Community members, healthcare workers, and elected officials are demanding answers after Oakland’s Highland Hospital discharged a man into the custody of federal immigration agents without confirming the agents had a warrant authorizing his detention.
At a tense Board of Supervisors meeting Tuesday evening, officials with Alameda Health System, which operates Highland Hospital, acknowledged that hospital staff never received a copy of a warrant from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents who brought the man to the hospital earlier this month.
The revelation has raised questions about whether the public hospital system followed its own protocols and Alameda County’s sanctuary policies restricting local cooperation with federal civil immigration enforcement. It also prompted an angry response from Supervisor Nikki Fortunato Bas, who said Tuesday that hospital officials had previously assured her ICE had presented the necessary documentation…