Amid fears of deportation, immigrants are missing appointments at Seattle-area clinics

Providers at Seattle area-clinics that serve immigrant communities say that ever since President Trump returned to office, many more patients than usual have been missing appointments.

Julián Pérez is a family medicine doctor at Sea Mar – Community Health Centers in White Center.

“Cancel one, cancel two, reschedule three, no-show four, no-show five,” he said as he scrolled through his schedule for the day. “Sometimes we don’t get a lot of folks coming in in January, but this is definitely fewer than we’re used to.”

Pérez said he wasn't sure why fewer patients are coming in this year. But a chill has gone through some immigrant communities ever since federal officials said they’ll be enforcing immigration in and near spaces that were previously off-limits, like churches, schools, and hospitals.

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None of the clinics KUOW interviewed for this article ask patients for their immigration status. And it’s against federal law for health-care providers to share information with authorities, unless they have a valid warrant.

Nonetheless, some immigrants are nervous.

“What we heard was that they are fearful of going to a traditional doctor’s office or a health-care setting where they may be arrested or detained for questioning,” said Lisa Edwards, superintendent of a commission that oversees a public hospital and clinic in Snohomish County.

She said immigrants they serve — even those with legal status — have been avoiding scheduling regular doctor’s appointments, but some are still showing up at urgent care and emergency rooms.

Many clinics and hospitals in the Seattle area, including SeaMar and UW Medicine, have a point person to handle any immigration officers who arrive.

“All frontline staff are being instructed to neither confirm nor deny the presence of a patient to an ICE officer and to quickly route immigration-enforcement action to the point person,” according to a statement from the Washington State Hospital Association. That person can then consult with a lawyer to ensure that the officers have a valid warrant.

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“If there is a court order or a judicial warrant, hospitals must comply with it,” the statement read — but in all other cases, they will protect patient information.

Washington’s hospitals have not experienced any immigration enforcement so far, according to the hospital association — and Dr. Pérez said, to his knowledge, neither has SeaMar. But that hasn’t stopped the chilling effect of President Trump’s highly-publicized immigration enforcement priorities.

“We do have fewer people coming to clinic. We have fewer walk-ins. We have higher no-show rates,” Pérez said.

Generally, he added, his clinic fills no-show appointments with people looking for same-day visits, but “we don’t have a lot of people walking in.”

The problem, he said, is that when people miss regular check-ups, untreated health problems can escalate.

“We tell our patients all the time, ‘If you don’t have health, you don’t have really anything,’” he said.

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