As President Donald Trump’s deportation efforts in Chicago scale up, health care providers are promoting telehealth for people in immigrant communities. They say it’s too soon to assess the impact of Trump’s campaign, which is expected to last about six weeks, but they are prepared.
“Any time there is a wave of increased ICE activity, we will see a wave of patients opting to cancel appointments or do them by telehealth,” said Steph Willding, CEO of CommunityHealth, a primary and specialty care provider that treats uninsured adults and many immigrants.
When immigration enforcement has spiked this year, she said they saw higher rates of cancellations, no-shows and lower medication pickup rates, especially at their location in Little Village, where many immigrants live.
This is another period of intense uncertainty, Willding said.
“There’s a lot of ways in which our command structure right now is operating similarly to how we did during the first months of the pandemic, where we are taking it day by day,” Willding said.
Last week, at least three clinics operated by Esperanza Health Centers saw an increase in no-show appointments in anticipation of Trump’s deportation campaign in Chicago, said Ricardo Cifuentes, vice president of external affairs.
CommunityHealth, Esperanza Health Centers and Cook County Health are highlighting their telehealth services to patients. The county is encouraging patients to call (312) 864-0200 or to visit their ExpressCare website, https://cchvirtualcare.org/, for nonemergency medical concerns.
CommunityHealth also has a partnership with Uber Health to give patients rides to their appointments, which include care for a range of chronic conditions, so they can avoid public transportation. Patients who need to pick up medication can also designate another person to pick up their prescription, Willding said.
They also created a position for someone to monitor the facility’s front door at all times, she said. In addition, staff members have been trained on immigrant rights and on how to differentiate between warrants that ICE agents could present.
“We’ve run drills on all of that, as well to ensure that … what we hope is an unlikely event of federal immigration coming to CommunityHealth, that we are prepared for engaging with them,” Willding said.
Staff and volunteers at CommunityHealth try to reassure patients on the steps they are taking to protect immigrants because some patients have told them they are only leaving their homes for doctor’s appointments, Willding said. And although an increase in ICE can cause stress and anxiety, they have so far not seen an increase in referrals for behavioral health services.
“For some of our patients, when they leave their home, they fear that they will never go back … that they will be taken, and so when you are in that survival mode, your hierarchy of needs becomes very different than it does under normal circumstances,” Willding said.
Cifuentes said the anxiety and fear of ICE agents and the possible deployment of the National Guard has cast a shadow not just for immigrants but for many staff and community members. And while they will assess if they need to close early on a certain day depending on activities in the city, he said the clinics will continue to welcome immigrants.
“We’re committed to remaining open,” Cifuentes said. “People need to know that they can continue to get their health care where they need and somewhere that they trust. And that’s what we’ll continue to do.”