For every week, two guards linked to the Division of Homeland Safety have camped out within the foyer of a Glendale hospital to observe the actions of a girl affected person admitted after she was arrested by federal brokers — a relentless watch that has been denounced by nurses, a state lawmaker and others.
Ariana Gomez, labor consultant at California Nurses Assn., which represents nurses at Dignity Well being Glendale Memorial Hospital and Well being Heart, mentioned Thursday that there’s “overwhelming discomfort” about using the guards.
“It is rather uncommon to have immigration-related guards within the hospital foyer for any size of time,” she mentioned. “This has by no means occurred earlier than.”
State Sen. Sasha Renée Pérez (D-Alhambra) mentioned their encampment reveals “how aggressive the Trump administration has turn out to be of their pursuit to demonize and goal our immigrant neighborhood.”
Personal guards sit within the foyer of Glendale Dignity Well being Glendale Memorial Hospital and Well being Heart on Thursday.
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Pérez additionally mentioned she’s going to again laws to make sure immigration brokers don’t enter the non-public areas of hospital services, comparable to emergency rooms.
At first, the guards positioned themselves behind a reception desk. The guards ultimately moved a few ft away and a number of other panels have been erected to partially obscure their presence from hospital guests within the foyer.
Photographs of the guards, who sit in chairs or stand, present them carrying masks, green-army shirts or pants. One photograph reveals a guard carrying an arm patch that reads: “Detention Officer.” Immigration advocates, who’ve been camped out within the foyer since final week, took the pictures.
On Monday evening, two of the guards declined to determine themselves to The Occasions.
Dignity Well being Glendale Memorial Hospital mentioned in an announcement that the “hospital can’t legally limit legislation enforcement or safety personnel from being current in public areas which embrace the hospital foyer/ready space.”
The affected person, Milagro Carolina Solis-Portillo, an El Salvador nationwide, was arrested July 3 by federal officers close to her Sherman Oaks dwelling and delivered to the hospital after she had a medical emergency throughout transport.
Solis-Portillo, 36, “is an unlawful alien from El Salvador who has been faraway from america twice and has been arrested for crimes of false identification, theft, and housebreaking,” DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin mentioned. She declined to touch upon the protocol of DHS-contracted safety at hospitals.
Gomez, the nurses’ labor consultant, mentioned the guards’ presence is intimidating to individuals who enter the foyer.
She additionally mentioned that some relations of sufferers is not going to go to as a result of they’re afraid. The nurses haven’t been given path from the hospital about what to say and tips on how to reply when individuals ask in regards to the guards. By legislation, nurses can’t share affected person data.
“The nurses don’t need the guards there,” Gomez mentioned.
In an announcement launched by way of her legal professional, Solis-Portillo mentioned that she was handled inhumanely throughout her arrest by the brokers, alleging that they yelled at her as she started vomiting whereas of their custody.
She instructed she got here to the U.S. for safety causes and disputed the federal government’s account of her background.
“I wouldn’t be secure in some other nation. I’ve by no means had a single legal conviction,” Solis-Portillo mentioned.
She mentioned that brokers advised her to “shut up” as she was being arrested and that she began “panicking and vomiting and drowning in my very own vomit” throughout her arrest.
“After they noticed how badly I used to be choking, they lastly exited the freeway right into a secluded space. As I threw up, they grabbed me by my head and yelled, ‘Cease! Cease!’ I used to be about lose consciousness, they usually laughed at me, handled me inhumanely and abused their authority,” she mentioned.
Lynn Damiano Pearson, senior employees legal professional on the Nationwide Immigration Legislation Heart, referred to as the guards’ prolonged presence within the hospital foyer “a fairly uncommon state of affairs.”
“I’d say completely that this can be a gross misuse of sources,” mentioned Pearson, who questioned whether or not the girl is a menace to public security.
Pearson, who will not be concerned within the case, mentioned that immigration officers can’t enter non-public areas in a hospital with no warrant.
McLaughlin disputed Pearson’s characterization of using the guards.
“I doubt the victims [Solis-Portillo] robbed and and burglarized would name it ‘gross misuse,’” mentioned McLaughlin. She mentioned that officers responded to her medical situation.
It’s a “longstanding apply to offer complete medical care from the second an alien enters ICE custody. This consists of entry to medical appointments and 24-hour emergency care,” she mentioned.
If Solis-Portillo has twice been eliminated twice from the U.S., she could also be topic to expedited elimination by the federal government with out extra court docket proceedings, mentioned Pearson.
DHS declined to offer extra particulars about Solis-Portillo’s case.
