The Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights held a statehouse lobby day last week to push its far-reaching veto session agenda.
Included in the coalition’s agenda are things like putting strict limits on executing civil immigration warrants in state courthouses. That would likely be challenged in court, but there is some common law precedent going back to the English court system, so we’ll see. Cook County Chief Judge Timothy Evans recently ordered that no civil arrests be enforced at county courthouses.
Immigration agents generally rely on civil arrest warrants. Illinois law requires judicial warrants before state and local police agencies can cooperate. A federal judge recently clamped down on the use of blank immigration civil warrants that are filled in after people are taken into custody.
The coalition also wants to expand the Illinois Trust Act’s definition of who is considered an immigration agent and cannot officially be cooperated with now that the federal government has conscripted numerous federal law enforcement agencies to its deportation agenda aside from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The definition of state and local law enforcement officers who cannot work with immigration police would be expanded to include university police, school resource officers and officers at the Department of Juvenile Justice.
The coalition also wants to bar direct ICE access to governmental databases and bar third parties that refuse to swear off giving that info to ICE. It also wants to expand restrictions on allowing ICE access to anyone in custody and sharing information with immigration officers.
But one proposal, the Healthcare Sanctity and Privacy Act, is causing a bit of concern among those who run hospitals in the state.
The measure, which has not been introduced in bill format, would “require hospitals to establish procedures for interacting with law enforcement as a way of protecting patient privacy,” a coalition spokesperson said, adding, “This bill will ensure that hospitals are taking the necessary steps to protect private hospital spaces and sensitive information at a time when the administration is attempting to further chill our communities from accessing care.”
The Illinois Hospital Association is naturally wary of being put in the middle of immigration enforcement situations.
The association pointed to two situations its members had already de-escalated this month involving ICE and detainees.
One was on Oct. 3, when masked people who refused to identify themselves brought an immigrant with a broken leg to an emergency room who they refused to say was in custody. The agents insisted on accompanying their prisoner to the operating room, which was denied by staff.
“Humboldt Park Health’s legal team rapidly deployed an immigration attorney to go to the hospital to help address and defuse the situation and ensure that proper procedures were followed by all the parties involved,” according to the association’s account.
This was the same situation that resulted in ICE briefly and roughly detaining 26th Ward Ald. Jessie Fuentes, who was checking on the patient.
Another incident a few days later occurred at Rush Oak Park Hospital, when ICE agents upon arrival “were initially uncooperative but did allow hospital staff to provide treatment to the patient unimpeded,” according to the Illinois Hospital Association.
Rush’s general counsel, the association claimed, “was notified and arrived to address and defuse the situation. ICE agents cooperated by answering questions, including giving their badge numbers. Ultimately, the ICE agents left because the patient was, in fact, a U.S. citizen, and the patient was eventually released from the hospital.”
Yes, you read that right.
When asked about the proposed legislation, an Illinois Hospital Association official said, “We already have protocols in place for law enforcement engagement. And patient privacy is already regulated under Federal HIPAA,” adding, “We will need to review their actual language to determine whether they are just asking to codify our current law enforcement engagement practices or whether they are asking hospitals to police ICE. The latter would be impossible for hospitals.”
Asked about the hospitals’ objections at a press conference last week, House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch pointed to Loyola Medical Center in his district. “ICE is just walking in and arresting people who are there trying to get taken care of medically. That’s not right. Hospitals should be a safe space.”
Welch then commended the lawmakers working on the legislation and said he hoped they could get something done by the end of the veto session on Oct. 30.
Rich Miller also publishes Capitol Fax, a daily political newsletter, and CapitolFax.com.