Article details rights of patients in ICE custody

Immigration and Custom Enforcement agents are allowed to be in hospitals’ public areas and can accompany already-detained patients as they receive care, but detained patients have rights and can advocate for themselves or seek legal recourse, according to legal experts. Constitutional and health privacy laws permit all patients to ask to speak with medical providers in private and to seek and speak confidentially with legal counsel. ICE personnel should remain outside of patients’ rooms or outside of earshot during communication between patients and their medical provider as well as when patients communicate with lawyers. If ICE agents arrest someone without a warrant, they need to tell them why they were detained and cannot hold them for more than 48 hours without making a custody determination. (KFF News article, 11/17/25)