California hospitals and clinics are on high alert as immigration raids continue and their patients — both legal residents and undocumented immigrants — afraid to step out are increasingly canceling medical appointments.
One Los Angeles-area clinic system, St. John’s Community Health, told CalMatters about a close encounter with officials who appeared to be immigration agents. Staff said armed officers wearing tactical gear tried to enter a parking lot in Downey, about 10 miles southeast of Los Angeles, where doctors and nurses in a mobile health clinic were seeing patients, many of them walk-ins from the community.
Alfredo Contreras, the driver of the mobile clinic, said five unmarked SUVs and vans on Wednesday morning pulled up to a gate in the parking lot where they had set up, located at a drug and alcohol recovery center. Contreras and a security guard stood in front of their vehicles, blocking the entrance.
Contreras said he and the guard “held our ground, we did not move” and the officers didn’t get out of their vehicles.
“I told (the security guard) ‘Don’t worry, they can’t come in without a warrant,’ so I’m sure they (agents) could hear us because their windows were down,” Contreras said.
Both of them started walking back as the center’s gate slowly closed in front of them. The agents eventually left after a few minutes, Contreras said.
Peggy Hernandez, the mobile clinic coordinator who also was at the scene, said while Contreras and the security guard dealt with the agents, her staff calmly alerted patients who were waiting in line. None identified themselves as being at risk because of their legal status, but still, she said both patients and staff were shaken up.
“That’s the first time they (immigration officials)…
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