(This story has been updated to correct a reference to transportation to the hospital.)
There was a second act.
A follow-up immigration drama took stage outside an Oxnard hospital’s emergency room late in the afternoon of July 10. It came several hours after federal authorities conducted a massive immigration raid at Glass House Farms on Laguna Road near Camarillo. The action kicked off chaotic and tense confrontations between federal agents and hundreds of protesters.
Some of the demonstrators exposed to the gas used to disperse the crowds and injured were transported to St. John’s Regional Medical Center in Oxnard. An Oxnard Fire Department team decontaminated people of the chemical agents outside the emergency room, then the patients were treated inside.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents came to the hospital to pick up one of the patients who had been apprehended at the Laguna Road demonstration, said Oxnard Police Chief Jason Benites. The scene attracted the attention of the nonprofit immigrant advocacy group, VC Defensa, which issued a community call urging people to come to the hospital to protest.
A crowd of about 75 people gathered. They are shown chanting “We’re not leaving” in a mildly profane video. Oxnard police responded to the hospital, Benites said, noting the crowd was loud but did not obstruct authorities. No arrests were made.
Hal Weiss, a spokesperson for the SEIU 121RN nurses union, said the incident sent hospital into a lockdown state, restricting who was allowed in or out.
Oxnard Fire Chief Alexander Hamilton said the emergency room also went on diversion briefly, meaning ambulances that would have gone to St. John’s were sent to other hospitals.
VC Defensa members contended in videos immigration agents were initially refused entry into St. John’s though neither nor St. John’s nor ICE responded to questions about the interaction.
Eventually agents entered and took custody of the patient detained on Laguna Road. Leo Martinez of VC Defensa said it was a volunteer who protested at the Laguna Road demonstration with a leaf blower in an attempt to combat chemical agents.
Exact charges and circumstances of the arrest were unclear. Federal officials said on July 11 that four U.S. citizens were being processed for charges, including resisting officers.
Hamilton said he supports people’s right to protest. He also pointed out the diversion meant patients who need care had to go farther to receive it.
Benites said the incident also brought more accusations that local law enforcement is working with ICE, acting as their protectors or babysitters. He said the characterizations are untrue.
“Our role is not to take a side in these particular cases,” he said. “We are simply there to maintain order but that does require us to get in between both parties.”
Weiss and the nurses union worried about the next time immigration agents come to a hospital. Noting that nurses take an oath to advocate for their patients, Weiss said, St. John’s hasn’t provided enough training on what to do.
“ICE raids have created terror in immigrant communities, and hospitals have not been spared from the chaos that ensues after an enforcement action,” he said in a union statement. “Hospitals should have clear protocols on how staff should respond when there is an ICE presence at the facility, and they must provide training to frontline healthcare workers—including guidance on how to protect patient privacy while complying with the law.”
Tom Kisken covers health care and other news for the Ventura County Star. Reach him at tom.kisken@vcstar.com.
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This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Oxnard hospital scene of immigration raid aftermath
Reporting by Tom Kisken, Ventura County Star / Ventura County Star
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