ICE agents often ignore safety and privacy practices for detainee patients, Tacoma nurses say
ICE agents often ignore safety and privacy practices for detainee patients, Tacoma nurses say
Publish Date: 2026-02-18 14:53:00
Source Domain: www.kuow.org
Nurses at St. Joseph’s Medical Center in Tacoma say that since the beginning of President Donald Trump’s second term, they’ve seen many more ICE detainees come to the hospital as patients — always accompanied by two ICE agents acting as guards.
The nurses allege that these agents have repeatedly ignored practices safeguarding patients’ privacy, health, and safety, including by refusing to leave detainees’ rooms during catheter changes, shackling a detainee so tightly to a bed they caused nerve damage to the person’s hand, and refusing to wear required masks and gowns in rooms where patients had communicable diseases.
The nurses say they’ve asked hospital administrators to intervene, to no avail.
“I feel like [ICE agents] treat [detainees] like they’re animals,” one nurse said. KUOW agreed not to publish her name due to fears of professional retaliation.
“It makes me mad,” she added. “They’re running the show when it comes to these patients. They’re in our house; they should follow our rules.”
The nurses KUOW interviewed for this article — one medical and surgical nurse, and a union representative for all the nurses at the hospital — say the agents guarding these patients are creating safety hazards for patients and others, and are making it impossible for the detainees to receive safe, dignified care.
RELATED: Washington lawmakers want to restrict ICE access to schools, health facilities
The nurses say they want, at the very least, hospital administrators or Virginia Mason Franciscan Health, which owns the hospital, to clarify what the policies and procedures are for ICE agents, especially when there’s a disagreement between the agents and the frontline care staff.
But their asks go further than that.
“What I think most nurses want to see is … ICE out of our hospitals,” said Jared Richardson, a nurse and union organizer for the Washington State Nurses Association. “We think…
