The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has temporarily adjusted its enforcement posture and activities effective March 18, 2020, to ensure the welfare and safety of the general public as well as officers and agents in light of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic response.

ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO), in an official statement released in early March, said it will focus enforcement on public safety risks and individuals subject to mandatory detention based on criminal grounds. For individuals who do not fall into those categories, ERO will exercise discretion to delay enforcement actions until after the crisis or utilize alternatives to detention, as appropriate.

“Homeland Security Investigations will continue to carry out mission critical criminal investigations and enforcement operations as determined necessary to maintain public safety and national security. Examples include investigations into child exploitation, gangs, narcotics trafficking, human trafficking, human smuggling, and continued participation on the Joint Terrorism Task Force. This work will be conducted based on ability to coordinate and work with prosecutors from the Department of Justice and intake at both the U.S. Marshals Service and Bureau of Prisons,” the agency stated.

Consistent with its “sensitive locations” policy, during the COVID-19 crisis, ICE will not carry out enforcement operations at or near health care facilities, such as hospitals, doctors' offices, accredited health clinics and emergent or urgent care facilities, except in the most extraordinary of circumstances. Individuals should not avoid seeking medical care because they fear civil immigration enforcement.

“USCIS [U.S. Customs and Immigration Services] encourages all those, including undocumented immigrants and green card holders, with symptoms that resemble Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) (fever, cough, shortness of breath) to seek necessary medical treatment or preventive services.” 

The agency stresses that such treatment or preventive services will not negatively affect any applicant as part of a future “Public Charge” analysis.

Public charge analyses are conducted during immigration processes to determine if a foreign national receives certain types of public benefits. Receiving certain benefits can make an individual deemed inadmissible to enter the United States.

“The Inadmissibility on Public Charge grounds final rule is critical to defending and protecting Americans’ health and its health care resources. The Public Charge rule does not restrict access to testing, screening, or treatment of communicable diseases, including COVID-19. In addition, the rule does not restrict access to vaccines for children or adults to prevent vaccine-preventable diseases.”

To address the possibility that some immigrants impacted by COVID-19 may be hesitant to seek necessary medical treatment or preventive services, according to their website, USCIS will neither consider testing, treatment, nor preventative care (including vaccines, if a vaccine becomes available) related to COVID-19 as part of a public charge inadmissibility determination, nor as related to the public benefit condition applicable to certain nonimmigrants seeking an extension of stay or change of status, even if such treatment is provided or paid for by one or more public benefits, as defined in the rule (e.g., federally funded Medicaid).

In addition, if an immigrant subject to the public charge ground of inadmissibility lives and works in an area where disease prevention methods such as social distancing or quarantine are in place, or where the immigrant’s employer, school, or university voluntarily shuts down operations to prevent the spread of COVID-19, they may submit a statement with his or her application for adjustment of status to explain how such methods or policies have affected the immigrant as relevant to the factors USCIS must consider in a public charge inadmissibility determination.

“For example, if the alien is prevented from working or attending school, and must rely on public benefits for the duration of the COVID-19 outbreak and recovery phase, the alien can provide an explanation and relevant supporting documentation. To the extent relevant and credible, USCIS will take all such evidence into consideration in the totality of the alien’s circumstances.”

For more detailed information on immigration enforcement during the pandemic, visit https://www.uscis.gov/about-us/uscis-response-coronavirus-2019-covid-19.

For a list of clinics by state that give access to healthcare to undocumented immigrants, visit https://unitedwedream.org/2020/03/healthcare-access-for-undocumented-folks-in-the-time-of-covid19/.