Largest nurses union calls to abolish ICE after Alex Pretti killing: ‘They messed with the wrong profession’
On Friday, Jan. 23, around 50,000 people in Minneapolis, MN, engaged in a historic mass strike and day of protest to demand an end to ICE terror and President Donald Trump’s federal siege of Minnesota. Then, on Saturday, Jan. 24, an ICE agent shot and killed Alex Pretti, volunteer ICE observer and a registered union nurse who worked for the Veterans Health Administration. In this episode, we speak with Mary C. Turner, a registered nurse and a member of the Council of Presidents of National Nurses United, the largest nurse’s union in the US, which is forcefully calling for the abolition of ICE.Additional links/info:
National Nurses United: “Week of action in honor of Alex Pretti, RN and all others killed by ICE”
National Nurses United press release (1/24/26): “National Nurses United outraged by murder of VA registered nurse by immigration agents, demand abolition of ICE”
National Nurses Organizing Committee/National Nurses United website, Facebook page, Twitter/X page, and Instagram
Devon Lum & Haley Willis, The New York Times, “Videos show moments in which agents killed a man in Minneapolis”
Thomas Birmingham & Ari Bloomekatz, In These Times, “A staggering number of Minnesotans took to the streets Friday to demand ICE leave. The next day, ICE responded by killing another resident”
Maximillian Alvarez, Working People / TRNN, “Trump plans massive military parade while cutting veteran jobs, benefits, & healthcare”
Maximillian Alvarez, Working People / TRNN, “Trump cuts leave VA hospital nurses and veteran patients in a crisis”
Credits:
Audio Post-Production: Jules Taylor
Transcript
The following is a rushed transcript and may contain errors. A proofread version will be made available as soon as possible.
Maximillian Alvarez:
Alright, well welcome everyone to Working People, a podcast
Trump’s government hasn’t won its case against Mahmoud Khalil—yet
The Third Circuit Court of Appeals handed the Trump administration a victory this month in its ongoing attempt to deport Syrian-born Palestinian activist, husband, father, and former Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil. Khalil remains in the country for now and the legal battle is far from over, but the future of free speech in the US hangs in the balance. This week on The Marc Steiner Show, Marc speaks with Amy Greer, an associate attorney at Dratel & Lewis and a member of Mahmoud Khalil’s legal team, about the status of Khalil’s case.Guest:
Amy Greer is an associate attorney at Dratel & Lewis, and a member of Mahmoud Khalil’s legal team. Greer is a lawyer and archivist by training, and an advocate and storyteller by nature. As an attorney at Dratel & Lewis, she works on a variety of cases, including international extradition, RICO, terrorism, and drug trafficking. She previously served as an assistant public defender on a remote island in Alaska, defending people charged with misdemeanors, and as a research and writing attorney on capital habeas cases with clients who have been sentenced to death.
Additional links/info:
ACLU Press Release (1/15/26): “Appeals court in Mahmoud Khalil’s case decides federal court lacks jurisdiction until immigration court proceedings complete”
Maximillian Alvarez, The Real News Network, “‘Call Amy!’: Lawyer for Mahmoud Khalil reveals how he won his freedom”
Credits:
Production: David Hebden
Post-Production: Stephen Frank
Transcript
The following is a rushed transcript and may contain errors. A proofread version will be made available as soon as possible.
Amy Greer:
When the line starts moving and inching creeping forward, and we all stay silent because it’s like, that’s not our people, or that’s
Immigrant children lead uprising at Texas detention center
This story was originally published on Truthout on Jan. 26, 2026. It is shared here under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) license.
An uprising broke out at an immigrant jail in southern Texas on Saturday, with around 1,000 immigrants detained in the facility — many of them children — chanting “Libertad” and “Let us go,” according to an attorney who witnessed the event.
The protest took place at South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, which closed in 2024 but was reopened by the Trump administration this year to detain immigrant families.
On Saturday, facility personnel abruptly ordered immigration attorneys who were present to leave, saying “an incident” had taken place. Michigan-based immigration attorney Eric Lee, who was among those forced to leave, said he could hear shouting that sounded “high-pitched” and “urgent,” indicating that he believed there were “hundreds of children” taking part in the uprising.
Lee later said his clients told him the protest began in response to the treatment of Liam Conejo Ramos, the 5-year-old from Minnesota who was abducted, along with his father, by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents last week. The two were transferred to the jail, more than 1,300 miles from home, shortly after being detained.
School officials familiar with the incident say that an adult living in Liam’s home had begged for ICE agents to let Liam stay after his father was taken into custody.
“There was ample opportunity to be able to safely hand that child off to adults,” Mary Granlund, chair of the Columbia Heights School Board, said during a press conference last week.
School officials also said that Liam was used as “bait” by agents, in an attempt to get
US’s largest nurses’ union demands abolition of ICE after Alex Pretti killing
This story was originally published on Truthout on Jan. 26, 2026. It is shared here under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) license.
The largest nurses’ union in the U.S. has demanded the abolition of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) after a federal agent shot and killed nurse Alex Pretti on Saturday, joining a rapidly growing chorus calling for Congress to do away with the rogue agency.
In a statement, National Nurses United (NNU) strongly condemned the killing of Pretti, saying the shooting demonstrates the “violence, terror, and lawlessness” and “dire public health threat” that federal immigration agencies pose to communities nationwide.
“The nation’s nurses, who make it their mission to care for and save human lives, are horrified and outraged that immigration agents have once again committed cold-blooded murder of a public observer who posed no threat to them,” NNU said. “ICE agents have been kidnapping hard working people — mothers, fathers, and children — and now murdered a registered nurse, one of the most trusted professions in the country.”
“Nurses demand the immediate abolition of ICE,” the group said. “Abolish ICE now.”
Pretti, 37, was an intensive care nurse at a Department of Veterans Affairs hospital. He was shot and killed by a Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) agent on Saturday as he was filming immigration agents conducting a raid on a Minneapolis street. Videos from bystanders showed multiple agents tackling him, taking his gun, and then shooting at him at least 10 times, killing him.
In their statement, NNU called on the Senate to block the funding package for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) slated to come to a vote this week. Senate Democrats have said that they are going to
We asked a MAGA congressman if ICE’s use of deadly force is justified. His answer should scare all of us.
After the extrajudicial killing of ICU nurse Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, federal officials were quick to put the blame on him. Pretti was accused of planning a “massacre” of cops, while videos depict him filming and rendering aid to a woman before he was shot in the back.
This has been the Trump administration’s playbook since federal agents occupied Minneapolis: A controversial use of force, then false accusations blaming the victim without evidence or investigation.
Renee Good suffered the same fate after she was killed by an ICE agent earlier this month. Kristi Noem called her a domestic terrorist just hours after she was gunned down. Again, an accusation without evidence.
Shortly after the killing of Good, we interviewed the MAGA conservative Rep. Chip Roy on the steps of the US Capitol about ICE’s actions.
His answers were revealing and worth revisiting in light of the continued use of the victim-blaming playbook, if only to understand what all this rhetorical posturing implies about the continuing presence of ICE in American cities.
Roy is one of the most conservative members of Congress. He’s also a MAGA stalwart. When we asked him if Renee Good’s killing was justified, he initially stuck to blaming the victim.
“I think she put herself in a bad position by interfering with law enforcement and by hitting the gas in a car with a law enforcement officer right in front of her. That’s what I think,” Roy responded.
Then, as the interview progressed, his defense of ICE shifted.
“Do we talk about the ICE officer who was dragged down the street in a car? Do we talk about the ICE officer who had a steel