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For a week, two security guards associated with the Department of Homeland Security camped in the lobby of Glendale Hospital to monitor the movements of a female patient admitted after being arrested by federal agents.
Ariana Gomez, a labor representative for the California Nurse Association, who represents nurses at the Dignity Health Glendale Memorial Hospital and Health Center, said on Thursday that she was “overwhelming discomfort” with the use of security guards.
“It’s very rare to have long-term immigration security guards in the hospital lobby,” Gomez said. “This has never happened before.”
California Sen. Sasha Rene Perez said their camps show “how aggressive the Trump administration has become to their pursuits to demonize and target our immigrant communities.”
On Thursday, July 9th, I sit in the lobby of Glendale Deenety Health Health Glendale Memorial Hospital and Health Centre. The security guard was in the hospital all week.
(Maggie Cisco)
Perez also said it supports the law to prevent immigrants from entering private areas of hospital facilities, such as emergency rooms.
Initially, the guards placed themselves behind the reception desk. The guards eventually moved a few feet away, with several panels being erected, partially obscuring their presence from hospital visitors in the lobby.
Photos of security guards sitting on chairs and stands show them wearing masks, green shirts or pants. One photo shows a guard wearing an arm patch with the words “Detention Officer.” Immigrant advocates who have been camped in the lobby since last week took the image.
On Monday night, two security guards refused to identify themselves in the era.
“A hospital cannot restrict law enforcement or security personnel from being in public areas, including hospital lobby/waiting rooms,” the Dignity Health Glendale Memorial Hospital said in a statement.
El Salvador National patient Milagro Carolina Soris Portillo was arrested by federal officials near Sherman Oaks’ home on July 3 and was subsequently taken to hospital after suffering a medical emergency in transit.
Solis-Portillo, 36, is “an illegal Salvador alien who has been taken away from the United States twice and arrested for crimes of false identification, theft and robbery,” said DHS Deputy Chief Tricia McLaughlin. She declined to comment on the DHS contract security protocols in hospitals.
Gomez, a nurse’s labor officer, said the presence of security guards is intimidating to those entering the lobby.
She also said that some of the patients’ families would not visit because they were afraid. Nurses are not given instructions from the hospital as to what to say when people ask about security guards or how to respond. By law, nurses cannot share patient information.
“The nurses don’t want security guards there,” Gomez said.
In a statement released through her lawyer, Solis Portillo said she was treated inhumanely when she was arrested by her agents, claiming she cried out at her when they began vomiting while in custody.
She proposed that she came to the US for security reasons and challenged the government’s explanation of her background.
“I’m not safe in any other country. I’ve never been a criminal conviction,” Solis Portillo said.
She said that the agent said “shut up” when she was arrested and that she began “panic, vomiting and drowning” during her arrest.
“When they saw how badly I was choking, they finally came across a place off the highway. When I threw it at me, they grabbed me with my head and cried out. Stop!” I lost consciousness, they laughed at me, treated me inhumanely, abused their authority. ”
Lynn Damiano Pearson, a senior staff attorney at the National Center for Immigration Law, called the widespread security guards in the hospital’s lobby “a rather unusual situation.”
“I would absolutely say that this is a terrible misuse of resources,” Pearson said.
Pearson, who is not involved in the case, said immigration officers cannot enter the hospital’s private area without a warrant.
McLaughlin challenged Pearson’s characterization of guard use.
“I doubt the victim [Solis-Portillo] Robbers and robbers would call it “a terrible misuse,” McLaughlin said.
She also said, “It’s a long-standing practice to provide comprehensive medical care from the moment aliens enter ice custody, including medical appointments and 24-hour emergency care.”
If Solis-Portillo is removed twice from the US, she could be subject to rapid government removal without additional court proceedings, Pearson said.
DHS declined to provide additional details regarding the Solis-Portillo case.
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