Quan Medical offers care—and hope—for immigrant workers afraid to seek help
By Ava Dela Pena and Scott Brinton
Editor’s note: The following is part of an ongoing investigative series into immigration on Long Island.
Tucked in the corner of a multi-story, yellow-and-white-brick office building at 91 N. Franklin St. in the center of Hempstead Village, Quan Medical has quickly become a hub for immigrants seeking treatment for on-the-job injuries and workers’ compensation since its founding in April 2021.
Dr. Lam Quan, the medical center’s founder, said, however, that he worries a growing number of immigrant workers, particularly those who are undocumented, may forgo treatment and legal recourse for their injuries because they fear being detained and deported by agents from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
“Because of the current, ongoing immigration issues, there’s just a lot of fear and doubt,” said Quan, 48, of Garden City, himself an immigrant from China. “People who have been injured prefer not to seek medical attention because they worry there’s going to be some type of retribution, or they may get in trouble, or in the case of where they’re undocumented, they feel like they’re going to be essentially hunted down, and therefore they’d just rather lay low for medical treatments.”
The Trump administration has not published data on the number of detainments and deportations that it has carried out in 2025. Data sets on the Office of Homeland Security Statistics website were last updated on Jan. 16, four days before Trump took office.
The administration has said it had deported roughly 207,000 people as of late April, though the number is disputed. If that figure is correct, and that rate of deportations were to hold through the end of the year, that would put the administration on track to deport more than 730,000 people in 2025.
By comparison, between 2020 and 2024, the Biden administration returned an average of 352,000 people a year to their countries of origin, according to the Migration Policy Institute.
A ‘full-service’ facility for immigrants
Quan is a board-certified specialist in physical medicine, with two decades of experience. The team at Quan Medical offers pain management, physical therapy and rehabilitation, orthopedics, chiropractics and licensed acupuncture. The 4,000-square-foot office is partitioned into three sections: a front waiting room; a middle area with offices, a handful of workout apparatuses and a row of hospital-style beds enclosed by blue curtains; and in the back, a full gym.
What Quan sought to bring to Hempstead, he said, was a “full-service” facility that catered to the area’s large immigrant population, including the undocumented, though he does not work exclusively with immigrants. “There’s a lot of physical therapy and medical offices on Long Island. They don’t cater to the immigrants affected by workers’ compensation that we do at our capacity and at our level of service,” Quan said. “So, if they need certain resources and they don’t know where to get them, they come to us, and we help them obtain those resources.”
Estimates are there are between 8 million and 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the United States. Roughly 100,000 are on Long Island. Undocumented immigrants experience significantly higher rates of workplace injuries and fatalities compared to the general population. Often, they are employed in high-risk industries such as construction, landscaping or food service. According to a study out of the University of Chicago, 300 more undocumented immigrants are killed on the job annually compared with documented workers, and 61,000 more are injured at work.
Quan noted there will likely be long-term consequences for those who do not seek medical treatment when needed, remarking, “They may be denied potential compensation, physical compensation but also financial compensation.”
The National Labor Relations Board, Department of Labor, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and Occupational Safety and Health Administration have traditionally been tasked with enforcing workplace protections regardless of immigration status. According to the University of Chicago study, undocumented workers are legally entitled to receive minimum wage, overtime pay, breaks and tips, and are also protected by health, safety and anti-discrimination laws.
To receive financial compensation for their injuries sustained on the job, workers must have their condition assessed and documented by a licensed and authorized medical provider, according to the New York State Workers’ Compensation Board website.
“A lot of these immigrants are not aware of what they are entitled to,” Quan said. “They don’t realize that the New York State workers’ [compensation] system is set up in place not only to protect the employers, but also to protect the employees.”
The system, he continued, “is there to prevent the employers from being sued, but also there to help the employees get the appropriate medical treatment that they’re entitled to.”
Many immigrant workers, Quan said, may forgo the workers’ compensation that they are entitled to because they worry they may be reported to federal officials. However, the New York State workers’ compensation program is not connected with the federal government, and patients’ medical information cannot legally be reported to it.
“People are afraid to come for therapy … because they think that this process is reported to Homeland Security or immigration officers, which it’s not … [Workers’ compensation] is a state program … so it doesn’t have to do with immigration,” said Victor Alvarado, who works in patient relations at Quan Medical. “They shouldn’t be worried at all.”
