing them, with or without legal means or justification, and our medical staff feel intimidated and afraid to do the good work that they should do,” Klein said.
Dr. Erin Stevens, legislative chair for the Minnesota section of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, emphasized that many patients who are undocumented immigrants, naturalized citizens and U.S.-born citizens, fear leaving their homes to access health care.
Turn Up Your Support
MPR News helps you turn down the noise and build shared understanding. Turn up your support for this public resource and keep trusted journalism accessible to all.
“They expressed to us a feeling of being hunted,” Stevens said.
She added that some patients are giving birth alone, while others are missing, canceling or postponing prenatal care appointments due to the fear of being targeted by immigration officials at medical facilities.
Stevens mentioned that individual providers, clinic groups and hospitals are working to increase home health services, mobile visits, and telehealth care to meet patients’ needs.
Dr. Roli Dwivedi, a family physician with over 19 years of practice in Minnesota, said that she has “never witnessed this level of chaos and fear” in health care for patients and health care teams. “It is tragic and unthinkable,” Dwivedi said.
Dwivedi said a patient who depends on insulin for diabetes management stopped visiting the clinic, and had run out of both medicine and food.
“We are seeing levels of food insecurity that are simply horrific. One teenager nearly collapsed from starvation and was surviving on a single egg over three days after her entire family was detained,” Dwivedi said. “No one deserves to die or suffer because of how they look or how they speak or where they were born.”
This story also appeared on the MPR News immigration enforcement live blog on Jan. 20.
