In response to the Trump administration’s move to rescind the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) “sensitive locations policy,” which prevents immigration enforcement actions in or around locations like hospitals, schools, or places of worship, the following quote is attributable to Katherine Peeler, MD, medical advisor at Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) and assistant professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School:
“No one should have to hesitate to seek life-saving treatment because they fear detention, deportation, or being torn from their families.
“Eliminating protections for sensitive locations like hospitals will deter people from seeking essential medical care, putting their individual health at risk and jeopardizing public health. This is part and parcel of the Trump administration’s strategy to create a climate of fear that promotes discrimination and unnecessary suffering.
“Hospitals and clinics should be safe spaces where care is prioritized over fear. All patients and their families must be free to access care without fear of immigration consequences or discrimination. Patients must not have to choose between their health and their safety.
“As physicians and health care providers, we are compelled to provide care without discrimination. Immigration enforcement in hospitals undermines this fundamental medical ethics principle and threatens the core of the doctor-patient relationship: trust.”
The following quote is attributable to Altaf Saadi, MD, medical expert at PHR and assistant professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School:
“This decision should compel all health care organizations and leaders to take proactive action to uphold health care’s healing mission. We are not agents of law enforcement. We should do everything possible to prevent the erosion of trust and the patient-clinician therapeutic alliance.”
PHR documented the harms of immigration enforcement in and near health care facilities in a 2019 report, Not in my Exam Room: How U.S. Immigration Enforcement Is Obstructing Medical Care.
Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) is a New York-based advocacy organization that uses science and medicine to prevent mass atrocities and severe human rights violations. Learn more here.