BOYLE HEIGHTS, LOS ANGELES (KABC) — Community members and advocates gathered outside Adventist Health White Memorial Medical Center in Boyle Heights on Saturday afternoon to protest the presence of ICE agents at the hospital.
Federal agents were at the medical center with a person in their custody who needed medical treatment around midnight, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.
Video from the scene showed tense confrontations between community members and federal agents outside the hospital. The footage also showed a teenage girl receiving assistance after she was pepper-sprayed during the demonstration. As ICE agents left the area, Los Angeles Police Department officers followed closely behind.
The protest drew community advocates and Mayor-elect Nithya Raman, who condemned the federal presence at the hospital.
“What happened last night at this hospital was an affront to the wishes of the American people and to the people of Los Angeles,” Raman said.
During the demonstration at the hospital, protesters gathered around the hospital’s president Daniel Fontura, urging him to address the crowd.
“Give him the Mic! Give him the Mic,” demonstrators shouted.
Fontura said federal agents entered the hospital with a person in need of medical care and denied requests that would have allowed agents to be present during a physician-patient consultation.
“There was a time when ICE actually wanted to break protocol and be in with the physician in that sacred physician patient encounter and we said no,” Fontura said.
Fontoura also explained why hospital officials contacted the LAPD.
“When they lined up to prevent access to EMS trucks and ambulances to our facility, that was not done with our approval,” he said.
“So when those things happen we called LAPD and said help us with this predicament.”
LAPD said officers responded to the incident to keep the peace.
Fontura said the hospital plans to improve communication between hospital security personnel and the LAPD to strengthen protocols when it comes to dealing with ICE agents.
Eyewitness News reached out to the Department of Homeland Security for comment but has not received a response.
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