Nation’s largest union of registered nurses to hold week of action to honor Alex Pretti, RN and all killed by ICE, demand that Congress vote to abolish ICE now!

National Nurses United, the largest union and professional association of registered nurses in the United States with more than 225,000 members spanning California to New York City, announced today that RNs are outraged and mobilizing to hold an entire week of ongoing candlelight vigils to not only honor and seek justice for the murder by federal immigration agents of fellow registered nurse Alex Pretti, but also to demand that the U.S. Senate and House vote no on any spending package that includes funding for ICE and other immigration enforcement agencies - or face electoral consequences.

"ICE messed with the wrong profession," said Mary Turner, NNU president, who, like Pretti, is an intensive care unit registered nurse in Minnesota's Twin Cities. "Never get between nurses and our patients. We nurses are forever patient advocates, and that means we will fight to protect you at the bedside and we will fight to protect you in the streets - just as Alex was doing when he was executed in cold blood by border patrol. This stops now. Nurses want ICE abolished. Not one more penny for their crimes."

Click here for a nationwide list of actions

NNU nurse leaders are available for interviews via [email protected]

RNs have been outraged by the presence of ICE in their communities and the escalating violence that has led to the killings of Pretti, Renee Nicole Good, Keith Porter, and Silverio Villegas González - as well as the 32 people who died in ICE custody in 2025 and the countless families torn apart by the Trump administration's cruel policies. Many detainees died of inadequate medical care, and ICE has stopped since October 2025 paying outside medical providers for detainee care, according to news reports. Like RNs and thousands of concerned Americans, Pretti was protesting ICE's presence in Minnesota, which galvanized tens of thousands of people and businesses to participate in an 'ICE Out' boycott just the day before his murder.

The escalation in intimidation, violence, and lawlessness by ICE comes as the Republican Party and Trump cut nearly a trillion dollars in health care funding for Medicaid and Medicare to finance the deportation machine. Nurses reject this use of taxpayer dollars and demand that the Senate vote no this week on the spending package that includes the Homeland Security Appropriations bill, and that Congress further work to revoke the $75 billion in ICE funding that was stolen via H.R. 1 from Medicaid, Medicare, and other social programs.

National Nurses United RNs - the most trusted profession in America - reaffirmed in a recent statement our commitment to hold ICE accountable. "ICE has only been around since 2003 and has proven to be a fascist, terrorizing, and lawless paramilitary force violently enforcing a white supremacist agenda. ICE violates nurses' values and has no place in our federal government, period," said Turner. "Nurses will be on the front lines of leading this fight to abolish ICE and build with our patients, our communities, and all working people toward our vision for a healthy society."

National Nurses United is the largest and fastest-growing union and professional association of registered nurses in the United States with more than 225,000 members nationwide. NNU affiliates include California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee, DC Nurses Association, Michigan Nurses Association, Minnesota Nurses Association, and New York State Nurses Association.