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The city’s public hospital system warned staff not to help patients avoid Immigration and Custom Enforcement agents — triggering Democratic politicians who want the order reversed.
NYC Health + Hospitals issued the guidance in a memo on Jan 16 , just days before President Donald Trump issued a federal order opening up “sensitive locations” to raids by federal immigration authorities, including schools, churches, hospitals and shelters.
“What we have seen out of this administration for the past two weeks is not about upholding our laws. This is about fear and chaos,”state Sen. Zellnor Myrie said at a news conference outside Kings Hospital on Thursday.
“We know that people are afraid and that they’re not showing up [to hospitals].”
Myrie called on Mayor Eric Adams to rescind the “inflammatory and redundant” hospital policy as he and other Democratic lawmakers fight to keep the locations sanctuaries from the feds.
According to a City Hall source, the memo told workers in the hospitals that it is “illegal to intentionally protect a person who is in the United States unlawfully from detention” and warned “you should not try to actively help a person avoid being found by ICE.”
The memo appears to be following a Jan. 13 guidance memo that City Hall sent to all city agencies.
“It is important to understand that taking actions that are intended to conceal, harbor, or shield from detection a person who is in the United States unlawfully is a federal crime,” the City Hall legal memo, obtained by The Post, said. “You cannot take affirmative steps that are intended to help a person avoid being found by ICE.”
City Hall spokesperson Kayla Mamelak downplayed the lawmakers’ concerns, saying that the mayor has been firm that “everyone should feel comfortable sending their children to school, seeking medical care or reporting crimes, regardless of their immigration status.”
“The claim that New York City is instructing city employees to cooperate with ICE for civil enforcement spreads misinformation that only fuels anxiety within immigrant communities,” Mamelak said.
“We are responsible for safeguarding the well-being of our city staff, which is why we have directed city employees not to put themselves in harm’s way during federal immigration enforcement interactions.”
Employees were instructed to contact their legal counsel in such situations and to avoid verbal or physical altercations, as this could “compromise their safety and hinder critical city services,” Mamelak said.
Myrie, who is also running for New York City mayor, argued that the memo is another ploy by Hizzoner to curry favor with the Trump administration in a bid to get a presidential pardon for corruption charges.
The embattled mayor raised eyebrows among fellow Dems in recent weeks after rushing to DC in the middle of the night to attend Trump’s inauguration and again heading to the Capitol on Thursday to attend a prayer breakfast where the president delivered remarks.
Adams also refused to speak out against the president on potential tariffs on Mexico and Canada just days after his’s attorneys met with US Department of Justice officials as they try to get prosecutors to drop federal corruption charges against him.
“Instead of having a mayor willing to stand up to this president and protect vulnerable New Yorkers, we have a mayor that’s issuing guidance saying we will do whatever you want President Trump no matter what the implication,” Myrie said.
“We are calling on him today to rescind the guidance he has issued to the Health + Hospitals and to stand up for New Yorkers who are vulnerable.”
NYC Health + Hospitals told The Post that its focus is the safety of patients and employees.
“The policy we sent to all staff sets forth clear and understandable steps to take if an enforcement agent enters the facility, and it ensures the safety of our staff — who are on the frontlines everyday— by making sure they understand the law,” department spokesperson Christopher Miller said.
NYC Health + Hospitals does not require patients to share information about their immigration status to receive health care and cannot give out patient information to anyone else without specifically being authorized to do so by law, the spokesperson said.
City lawmaker and council education committee chair Rita Joseph (D-Brooklyn) said the guidance would have devastating affect on schools that had previously been safe havens.
“We have to be reassured that if [ICE] come to schools, nothing will happen to them, [but] that security was taken away by the Trump administration by taking away sensitive locations,” she told The Post.
“Why are we here at a hospital? Churches were safe havens, schools were safe havens. Those safety nets were taken away. So, if I’m undocumented, I’m not walking my child to school. I don’t know where ICE is around that surrounding.”
It was unclear if the Department of Education had issued similar guidance to employees but a spokesperson said the only guidance distributed from the city school system is available on its website.
