For many Caribbean immigrants in New York City, accessing healthcare has become more complicated under Trump-era immigration policies. Misinformation, fear of enforcement actions, and language barriers have led some to avoid traditional healthcare settings. Instead, many are now waiting to see doctors who speak their language and share their cultural background. These healthcare providers, often within their own communities, offer a sense of comfort and trust, addressing both medical concerns and the unique challenges faced by immigrants, rather than relying on general practitioners who may not fully understand their specific needs.
Dr. Michel-Jose Charles, a gastroenterologist with a private practice in Brooklyn was used to seeing patients only within his specialty, but since Trump became president, he’s seen an increase in patients seeking primary care as Haitian immigrants seek the safety of being treated by a fellow Haitian. As vice-president of the NY Chapter of the Haitian Medical Association Abroad (AMHE) he’s also seen about a 25% increase in the numbers of calls he receives from patients who want to be referred to a Haitian doctor.
“When they come here, they just realize that they have so many Haitian doctors in the community,” he explained. “When they start seeing them, they don’t want to go see other doctors […] because they’re scared of what’s going on and what’s going to happen to them.” Haitian immigrants are also drawn to his practice and others like it because they speak a common language—Creole, which removes another barrier to healthcare access.
Institutions with a long history of providing community care also help to bring people out of the shadows and into the clinic. Community Healthcare Network (CHN), a network of 14 federally qualified health centers in New York City providing more than 65,000 New Yorkers with healthcare, has operated since 1981. Accessibility is a cornerstone of their practice.
“We don’t turn anyone away. That is our model. That is our mission. You can come into the clinic, and whether you can pay or not, you will be seen. That’s how we help with the immigrant population,” said Dr. Taisha Benjamin, chief medical officer of CHN and a pediatrician at one of its clinics, the Caribbean House Health Center in Crown Heights.
CHN says it never asks about the immigration status of its patients but estimates from the number of uninsured that roughly 20% of their patients are undocumented. While patients coming in for care have generally remained steady, Dr. Benjamin has seen a decrease at one of their mobile units in Jackson Heights. “One of the places that we park outside of was actually raided by ICE. We believe that contributes to the fear that people have.” As a result, in addition to the pamphlets they normally hand out and advertisements screened within the clinic, they’ve put signs outside the clinic doors to reiterate that CHN is a safe place to come to.
Council member Mercedes Narcisse, who sits on the Committee on Hospitals, explained that guidance on how to interact with ICE from Dr. Mitchell Katz, the CEO of NYC Health and Hospitals, is clear for all the city’s public health facilities. “Dr Katz really understands the importance and the responsibility of us as medical professionals toward patients in general. Our job is that we’re not working for ICE. We’re not working for immigration. We’re not sharing any information.”
This isn’t just guidance, it’s also the law. According to the National Immigration Law Center (NILC) “Health care providers have no affirmative legal obligation to inquire into or report to federal immigration authorities about a patient’s immigration status.” Furthermore, if ICE shows up at a hospital, “healthcare providers may refuse to provide information about patients to law enforcement officials” unless they have a judicial warrant.
But the law is cold comfort to an undocumented community that Councilmember Narcisse describes as “scared and terrified,” particularly with Trump’s executive orders that seek to skirt the law. For example, one such order gives ICE permission to apprehend people at schools, courthouses and hospitals. This is a departure from a prohibition on making immigration arrests in what are considered sensitive areas that had been in place since 2011 and expanded under the Biden administration in 2021. While ICE can enter public areas without a warrant, that doesn’t mean they can simply question or arrest anyone without a warrant or probable cause. Additionally, ICE is still barred from private areas within sensitive places; these can include school interiors which require people to check in with security in order to enter and hospital examination rooms due to Fourth Amendment protections according to the National Immigration Law Center.
Eliciting fear in the immigrant community is the Trump administration’s actual goal, not security, believes Murad Awawdeh, President and CEO of the New York Immigration Coalition, which advocates for inclusive healthcare. “What they want to do is continuously put people in a sense of fear, push them further into the shadows, because instead of addressing the real concern that the vast majority of Americans across this country have had, which is the affordability crisis and addressing that […] they want to have a boogie man, and they want to scapegoat immigrants as the reason why. But the reality is that immigrants are the reason why this country runs and continues to run, and the more they keep trying to remove our communities from the picture, the more the affordability crisis is going to get worse.”
While challenges to Trump’s executive orders make their way through the courts, Councilmember Narcisse says she will continue to protect everyone’s right to healthcare in NYC. Her office recently held a workshop on how to respond to ICE and she’s searching for other impactful ways to reach the undocumented community “I’m so honored and humbled to be in a position to oversee hospitals because […] ever since I’ve known about H and H [Health and Hospitals], we know that they’ve been supportive of everyone, health is for everyone in those hospitals.”
As for Dr. Benjamin, she has a message for President Trump “I don’t think that we should bring politics into healthcare.Allow us to do our job. Let’s try to get people as healthy as possible […] Health care is a right, not a privilege. Everyone deserves to be taken care of.”
