Increased immigration enforcement, deportations, and proposed changes to the public charge rule have led to a decrease in the use of health services and/or enrollment in public benefit programs among immigrant communities. Healthcare facilities have taken proactive actions to protect their immigrant patients and ensure they do not fear accessing healthcare services. These institutional policies and actions have occurred within and independent of “sanctuary” city and state laws. However, these policies and practices have not been systematically studied.
Cal-IHEA grantee Dr. Altaf Saadi has developed the first toolkit to analyze the new policies and actions healthcare facilities like hospitals and clinics have applied to both welcome and protect immigrant patients from immigration enforcement in the healthcare setting. Find Dr. Saadi’s qualitative study here, and check out the four-part video series describing the toolkit.