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More than 100 demonstrators, including dozens of Stanford Hospital employees, gathered at a Tuesday rally in front of the hospital to protest its administration’s treatment of a patient who was arrested by ICE last week and to demand the health institution create a policy to protect patients from federal agents in the hospital.
The Stanford Hospital administration allegedly discharged Aleyda Rodriguez to Immigration and Customs Enforcement before she was healthy, denied her visitation rights, blocked Rodriguez’s family from accessing her medical records and did not inform them of her release, according to hospital staff who protested at the demonstration on Pasteur Drive and Welch Road in Palo Alto.
Rodriguez was apprehended in a targeted arrest by ICE in East Palo Alto on Aug. 25, according to the San Mateo County Rapid Response Network.
Rodriguez fainted when multiple immigration agents pulled her out of her car and carried her away, according to a statement on the woman’s GoFundMe page. Agents checked Rodriguez, who has a blood condition that is exacerbated by stress, into Stanford Hospital hours after her arrest.
“Despite my dad begging them to stop because she is sick, they drove away with her unconscious,” according to the post purported to be written by Rodriguez’s daughter.
Rodriguez was discharged on the evening Aug. 29 and was not healthy enough to leave the facility, her primary care physician Yusra Hussain said in an interview with this news organization.
Hussain is not a hospitalist at Stanford, so she is not consistently stationed at the facility – she did not make the decision to discharge Rodriguez. Stanford staff did not disclose who made the final decision, she said.
“I honestly didn’t even think that she was going to be discharged that day,” Hussain said. “There was no question in my mind that she was going to be in the hospital for a few more days. She was very frail. She was drenched in sweat. She actually had sepsis just four days before that, with two infections. She was unresponsive. That was not a healthy picture.”
Rodriguez could hardly lift her head, squeeze her doctor’s hand or speak, Hussain said, and she was in a “catatonic” state when she was transferred to a Bakersfield immigration facility.
ICE agents hindered medical staff from entering the woman’s room, forcing them to “sign in,” show identification and prove their identification was valid, according to Hussain and Stanford staff who spoke anonymously during the protest.
“I was asked three times, why am I there, attending to my patient, and what brings me here? And I said, ‘I’m her primary care physician. It is actually a common courtesy for the primary care doctor to come and see their patients,’” Hussain said. “That didn’t sit well with them,”
At times, there were up to nine ICE agents frequenting the woman’s room, she said.
Federal operatives also allegedly cut off Rodriguez’s access to her online medical charts, preventing her and a designated proxy from the ability to actually access her own record, Hussain said.
“It’s a form of intimidation,” Hussain said. “It’s a form of harassment when you have someone there constantly interrupting your work, your routine. I can tell you, so many doctors and nurses and other staff really did not feel comfortable.”
Protestors demanded that the hospital affirm patient visitation rights and communication standards, prohibit ICE agents in care areas, ensure family members are notified of discharge and deny ICE from discharging a patient without an ongoing care plan.
If Stanford does not take steps toward their demands and host a town hall, medical staff will continue to protest and host their own public outreach events, speakers said at the rally.
During Tuesday’s action, local advocates and medical staff – some still wearing scrubs and white coats – took to a busy intersection outside of Stanford Hospital. Many held signs reading phrases like “ICE = Inhuman, Callous, Evil.”
Rodriguez’s father stood in front of the crowd with an interpreter and said he didn’t want to overwhelm attendees with information but simply wanted “justice” for his daughter.
Stanford Health staff said the woman’s unfair treatment is just another way the hospital has relented to the current federal administration and diminished treatment following its decision to revoke gender-affirming care in June.
It also comes at a time California medical personnel across the country are grappling with how to deal with increased federal law enforcement in hospitals that might affect patient health and privacy rights, CalMatters reported.
“Stanford administration will say that our hands are tied. We have to follow the law. We’re just following the law. We can’t do anything else,” said a Stanford Medical staff member who spoke under anonymity to the crowd. “That’s a lie. There is no law that says you have to let ICE just walk around the hospital with no identification.”
The hospital is prohibited from disclosing the patient medical details but confirmed on Tuesday that the patient was discharged and that it followed “federal law enforcement directives,” while delivering the “highest quality care,” wrote hospital spokesperson Lisa Kim in an email to this news organization.
“Our clinicians provided all necessary medical care, including sharing regular updates related to the patient’s care with the designated family member,” Kim wrote.
Stanford personnel want more clear direction from the hospital, said a Stanford Emergency Department staff member, who went by the name of Matt.
“ICE has no place in the hospital, but if the hospital insists on following along with federal procedures, however inhumane they may be, it needs to be spelled out clearly,” he said.
The federal agents were armed and masked, he said.
“It is a situation I never want to watch take place again,” Matt said as the crowd cheered.
Joan Lane, trailblazing volunteer and Stanford’s go-to for ‘sticky problems,' dies at 97March 25, 2026 3:23 pm
What a coincidence: ICE agents check their prey into Stanford hospital, where discrimination is not uncommon.
I speak of that hospital’s “red blanket” program. Inpatient donors and other friends of Stanford — a high-tech business with a university and hospital as side interests — are rewarded with Cardinal red blankets. One of those blankets adorning your bed means first-class treatment.
How comforting for the rest of us.
This latest betrayal of a medical institution’s mission comes from an outfit that began its days under the thumb of a robber baron, exploring eugenics and seeking unusually tall freshmen, a curious enterprise in the context of that focus on eugenics and one so successful that they had to buy longer beds for their dorm rooms.
Morals? For Stanford? Go home, boy scout.