Fear of discovery among Latino immigrants presenting to the emergency department.

Objectives: Recent legislation mandating reporting of undocumented immigrants may instill fear of discovery when they access emergency department (ED) services. The objectives of this study were to: 1) characterize the knowledge and beliefs of undocumented Latino immigrants (UDLI) about health care workers' reporting (or nonreporting) of illegal immigrants in the ED, 2) determine whether UDLI fear discovery when presenting to the ED, and 3) determine the nature and sources of this fear.

Methods: This was a cross-sectional study of UDLI and two comparison groups conducted in two California county EDs, from November 2009 to August 2010.