{"id":505731,"date":"2026-10-23T20:34:13","date_gmt":"2026-10-23T20:34:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/505731\/"},"modified":"2026-10-23T20:34:13","modified_gmt":"2026-10-23T20:34:13","slug":"east-bay-immigration-arrest-raises-questions-about-ice-free-zones-training-at-hospitals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/505731\/","title":{"rendered":"East Bay Immigration Arrest Raises Questions About \u2018ICE-Free Zones,\u2019 Training at Hospitals"},"content":{"rendered":"

After immigration authorities detained a man in Emeryville last week and brought him to an Alameda County hospital<\/a>, some medical staff said they didn\u2019t receive legally required training that would have helped them respond to enforcement activity.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Several staff members at Wilma Chan Highland Hospital Campus in Oakland told administrators in a letter that the Oct. 16 arrival of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and a detainee \u201chighlighted major hazards to the rights and safety of our patients.\u201d<\/p>\n

Immigration agents brought a man to Highland for treatment after an agent allegedly tackled him and fractured six of his ribs, said Nikolas De Bremaeker, an attorney at Centro Legal De La Raza who represents the man.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Since then, De Bremaeker and some employees said agents allegedly tried to obstruct access to counsel, to direct medical treatment and to ask staff for medical information. The agent who tackled the patient, the attorney said, has been \u201csitting on his bed, grinning at him.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s incredibly scary,\u201d De Bremaeker told KQED. \u201cIt\u2019s just unacceptable for ICE agents to be terrorizing folks inside a hospital.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"One side of an Alameda Health System employee\u2019s \u201cbadge buddy\u201d that outlines how to respond to immigration authorities when they show up to one of the facilities. \u00a0(Courtesy of Iman Khalil)<\/p>\n

About two dozen community members were on the lookout for agents on Thursday morning for hours, being directed by others to make noise if immigration authorities exited or entered the facility. They\u2019d been showing up since Monday, an organizer said.<\/p>\n

The Alameda Health System, which Highland is a part of, declined to comment on allegations specific to De Bremaeker\u2019s client\u2019s care, citing patient confidentiality. But said, generally, law enforcement does not direct treatment and the system is complying with all laws and requirements concerning immigration enforcement in its facilities.<\/p>\n

In an earlier statement to KQED about the ICE activity, AHS said that it activated an Incident Command Center and that security personnel are on site monitoring developments.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are following all immigration response protocols,\u201d AHS said in the statement.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\nAlameda Health System\u2019s training falls short, staff says\n<\/p>\n

Some staff members told AHS in the letter that they \u201cat all levels, remain confused and consistently express a lack of clarity on policy when patients are brought in civil detention.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is out of step with current best practices in the state of California,\u201d the staff members wrote.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Senate Bill 81<\/a>, which took effect in September 2025, requires medical health care providers to restrict certain immigration information from being shared and, as part of new restrictions to nonpublic areas, facilities must inform staff on how to respond to requests to access sites and establish procedures for receiving visitors.<\/p>\n

\"\"The Wilma Chan Highland Hospital Campus is seen through flowering branches in Oakland on Feb. 24, 2026. The hospital is part of Alameda Health System.\u00a0(Gustavo Hernandez\/KQED)<\/p>\n

But staff told administrators the hospital system isn\u2019t in compliance with that law.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ansel Schmidt, a physical therapist at the Highland Hospital, isn\u2019t on the patient\u2019s care team, but helped draft the letter.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not sure that I\u2019ve received anything that I would call training,\u201d Schmidt told KQED. What Schmidt has received is a \u201cbadge buddy,\u201d or a reference guide, that he said implies staff can cooperate with ICE.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A badge buddy reviewed by KQED shows that staff are instructed to notify an administrator when a patient in ICE custody shows up for care. Providers request agents leave during evaluation, inform patients of their rights and, if they don\u2019t meet admission criteria, can be handed off to the ICE control office.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Iman Khalil, a respiratory therapist at San Leandro Hospital, part of the Alameda Health System, said staff members receive minimal training about what to do when immigration authorities show up. Khalil received the same badge and emails Schmidt did.<\/p>\n

\u201cAllowing the agents in the hospital \u2026\u00a0undoes all that training,\u201d Khalil said. \u201cYou really don\u2019t think they\u2019ll even allow the agents in the hospital. But here we are.\u201d<\/p>\n

AHS CEO James Jackson told staff that AHS believed the man in ICE\u2019s custody at the hospital was part of the agency\u2019s civil immigration enforcement authority and called on personnel to review established immigration response protocols, according to an Oct. 19 email obtained and reviewed by KQED.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\nICE-free zone?\n<\/p>\n

Highland Hospital, which sits on county property, also falls under Alameda County\u2019s \u201cICE-free zone\u201d ordinance that limits cooperation with federal immigration authorities.\u00a0<\/p>\n

County supervisors and advocates touted the policy, of which similar ones have been adopted across the Bay Area, as a way to push back against violent and sometimes deadly actions by immigration agents during the second Trump administration. In January, agents fatally shot Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minnesota during a surge of immigration enforcement.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But Alameda County Sheriff Yesenia Sanchez and other officials have also noted the limits of just how far the ICE-free zone can go. It doesn\u2019t prevent immigration officials from actually being on county property, Sanchez said previously<\/a>. Officials in other jurisdictions with these \u201czones\u201d have even referred to them as symbolic \u2014 or a way to create<\/a> \u201cfalse expectations.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"One side of an Alameda Health System employee\u2019s \u201cbadge buddy\u201d that outlines how to respond to immigration authorities when they show up to one of the facilities. \u00a0(Courtesy of Iman Khalil)<\/p>\n

De Bremaeker said his client is still in ICE custody as of Thursday afternoon. Another man he represents was detained by ICE in the San Antonio neighborhood in Oakland on the same day, before being taken to another hospital for injuries that De Bremaeker said were sustained because of the officers\u2019 actions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The two cases are part of an \u201cunprecedented escalation\u201d of violence from ICE, De Bremaeker said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The attorney called on federal lawmakers to launch a congressional inquiry into ICE\u2019s actions and, in particular, the agency\u2019s activity in hospitals.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have been occupying these hospitals for days, creating an incredible threat to community members, terrifying folks who need medical care from going to the hospital,\u201d De Bremaeker said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Renee Coe, with the Party for Socialism and Liberation, is among the community members who came out to keep watch for ICE at the hospital. She said some community members are scared to show up to the hospital because of federal agents\u2019 presence, but urged them not to put off medical care.<\/p>\n

AHS said its property is not being used as a staging area, operations base or processing location for immigration enforcement activities, and the immigration vehicles currently on Highland property are present \u201conly in connection with a patient who is in immigration enforcement custody.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Several Oakland residents are holding an emergency press conference at 6 p.m. on Friday in front of Highland to demand the release of De Bremaeker\u2019s client and accountability for local authorities, security contracting with the facility and AHS \u201ccontinuously\u201d assisting ICE operations at the hospital.\u00a0<\/p>\n

KQED\u2019s Brian Krans<\/a> contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After immigration authorities detained a man in Emeryville last week and brought him to an Alameda County hospital,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":505732,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[143,145,144],"class_list":["post-505731","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505731","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=505731"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505731\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/505732"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=505731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=505731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=505731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}