Protest Erupts at Los Angeles' White Memorial Hospital After ICE Agents Try to Sit In on a Detainee's Exam and Block Ambulance Entrance, Teenage Girl Is Pepper-Sprayed, and LA Mayor-Elect Nithya Raman Calls It “an Affront to the Wishes of the American People”
Monday, November 9, 2026
A protest erupted outside Adventist Health White Memorial Medical Center in Boyle Heights on Saturday after federal immigration agents brought a person in their custody to the hospital for treatment around midnight. The hospital says the agents asked to be present during the patient’s examination and were refused, and that they then lined up across the ambulance entrance without the hospital’s approval. Federal prosecutors tell the night differently: they say the detainee had asked for the doctor, and that it was protesters who assaulted the agents. By Saturday afternoon, the city’s mayor-elect was standing outside the hospital condemning the federal presence.
According to the Los Angeles Police Department, the agents were at the medical center around midnight with a person in their custody who needed medical treatment. Word spread through the neighborhood, and community members gathered outside the hospital. Video from the scene showed tense confrontations between community members and federal agents, and a teenage girl receiving assistance after she was pepper-sprayed during the demonstration. In multiple videos shared on social media, masked agents pushed protesters away and sprayed them with what appeared to be pepper spray. Organizers said agents detained at least two people outside the hospital, and rapid-response groups said the two detained are U.S. citizens; federal prosecutors say the same two people were arrested and charged with assaulting federal officers — the two accounts are set out below. LAPD officers responded to keep the peace, and as the agents left the area, LAPD officers followed closely behind. The patient the agents brought in was not identified.
The hospital’s president, Daniel Fontoura, addressed the crowd on Saturday as demonstrators gathered around him shouting “Give him the mic.” He said the agents entered the hospital with a person in need of medical care, and that the hospital refused the request 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.” On the blocked entrance, he said: “When they lined up to prevent access to EMS trucks and ambulances to our facility, that was not done with our approval. So when those things happen we called LAPD and said help us with this predicament.” In a statement, Adventist Health said it “cared for that patient with dignity and privacy, as we do for every patient,” that it diverted ambulances to nearby hospitals for about two hours “to ensure every patient received timely care,” and that “White Memorial does not participate in immigration enforcement.” Fontoura said the hospital plans to improve communication between its security personnel and the LAPD to strengthen its protocols for dealing with ICE agents — and, pressed by the crowd, added: “I don’t know what I can do to assure you there’s no special relationship, no special contract. When they show up, they show up.”
On Saturday afternoon, community members and advocates marched from Mariachi Plaza to the hospital, where they were joined by State Sen. María Elena Durazo, Councilmember Ysabel Jurado, Assemblymember Mark Gonzalez and Mayor-elect Nithya Raman. Raman 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.” In a post on X she wrote that she was appalled by what took place, saying ICE agents were obstructing emergency room entry and detained two U.S. citizens, and condemning what she called the reckless actions of the Trump administration. Raman, who is herself an immigrant, said she has “felt the fear that so many across the city and across this country have felt” since the raids began, and she joined chants of “ICE out of Boyle Heights.” Durazo said the hospital is earning a reputation for being an “ICE-friendly hospital,” and told its administrators: “What happened last night was unacceptable. It’s unacceptable that ICE would go into our healthcare facilities. But we also believe that White Memorial can and should do more.” The leaders handed the hospital’s administrators a letter demanding an end to any collaboration between the hospital and federal immigration agents, a detailed account of the night, and clear procedures to block agents from obstructing entrances and accessing patient rooms, with a written response due by November 21 — after which, the letter says, they will seek a review by the California Attorney General if the concerns remain unresolved. Mayor Karen Bass did not attend the rally but denounced the ICE activity, and in a statement called on the Trump administration to stop all immigration enforcement in and around health care facilities.
The accounts of Friday night conflict, and each is on the record. The federal government’s account came from Bill Essayli, the U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California. Essayli said ICE and ERO Los Angeles agents took a detainee to the hospital for medical treatment at the detainee’s own request, and that “agitators arrived to harass and obstruct federal officers.” Two U.S. citizens, he said, were arrested and charged under 18 U.S.C. § 111 with assaulting a federal officer — charges his office says it has now brought in more than 100 cases. The charges are allegations: the two are charged, not convicted, and are presumed innocent unless the government proves its case. Replying directly to Raman, Essayli added that the agents “called for backup, controlled the scene, and arrested two individuals who assaulted federal agents,” and that federal immigration law is made by Congress, not the mayor: “It’s called the Supremacy Clause.”
The Department of Homeland Security declined to comment on the incident itself. In a statement, the agency said it would “not disclose or discuss law enforcement operations,” and a spokesperson noted that obstructing law enforcement is a federal crime. “ICE does not target hospitals, schools, or churches,” the statement said. The statement did not address the hospital’s account of the blocked ambulance entrance, or say who was detained outside the hospital.
What this means: for ordinary families, the fight at White Memorial is about what happens the next time anyone in Boyle Heights needs an emergency room. For about two hours that night, ambulances carrying emergencies were turned away from this hospital and sent to others nearby because federal agents were standing across its entrance — a delay no patient chooses and no family can plan around. The hospital’s own president calls the examination room a sacred space between a patient and a physician, and the demands now in writing — clear procedures keeping agents out of patient rooms and away from the doors, and a public statement in English and Spanish reaffirming the hospital’s commitment to caring for all patients regardless of immigration status — are the community’s answer to the question this weekend raised: whether a hospital stays a place people can walk into for care without fear. The hospital has until November 21 to answer the letter.
📰 ProfiloPolitics Member News — choose your news, share it, earn credit:
https://white-curlew-963569.hostingersite.com
Never miss a story — Join our Telegram channel
Breaking U.S. political news, live as it happens — plus the stories the big outlets sit on.
Join ProfiloPolitics on Telegram