The Department of Homeland Security has issued a subpoena to Minneapolis-based Hennepin Healthcare for employee I-9 forms, the health system confirmed to Becker’s.
The subpoena, issued Jan. 8, authorizes federal officials to inspect I-9 forms, which are documents used to verify employees’ identities and work eligibility. The forms contain sensitive personal information, including names, birth dates, addresses, Social Security numbers and copies of identification such as passports or driver’s licenses.
“Employers are required by law to verify employees’ identity and employment eligibility using an I-9 form, and the agency is legally authorized to inspect this information,” the system said in a Jan. 15 statement to Becker’s. “Hennepin Healthcare follows federal regulations to properly verify employment eligibility and has supplied the information required by the subpoena.”
The subpoena comes amid escalating tension between Minnesota hospitals and federal immigration enforcement officials. According to state lawmakers and media reports, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have been active inside hospitals in recent days.
CBS News reported that an ICE agent allegedly detained and handcuffed a patient to their bed at Hennepin County Medical Center without a judicial warrant. At Regions Hospital in St. Paul, MPR News reported that an ICE agent denied the wife of a patient access to her husband and told her she would face trespassing charges if she did not leave the hospital.
“It’s a struggle to try and work through the inequities and the trauma that we already have every day [without] this added traumatic experience of having ICE in our backyard and terrorizing our community and mistreating patients within the walls of the hospital and in the surrounding areas,” Nneka Sederstrom, PhD, chief health equity officer at Hennepin Healthcare said during an upcoming episode of the Becker’s Healthcare Podcast. “My hope is that enough of our community uprising and uniting will lead to moving the ICE agents out of our city so we can get back to the business of taking care of each other.”
In a joint statement Jan. 15, a group of Minnesota legislators condemned ICE agents’ actions, claiming they had entered hospitals without judicial warrants and jeopardized patient care.
“It is illegal for ICE to enter private buildings and residences without a judicial warrant, and it is absolutely unconscionable to deliberately put patients’ health at risk. This lawlessness and vigilantism must end now,” the lawmakers said. “Patient health is the number one priority. Healthcare workers should never be forced to choose between doing their job and protecting their patients from masked agents. Any ICE presence in healthcare settings endangers everyone. Patients in ICE detention are under civil detention, not criminal custody, and must be treated with dignity, not shackles.”
The Minnesota Hospital Association also weighed in, affirming that hospitals are not law enforcement entities and must prioritize care and privacy.
“Hospitals provide medically appropriate care regardless of citizenship or legal status, as required by federal and state law. That has not changed,” the association said in a statement to Becker’s. “Hospitals are not immigration or law-enforcement agencies and do not enforce criminal, civil, or immigration laws. When law-enforcement agencies are present in healthcare settings, hospitals manage those interactions through established, security-led and legally informed protocols designed to protect patient care and privacy, staff safety and the stability of the care environment.”
Hennepin Healthcare — Minnesota’s largest safety-net hospital — includes a 484-bed academic medical center, outpatient clinic and specialty center, and a network of clinics. The system employs approximately 7,300 people, according to its website.
The friction also comes amid significant leadership changes at Hennepin Healthcare. On Jan. 13, Thomas Klemond, MD, stepped down as interim CEO. The board appointed J. Kevin Croston, MD — former CEO of Robbinsdale, Minn.-based North Memorial Health — and former Hennepin County Administrator David Hough as co-interim administrators.
On Jan. 12, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, alongside the cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, filed a federal lawsuit to stop what they describe as an unconstitutional surge of Homeland Security agents into the state. The lawsuit alleges the operation violates the First and 10th amendments, the equal sovereignty principle and the federal Administrative Procedure Act. It also seeks a temporary restraining order to halt the deployment of agents.
Becker’s has reached out to other Minneapolis-area systems — including HealthPartners, Fairview Health Services and Allina Health — to determine whether they have also received subpoenas or been affected by recent DHS activity. This story will be updated as more information becomes available.
A spokesperson for Fairview told Becker’s that the health system was not subpoenaed by Homeland Security.
Neither the Department of Homeland Security nor the Minnesota governor’s office responded to Becker’s requests for comment.
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