Story and photos by Pete Shaw
On Saturday January 10 over 300 people gathered in Stanton Park, just across the street from the Legacy Emanuel Medical Center (LEMC) in North Portland, demanding that Legacy management respect the hospital’s staff and patients by ceasing their collaboration with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE). Legacy management has come under fire from numerous labor unions, immigrant rights organizations, and community groups for jeopardizing the rights, healthcare, and well-being of immigrants detained by ICE taken to the hospital for medical treatment. Nurses and staff at Legacy Emanuel have also decried management’s collusion with ICE at the expense of these nurses and staff ethically performing their jobs, including retaliating against them when they speak up for their patients and themselves.
The rally was organized in part by Portland Contra Las Deportaciones (PCLD), a grassroots organization fighting for immigrant rights and an end to all deportations. Omar Gil of PCLD thanked the crowd for coming out to protest “the disgusting disregard for the lives of immigrants” occurring at Legacy Emanuel. He noted that the Oregon Nurses Association (ONA) had sent Legacy Emanuel president Bahaa Wanly a letter “demanding that immigrants receive the same treatment and rights that all other patients have, that there are measures taken to track and report all ICE activity at the hospital, as well as reject any of their input when it comes to patient care, and for nurses and other staff to be allowed to inform patients about their rights.”
The letter referenced by Gil was sent to Wanly in early December and expressed concern with both LEMC’s apparent lack of compliance with state and federal laws, as well as with Legacy’s own policies. “These concerns,” the ONA wrote, “center on the Legacy’s potential failure to comply with basic tenets of patient confidentiality, patient autonomy over medical decisions, and the Oregon Nurse Practices Act. ONA has received reports that these failures have arisen repeatedly during the course of care for patients who are also interacting with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers. Specifically, it appears that LEMC may be failing to adhere to its HIPAA obligations and its own policies. Despite Legacy’s policies largely reflecting appropriate compliance with statutory obligations, there is a growing gap between Legacy’s written policies and the actual practices nurses are witnessing.”
On January 8, with Legacy having failed to provide a substantive response, ONA spokesperson Peter Starzynski stated, “Legacy’s silence and lack of response is deeply concerning. When ICE activity interferes with patient care, frontline caregivers are placed in an impossible position–forced to choose between their ethical obligations and unclear or unsafe practices. Legacy has refused even the most basic step of meeting with us to address these concerns and ensure ICE is held accountable.”
Speaking on behalf of the Defend Migrants Alliance, Claudia stated, “Legacy Emanuel’s collaboration with ICE endangers migrants, endangers nurses, and violates the code of conduct healthcare professionals are sworn to uphold,. We will not accept this. We stand with the migrants inside of Legacy who are seeking medical care and are instead having their rights violated. And we stand with the nurses who are forced against their will to comply with illegal and immoral practices. We uplift the demands of the Oregon Nurses Association that Legacy stand with all migrants who seek medical support, to force ICE to follow the basics of the law, to put the decision making power in the hands of migrants, uphold HIPAA, and provide education and interpretation to patients in ICE custody.”
Monica Weathersby, Equity Director of the Oregon Education Association (OEA), asked the crowd, “Why are hospitals here? Is it to threaten vulnerable people and stop them from getting care? Legacy touts how patient-centered they are, but do their actions show that? It needs to be healthcare professionals, not ICE agents, who are setting the standards of patient care.”
Weathersby linked the demands of the ONA with those of the OEA, while connecting the power of their unions in the struggle against ICE. “The Oregon Education Association stands with you. Just as you are fighting to protect your patients from ICE in this hospital, we too are fighting to protect our students from ICE inside our schools. Thank you for your courage in speaking out and defending the care and privacy of our patients. Educators and healthcare workers are beacons of hope in our communities because our communities know that we fight for them.”
About 40% of nurses and healthcare workers in the Legacy Health system are part of the ONA and the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees. The 1,095 nurses at Legacy Emanuel voted to unionize in early 2025 (as did their fellow nurses at Randall Children’s Hospital and Legacy Good Samaritan Medical Center). Until recently, Legacy Health had been staffed by non-unionized healthcare workers.
Weathersby also offered encouragement, advice, and solidarity. “Legacy must live up to its mission and your solidarity and union power is the best opportunity we have to make them do that. In OEA we have begun negotiating protections against ICE for students into our collective bargaining units. As more and more Legacy workers continue to unionize, I encourage you to do the same. Because every single patient, every single person deserves dignity of care just as every single child deserves to be safe at school. Through your union, Legacy, you have the power. You have the power to make them change. I want you to keep using it and standing up for what’s right. And on behalf of our 42,000 members, Oregon educators stand alongside you.”
