Federal agents were on the grounds of Adventist Health White Memorial in Boyle Heights early Saturday, and the hospital says they brought a person in their custody into its emergency department. The hospital also says agents formed a line across its ambulance entrance, forcing it to divert incoming ambulances to nearby hospitals for about two hours.
Adventist Health White Memorial confirmed the agents' presence on its property in a statement reported by NBC Los Angeles, saying, “Federal agents brought a person in their custody to our emergency department,” according to a separate account from LAist. The individual was taken to the ER for undisclosed reasons, the station reported, and the hospital has not said why the person needed care or who they were.
The hospital said the standoff at its entrance disrupted emergency operations for a stretch of the early morning. We diverted ambulances to nearby hospitals for about two hours, the hospital told the station, after agents blocked the route ambulances use to reach the facility. White Memorial also stressed its own role in the matter, stating plainly that it does not participate in immigration enforcement.
Community Members Gathered Outside the Facility
Community members protested outside the medical facility as word of the agents' presence spread overnight, with federal immigration officers seen outside the Boyle Heights-area hospital for hours. The scene drew enough attention that the Los Angeles Police Department says it was called to the area.
LAPD said officers were dispatched for a disturbance involving a large group, and a department spokesperson said the response was meant to maintain public safety and keep the peace. The department was careful to separate its role from the federal operation, saying its officers did not help federal agents with any enforcement activities.
Conflicting Accounts of Possible Detentions
What happened to anyone caught up in the crowd outside the hospital remains contested. Rapid-response groups told LAist that federal agents detained at least two protesters late Friday, with organizer Raquel Roman saying the pair were U.S. citizens. NBC Los Angeles, however, reported that it remains unclear whether federal agents detained anyone at the hospital or whether any arrests occurred in connection with the disturbance call.
Los Angeles City Councilmember Ysabel Jurado weighed in on the episode, saying she was deeply troubled by reports of ICE activity outside the facility. Jurado called on the hospital to publicly disclose its agreements with ICE and end any voluntary medical-services contract with the agency, and she said families should be able to seek emergency care without fearing immigration enforcement.
Pushback Had Already Been Building Over Patient-Room Access
The overnight incident lands amid earlier friction between the hospital and its neighbors over how far federal agents can go inside the building itself. Boyle Heights community members and immigrant-rights organization leaders had already presented demands to hospital administrators on Nov. 5, with their central demand being to keep ICE agents out of patient rooms during medical procedures or consultations, according to Adventist Today.
That pressure traces back further still. LAist reported that in October 2025, White Memorial doctors said administrator directives allowed federal immigration agents to interfere in medical decisions and blocked doctors from properly treating detainees needing emergency care.
A Pattern Beyond Boyle Heights
Saturday's standoff echoes a similar dynamic that played out across the Bay Area last month. On Oct. 16, ICE arrested two people in Oakland and Emeryville, and both individuals landed in the hospital after their arrests, per Oaklandside. One person was taken to Highland Hospital in Oakland and another to Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital, and activists gathered outside Highland Hospital two days later once the hospitalizations became public.
In that case, Alameda Health System said hospital operations and patient care continued uninterrupted even as it monitored the situation, while the Anti Police-Terror Project said it had no information that ICE was conducting broader enforcement operations at hospitals and that the agents' presence appeared tied specifically to the people already in custody. The group alleged excessive force in both arrests, which DHS denied, saying the Emeryville detainee's injuries predated his arrest.
