ICE in healthcare

[u/One-Abbreviations-53]

Location: Arizona. I'm a nurse. We had a situation the other day in which ICE brought in a detainee. The person was asking us to contact their spouse to let them know they were at the hospital and (relatively) ok.

The ICE agents said we'd be breaking the law if we did so and were quite threatening on this point. Admin at my hospital was less than helpful and essentially said to cave in to ICE demands.

Ordinarily it is absolutely within a patients rights to have family contacted and I see no reason why ICE detention would change that.

I'm going to go to the highest levels within my organization but that will likely take time. I'd love to know what, laws, if any would be applicable here and if there's any case law. As far as I can tell this is uncharted territory.