{"id":71349,"date":"2025-03-10T14:01:17","date_gmt":"2025-03-10T21:01:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=71349"},"modified":"2025-03-10T14:01:17","modified_gmt":"2025-03-10T21:01:17","slug":"visits-to-community-health-clinics-drop-as-fears-of-ice-raids-escalate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=71349","title":{"rendered":"Visits to Community Health Clinics Drop as Fears of ICE Raids Escalate"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By<\/span>Sunita Sohrabji<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Visits to community health clinics are dropping as fears escalate of ICE raids. But Dr. Jose Perez, CMO of the South Central Family Health Center, says ICE cannot conduct random dragnet sweeps.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Dr. Jose Perez, Chief Medical Officer at the South Central Family Health Center. (Photo provided)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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As Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids increased dramatically over the past two months, community health clinics saw a substantial drop in client visits.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been hearing all these rumors that there will be an increased ICE presence in Los Angeles,\u201d said Dr. Jose Perez, Chief Medical Officer at the South Central Family Health Center. \u201cSo clearly it has rattled the community. That\u2019s what\u2019s preventing folks from coming in. They don\u2019t really know if ICE is active, when ICE will come, and where they are going. And so rather than risk it, they just don\u2019t come into the clinic,\u201d he said in an interview with Ethnic Media Services.<\/p>\n

Such fears are not unfounded. Perez noted reports of ICE vans in February parked outside a community health clinic in Adelanto, California. Though agents did not go into the facility, the tacit threat was enough to keep many clients away.<\/p>\n

The drop in client visits comes amid the quad-demic of influenza, bird flu, RSV, and Covid-19. The US is facing the worst flu season it has experienced in 15 years. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report\u00a037 million<\/a>\u00a0infections as of Feb. 25, with 480,000 hospitalizations, and 21,000 deaths. 98 children have died of influenza this season.<\/p>\n

The South Central Family Health Center serves 34,000 clients. About 1\/3 are newer immigrants. In a normal year, the clinic would host 117,000 client visits. Nationally, 1400 Federally Qualified Health Centers serve approximately 31 million people.<\/p>\n

In this interview, Perez spoke about the challenges of ensuring his clients get the care they need amid fears of deportation.<\/p>\n

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