What to say when ICE arrives at your practice

Physicians Practice: If immigration and custom enforcement or ICE agents show up at your medical practice, what should the first words or actions be from the physician or the front desk staff?

Katie P. Russell, J.D.: So this is a great question, and what I always tell my clients, whether they're individuals, corporate clients medical practices, the most important thing to do is to have a plan in place if officers, law enforcement, ICE whoever does decide to pay your office a visit, it's usually something that is unannounced, so you want to make sure that you're prepared and that element of surprise doesn't throw you or your staff off in terms of how you respond.

So as an initial thing, I always say that every medical practice should designate a specific staff member, like an administrator or a member of the HR team, as the point of contact for any type of law enforcement interaction, and that's including immigration officials. This person ideally would be trained to review and verify any warrants presented or paperwork, communicate with the ICE agents professionally and effectively document the encounter and make sure that there are follow up steps, such as communicating with legal counsel or an immigration attorney about what transpired during that visit.

Additionally, going along with the plan theme, any practice should also have a written protocol or instructions for folks in place, just outlining how staff should respond. Again, having a plan is really going to help make you look organized. Have someone that's the go-to. You can have a designated staff member and then even a secondary in the event that that person is not available, but the first response, again, just should be be calm, respectful and informed. If the designated person in the office is not the first person to have that interaction, it's perfectly fine for them to say, You know what, I'm not authorized to speak with law enforcement. Please give me a couple of minutes while I get our compliance officer or legal counsel and then get that communication directed to the right person.