President Trump's whittling away of protected places for immigrants has fueled fears among health care workers that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents will arrest patients in or around hospitals.

In January, the Trump administration rescinded a Biden-era policy that protected certain areas like churches, schools and hospitals from immigration enforcement. And lawmakers in at least one state have introduced legislation aimed at making it easier for ICE to make arrests in hospitals.

As the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) seeks to ramp up ICE raids at hotels, restaurants, farms and other sites, nurses worry their workplace could be next.

“We were all worried about what this meant,” Michael Kennedy, a nurse at a University of California, San Diego health facility located very near the U.S.-Mexico border, said of the policy changes under Trump.

“As we’ve seen these immigration raids ramp up, our first thought is about our patients and what that means for them.”

ICE agents made a record number of migrant arrests in a

© The Hill