“Ice Messed With the Wrong Profession”: The Country’s Largest Nurses’ Union Honors Alex Pretti

Maximillian Alvarez: Welcome, everyone to this on-the-ground edition of Working People, a podcast about the lives, jobs, dreams, and struggles of the working class today. Working People is a proud member of the Labor Radio Podcast Network, and is brought to you in partnership with In These Times Magazine and The Real News Network. The show is produced by Jules Taylor and made possible by the support of listeners like you.

It is Wednesday, January 28, and I am here in Washington, D.C., outside the Veterans Affairs Central Office building, where union nurses and hundreds of D.C. residents are holding a vigil for Alex Pretti and all those who have been killed by ICE. This vigil is one of many events this week organized or co-sponsored by National Nurses United, the nation’s largest union of registered nurses.

As the union stated on their website, ​“It’s happened. Federal immigration agents have murdered one of our own, ICU registered nurse Alex Pretti, who saved veterans’ lives at the Minneapolis VA. Pretti upheld his oath to advocate for and protect his patients and community to the very end as a peaceful, public legal observer of ICE atrocities. Join National Nurses United RN members in a week-long series of actions to honor Pretti and demand that Congress vote to immediately abolish this violent, racist, and lawless agency that poses a dire public health threat to all of our communities. Pretti’s death will not be in vain. ICE messed with the wrong profession. We nurses will fight to abolish ICE and bring about a vision for a healthy society based on nurses’ values of caring, compassion, and community.”

John Kerry: My name is John Kerry. I’m an ICU nurse at Washington Hospital Center here in D.C. We all came out here today to honor his sacrifice in Minneapolis over the weekend.

I’m a 32-year-old ICU nurse. Alex was 37. In many ways I could be Alex Pretti, except I’ve never done something that brave. If he can give his life for someone else, I can come together with nurses across the country to help protect others in our hospital, in our neighborhoods, and all over the city.

We help people every day in the hospital, but for Alex to leave work and then still find the time to go out and help others in this community, especially during this time with ICE roaming around, kidnapping people off the streets, it’s a reminder that there’s so much more we as nurses can do. We also need to be talking about how we can come together and protect those who are undocumented, people of color, people at risk of being kidnapped and killed by ICE.

National Nurses United is calling for the abolition of ICE. That means that we will be hitting the streets, joining protests, joining vigils to make that ICE knows, that the government knows, that Democrats and Republicans in Congress know that nurses all over the country are fed up with the police state that is being instituted across the nation, tired of the racism that we’re seeing in our streets as ICE picks up random people of color. It is a call to action for us to organize and reaffirm our commitment to our patients in the hospital and the communities we serve.

We all should be angry, and we should be sad, and we should let that pissed-off feeling fuel us. Get us out on the streets, get us out of our comfort zone, get us out talking with each other, organizing. The only way you can truly honor Alex’s sacrifice is by working together to build something that is worth his life. We hope that you at home join us and work with us to make Alex’s sacrifice worth it.

Avi: I’m Avi. I’m a federal worker, speaking in my personal capacity. We came out today after work, of course to mourn the loss of Alex Pretti’s life, but more importantly, to honor his life. Alex lost his life defending a woman in his community, and his death shouldn’t have happened. So here tonight, we call for justice, for accountability, and for an end to the violence that ICE has been perpetrating on our communities.

I’d like to add that I also came here with my friends from my local church. We came out because we believe that all life is precious, and Alex’s especially.

Mia: Hi, my name is Mia. I’ve been living in D.C. for about five years now. I’m in school currently to become a nurse, and I’ve been protesting for years for Black Lives Matter and other causes. But this is especially important to me because I’m half Mexican and half Jamaican, and I have family members who are immigrants. So standing up to ICE means a lot to me.

The fact that I saw an innocent man be killed and we’re being lied to about it really hurt me. 

Again, as a Black and Hispanic person, the fact that I’m seeing innocent white people dying now, I’m like, what does that mean for me? I already felt afraid for my life, and now knowing that innocent, regular Americans, everyday Americans, are dying as well — I already felt the fear, but I’m like, wow, I really don’t have hope now.

Alvarez: I’ve heard from a lot of your fellow health care workers that when they saw the video of Alex, they recognized an instinctive response that all nurses feel and identify with. Did you feel that way watching it?

Mia: Definitely. You get into this work because you want to help people. That’s what he was all about. That’s what nurses do. We have to be as empathetic as possible to anyone’s situation. We are here to care about people, and that’s what he was doing, even at the end. He was taking care of a woman, making sure she was okay, when he lost his life.

Susan Brooksmith: Hi, I’m Susan Brooksmith and I’m here because of this horrible weekend and what’s going on in Minneapolis. I’ve been in awe of the people in Minneapolis, and just incredible. Both Renee and Alex were trying to help their community, and I want to help my community, too.

Nadine Seiler: My name is Nadine Seiler. We are standing here because Alex Pretti was murdered by ICE agents in Minnesota on January 24, 2026. I shouldn’t have to be out standing in the cold in front of the Veterans Administration because of ICE murdering people in the United States.

One of the architects who helped build the Department of Homeland Security said that he would detonate the version of the Department of Homeland Security right now. It’s working against the people of the United States and dangerous. If he is saying that I think we need to listen. And I am here because I have been in this country going on 39 years. I came on a plane but I overstayed and I was illegal for how many years until I got myself straight. I had been in this country for years without ever fearing for my safety from the government. Once he [Trump] got into office, and especially now that he came in a second term, I don’t feel safe in this country for the first time. As somebody who was undocumented for many years – traveled through America without fear for my safety from the government – now I am fearing for my life. I’m anxious every day, actually, probably on the hour, on the minute.

Alvarez: I want to thank everyone who spoke with me on this frigid evening. Thank you all for listening and for caring. We’ll be back next week for another episode of Working People. And if you can’t wait that long, then please explore all the great work at The Real News Network, where we do grassroots journalism that lifts up the voices and stories from the front lines of struggle. Sign up for The Real News newsletter so you never miss a story. This is Maximillian Alvarez signing off from Washington, D.C. Solidarity forever.

This episode of the Working People Podcast was published on Feb 1.