Under New York law, it is illegal for an employer to report workers to immigration authorities for engaging in what are considered “protected activities,” such as filing a compensation claim or complaining about wage violations, according to the office of State Attorney General Letitia James. Employers who cooperate with immigration authorities in reporting workers may have to pay the employee damages, including liquidated damages of up to $20,000. The employer may also have to pay a state penalty up to $20,000.
“Being in Hempstead, there are a lot of immigrants, a lot of Latin American people, who are not familiar with the workers’ comp system,” Quan said. “With us, under the workers’ comp system, we don’t discriminate whether these people are documented or not. We don’t even ask that question. As long as they are injured, and they can prove it was an injury under a work condition, we will treat that patient.”
Quan said his background as an immigrant from China drove him to set up a medical practice that catered to immigrants. “I just wanted to give back to the people who’ve been giving me so much,” he said, calling Hempstead his “home.”
A ‘very attentive’ staff
One patient, Zonia, 46, whose last name is being withheld to protect her identity, sought workers’ compensation after she was assaulted at her workplace, a fitness center in Nassau County. “I was working as a custodian … when I entered the bathroom,” Zonia recounted. “A coworker approached me from behind and began physically assaulting me. He wrapped his arm around my neck, scratched my face, bit my forehead, left forearm and hand, then pushed me against lockers several times and punched me multiple times,” she said. “The attacker took me by surprise from behind and began physically attacking me without any provocation.”
She was rushed to the hospital for treatment. “I felt a lot of pain, fear and confusion. It was a traumatic and violent experience,” she said.
Expecting her employer to take the assault seriously, Zonia said she was surprised to receive little guidance. She was advised to wait for human resources to contact her, but that she should “think carefully” whether to press charges because of her status as an undocumented immigrant.
“Instead of supporting her as a victim of workplace violence, the response was one of dismissal and intimidation,” Alvarado said. “There are strong indications that she has been discouraged, or even outright coerced, from filing a formal report or pursuing justice under the threat of immigration-related consequences.
“This case shines a light on a painful truth: Undocumented workers, despite being vital to many sectors of the economy, are often left completely unprotected and vulnerable to exploitation, abuse and even physical violence.”
Victor Alvarado, Patient Relations, Quan Medical
“This case shines a light on a painful truth: Undocumented workers, despite being vital to many sectors of the economy, are often left completely unprotected and vulnerable to exploitation, abuse and even physical violence,” Alvarado said. “Their undocumented status becomes a weapon used against them, not just by institutions, but often by employers who silence them with the threat of deportation.”
A friend recommended Quan Medical to Zonia. There, she received treatment for her injuries and assistance with filing her compensation claim, working closely with Alvarado. Zonia called him “very attentive,” saying he has remained by her side “throughout the entire process.”
With her claim ongoing, Zonia said she only wants “justice,” and “to make sure no other employee has to go through a similar experience.”
“This situation has profoundly affected my physical and emotional health,” she said.
Zonia is not alone. “We have many patients who have the same issue because they’re [undocumented], and they’re always afraid to be outside. They have that common fear,” Alvarado said.
Alvarado was introduced to workers compensation through Quan. The 31-year-old was born in the U.S. and raised in Mexico. He returned to Hicksville eight years ago, in 2017.
“It’s kind of sad to see people who are really in need, or hard-working people who get injured and they don’t get compensated,” he said. “It really takes a toll.
“That’s why I decided to help as much as I can,” he continued. “In a way, I’m trying to educate [patients] and tell them they have rights.”
Embedded in the community
In its four years in Hempstead, Quan Medical has quickly become well known within the local immigrant community, acting, for example, as a sponsor of the New York Soccer Latin Academy. The club was founded by Francisco Guerrero, an immigrant from El Salvador who now lives and owns an auto repair shop in Hempstead. Most recently, Quan Medical sponsored a set of uniforms for the club. “With the situation that we’re living in at this moment,” Guerrero said, “[Dr. Quan] is an immigrant, which, to me, is great. I’m from El Salvador, and the way he’s been helping us, I’m very grateful.”
“I’m very impressed with the work [Guerrero] does and how he’s been giving back to the community, giving the opportunity for the youths of the area to keep them off the streets and providing them with a productive way to spend their free time,” Quan said. “Because of that, I’ve been very inspired and felt like I needed to do something to help give back to the community in which I serve as well.”