The rally came at a time when the abject violence of ICE and its masked agents who function as fascist shock troops for the Republican Party and Republican president Donald Trump has been seared into the minds of people across the country and around the world who saw the footage from three days earlier showing Renee Good’s murder at the hands of ICE agent Jonathan Ross. While Renee Good’s murder was surely horrifying, ICE has for years inflicted wanton violence upon non-white people. Under Trump, that violence has been amped up, backed up by a white supremacy that considers non-white people as in the country illegally by definition. Daily brutality against migrant communities by ICE has become commonplace.
Gil situated what is happening at Legacy Emanuel within that wider targeting of and brutality against immigrants in the US. “The gross dehumanization coming from the Trump Administration has bolstered violence against immigrants at the hands of federal agents. Immigrants are afraid to leave their homes due to racial profiling and the utter disregard for everyone’s constitutional rights. Now the healthcare of immigrants is being impacted. With ICE agents looming over them in the hospital, immigrants are put in a position where they cannot be truthful about their symptoms and mental health. Nurses and other healthcare staff are discouraged and prevented from providing the utmost care to immigrants as well as providing them with life changing resources in their fight against ICE. It is for these reasons that we demand an end to the retaliation against the staff, ICE out of Legacy Emanuel, ICE out of all hospitals, ICE out of Portland, and ultimately ICE out of everywhere.”
Blaire Glennon, who also helped organize Saturday’s rally, was one Legacy Emanuel nurse who spoke up against Legacy management’s collaboration with ICE. She also faced retaliation from management and no longer works at the hospital. Glennon had been protesting outside the ICE prison on South Macadam for a few months and taking in the news of ICE’s violence around the country when she found out that “my hospital had become the go-to sight for ICE to bring people injured during their ICE detainment, and that they were also colluding with ICE.”
“During town halls,” Glennon continued, “I was disappointed to hear Legacy management double down on their support of ICE. At Emanuel, staff were told by leadership that ICE can guide patient care up to and including early discharge. That we couldn’t contact patients’ families until after discharge, or even provide legal information to patients. Staff were even told by Legacy leadership that most ICE detainees were criminals, which is wildly false. When ICE was on my unit personally, we were told to keep our opinions to ourselves and just do our jobs. We were told to ignore the reality of what ICE was doing inside the hospital and in our community.”
Glennon refused to ignore reality. Due to Legacy’s inaction, she decided to give public testimony to the Portland City Council on November 19 about what was going on at Legacy Emanuel. As well, she began placing “Constitutional rights information red cards” in break rooms. About two weeks later, Glennon was put on administrative leave after a security guard overheard her offering red cards to another nurse. “I had already been disciplined for hurting management’s feelings while doing protected union activities and speaking up for the rights of patients and staff,” she said, “so I was not really surprised when they retaliated against me more.” Glennon also said that Legacy has retaliated against “numerous other nurses who have voiced concerns about collaboration with ICE.”
She closed by saying, “We need our elected leaders to stand up and take real action against ICE terror instead of putting up pretty talking points. ICE must be banished from Oregon and taken apart nationally. The immigration system must be reformed to reflect the needs of the people and not some made-up nationalist agenda based on the dreams of the ultra-wealthy. Now is the time to abolish ICE.”
The ONA has called upon the Legacy Health system to immediately sign a binding Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to protect the rights, safety, and privacy of people in ICE custody.
“What we’re asking for are simple, commonsense healthcare practices,” Starzynski said. “Nurses and other frontline caregivers need to be able to do their jobs ethically and legally. Every patient—regardless of immigration status—deserves dignity, privacy, safe medical care, and a full understanding of their rights. Right now, those standards are not being met for people in ICE custody at Legacy Emanuel. ONA urges Legacy Health to immediately commit to the proposed MOU, so caregivers can provide consistent, lawful, and compassionate care to every patient who enters its facilities. ONA’s mission is clear: we exist to protect patient privacy, uphold human dignity, and provide equitable care to every person who walks through the doors of the hospitals and clinics where we work. ICE’s targeting of immigrant communities is wrong and fundamentally inconsistent with these values. These actions–whether carried out or threatened–create fear that prevents people from going to work, moving freely in their communities, and seeking medical care when they need it most. That fear directly undermines the core principles of being a frontline nurse, provider, or caregiver.”
As of printing, Legacy has not signed the MOU and continues to collude with ICE.
