ICE impact on healthcare in MN
This is U.S. citizens avoiding care | 5 min read
“This is heartbreaking. This is U.S. citizens avoiding care.”
☝️This from Janna Gewirtz O'Brien speaking on Minnesota Public Radio about the growing presence of federal enforcement in Minnesota and how it’s affecting health care.
We hear these same stories from moms we serve through our MN Chapter of Chamber of Mothers.
Here’s our reality today in Minnesota:
- Immigrant patients and patients of color, delaying life-saving care and avoiding appointments
- Newborn nurseries, meant to be the happiest units in hospitals, filled with fear
- Babies in clear respiratory distress during peak flu season, with parents unsure it’s safe to bring them in
- Pregnant patients missing ultrasounds, sometimes resulting in pregnancy loss
- Expectant mothers laboring at home, even if it’s not medically appropriate
Layer onto this the direct attack on our already strained health care workforce. Clinicians and interpreters are scared to practice. Staffing numbers squeezed and burnout reaching it's breaking point.
All driven by the risk of being targeted and detained by ICE agents—hunted based on skin color or accent.
This harm is inflicted by our own federal government.
Health systems and communities are trying to adapt: with telehealth, mutual aid, rides to appointments, and meeting patients in their communities.
But it’s not enough, and it’s not sustainable.
Each missed visit is a missed opportunity to intervene. Instead, early red flags escalate into ER visits and ICU-level care. This stress compounds too, turning into generational trauma we’ll live with for years.
This is a public health crisis. It’s unacceptable and completely avoidable.
Hospitals and clinics should be safe havens. Places where the sick, pregnant, and immunocompromised feel protected. Not where anyone worries about their privacy being violated or being shackled at the bedside.
Learn more about what’s happening in Minnesota:
- From MPR here
- NEJM letter from MN physicians here
Then, turn your outrage into action.
📣 Call your Senator today: This week, Congress is debating DHS funding and we need to demand better here.
As MN-based physicians wrote NEJM: “We are bearing witness to what fear can do to the health of a community.”
Learn more about what I’m fighting for here.
