Thousand nurses in SF to protest AI giant’s work with ICE, CBP

Protest is part of Global Week of Action against Palantir

In San Francisco on Wednesday, Sept. 30, more than a thousand nurses, along with community members, will mobilize against the notorious artificial intelligence giant, Palantir. Palantir has a track record of building AI tools for large-scale data collection and mass surveillance that threaten human rights.

The Wednesday action - organized by the nation's largest union of registered nurses National Nurses United (NNU) and its affiliate California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee (CNA/NNOC) - is part of the People vs. Palantir Global Week of Action. From September 28 to October 1, thousands of people across multiple continents will demand that public institutions, hospitals, universities, and pension funds cancel their existing contracts and relationships with Palantir.

In San Francisco, registered nurses will march to the city's ICE detention center to call attention to Palantir's collaboration with federal immigration enforcement through its app called ELITE. ELITE is used by federal agents to identify people for arrest using, in part, improperly obtained Medicaid data.

"Honoring our obligation to 'do no harm' means that nurses must actively refuse Palantir's role in our hospitals and in our government," said CNA/NNOC president Sandy Reding, RN. "The violence and destruction unleashed by immigration agents and enabled by Palantir is a total violation of nursing values of care and compassion. That is why we unequivocally say 'Purge Palantir!'"

What: People vs. Palantir Global Week of Action - San Francisco / Bay Area
When: Wednesday, Sept. 30 at 1:30 p.m.
Where: March begins at Jessie Square (760 Mission St.) proceeding toward ICE building (630 Sansome Street).
Who: National Nurses United and affiliate California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee

NNU nurses, as part of the Purge Palantir coalition, have been putting Palantir's connections to the U.S. government, including elected representatives, and the U.S. hospital industry in the spotlight.

Their Aug. 27 action, which spanned eight cities, focused on the deadly impacts of Palantir's technology. In each city, nurses placed 50 pairs of baby shoes in the street - one pair of shoes representing every 10 babies who have been detained since President Trump took office. Passersby could also see large images of the heart-wrenching notes written by some of the 6,000 children who have been imprisoned by federal agents since the second Trump term began.

The nurses also held large red umbrellas emblazoned with eyes, symbolizing that nurses are keeping an eye on Palantir's harmful activities.

"No part of our country has been untouched by the terror and violence unleashed by federal immigration agents and enabled by Palantir's technology," said NNU President Jamie Brown, RN. "While our patients and neighbors are living in fear of deportation and detention, our hospitals are facing huge cuts and our patients are facing mounting health care costs because of H.R. 1. Nurses aren't just saying no to Palantir, but we're calling for our public resources to go toward the benefit of working people, not billionaires and their corporations."

While the U.S. government and corporations award billions of dollars in contracts to Palantir, the U.S. health care system faces a dire threat. H.R. 1 is the 2025 budget bill, pushed through by Republicans and President Trump, that cut more than $1 trillion in Medicaid and Medicare funding to give billionaires tax breaks, militarize immigration enforcement, and fund endless wars abroad. Not only will these cuts threaten health coverage for millions of people, they risk closures and service cuts at more than 600 hospitals nationwide, according to recent NNU research.

The growth of AI companies like Palantir is dependent on the growth of power- and water-intensive data centers. Nearly three-quarters of Americans oppose the development of data centers in their neighborhoods due to clear evidence about mounting environmental damage, noise pollution, and the unmet promise of permanent jobs to boost local economies.

California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee represents more than 180,000 members in more than 200 facilities throughout the country. CNA/NNOC is an affiliate of National Nurses United, the largest and fastest-growing union and professional association of registered nurses in the nation with more than 225,000 RNs nationwide.