An Ohio lawmaker who has introduced several bills intended to help Buckeye State officials crack down on immigrants in the country illegally has introduced a measure to require hospitals to allow U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to make arrests in their facilities.
House Bill 281 “will require each hospital in our state to permit federal law enforcement officers and agents of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to enter the hospital while performing the following duties: arresting an individual pursuant to a warrant, interviewing an individual, or collecting information/evidence,” state Rep. Josh Williams, R-Sylvania Twp., said in prepared testimony to the House Public Safety Committee.
“When attempting to enter, they must demonstrate to the hospital that they are doing so only to enforce federal immigration law,” Williams said in his testimony. “HB 281 contains the changes necessary for Ohio to keep up with the increased illegal immigration we have seen in the past few years, and the current administration’s attempts to curtail it using ICE and similar agencies.”
Williams pointed to data from the Congressional Budget Office that found federal and state governments spent nearly $27 billion between fiscal 2017 and fiscal 2023 on Medicaid services for people who are ineligible due to their immigration status.
“As of now, we are not fully equipped to assist our federal agencies in cracking down on illegal immigration,” Williams said.
Williams has also introduced House Bill 26, the Protecting Ohio Communities Act, which would mandate all Ohio jurisdictions to comply with federal immigration laws, including participating in programs to share arrestee information with federal immigration authorities and honor federal detainer requests. He’s also introduced House Bill 42, which mandates that some local and state agencies collect and report data about the citizenship or immigration status of people they interact with, and House Bill 282, which would add immigration status as a factor for sentencing and bail proceedings.
“The hospital’s employees are required to facilitate this access provided that the officer or agent demonstrates the necessity of their entrance,” Williams said.
“Furthermore, the governing board of each hospital is required to adopt a written policy that establishes the standards and procedures that must be followed when complying with the bill,” the lawmaker added. “They may designate one or more individuals to be the point person for situations like these to verify that the officer is entering for immigration enforcement purposes.”
Williams said that if the bill is signed into law, hospitals that violate the measure’s provisions could face two possible penalties.
“If that hospital has been awarded a grant by a state agency, that agency is prohibited from further distributing any grants to the hospital,” Williams said. “If the hospital is a Medicaid provider, the Department of Medicaid must sever the provider agreement with that hospital. Additionally, the bill does not prevent the Ohio Department of Health or [the Ohio Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services] from imposing any further penalties that they are already permitted to impose through existing law.”
Despite Williams’ emphatic defense of the proposal, not everyone is on board with the idea.
The Ohio Hospitals Association declined to comment to Cleveland.com. However, the Ohio Nurses Association told the publication it opposes deputizing medical staff.
“This bill goes further and mandates hospital staff to assist law enforcement officers,” Cleveland.com quoted ONA President Rick Lucas. “We don’t want to be deputized. We don’t want to be part of that process.”
