ICE “messed with the wrong profession,” nurses said in taking to the streets as part of the nationwide demands for justice following the brutal murder of VA ICU nurse Alex Pretti at the hands of masked mass deportation agents in Minnesota on Jan. 24.
View this post on Instagram
“Federal immigration agents have murdered one of our own, ICU registered nurse Alex Pretti, who saved veterans’ lives at the Minneapolis VA,” National Nurses United said in a statement. “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.” Pretti, who carried only his phone in his hand, had been checking in on a fellow observer who’d been pepper-sprayed when a mob of agents tackled him and repeatedly shot him “point-blank.” He died at the scene.
National Nurses United, the largest nurses union in the nation, said that it was activating their members to get out to “honor Pretti and all who have been murdered by ICE, as well as 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,” with rallies for accountability taking place in more than a dozen states.
At a rally outside Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center on Jan. 28, a fellow ICU nurse said that Pretti died practicing his values.
“It is a core value to advocate for our patients and our communities,” Roxette Villegas said. “What Alex Pretti was going – he was doing the exact same thing. He was using his nursing experience to advocate outside of the hospital.” Nurses and community members also rallied outside UCI Health in Orange, California. “And to see him just being shot while helping, and being, you know, practicing what he loves to do, which is caring for somebody who’s hurting, is really sad,” UCI registered nurse Marlene Tucay said through tears.
In a vigil at the Minnesota location where Pretti was gunned down by federal agents, nurse Theresa Goodfell said she felt “compelled” to visit the flower-laden site. “We all say an oath when we graduate from nursing school, and he upheld that oath until the very end,” she said.
“The impact of Pretti’s death has undoubtedly reverberated across America, but perhaps more deeply among the nation’s nurses and health care professionals, who see themselves reflected in the actions he took before his death,” The 19th reported. “It’s a sentiment that has come up again and again as nurses, a workforce dominated by women, begin mobilizing in Pretti’s name. A social media campaign, ‘Alex Pretti was one of us,’ is taking off. On the streets, nurses are protesting, holding vigils and saying Pretti’s name at strike picket lines.”
“Stories of Pretti’s life that have emerged show the role he played in supporting his women colleagues,” the report continued. “Nationally, only about 11 percent of nurses are men. Dr. Avalon Swenson, a resident physician in Minnesota, recently recounted working with Pretti at the VA ICU, where he ‘made a point of asking my opinion and making sure my patients had what they needed without my asking.’”
71-year-old Air Force veteran Sonny Fouts said Pretti was his ICU nurse when he underwent a descending aorta aneurysm repair procedure just weeks ago. He and his loved ones remembered his compassionate bedside manner and have been very affected by his death, People reported.
“I walked in, and Sonny’s just hooked up to so many machines and needles and tubes, and Alex was his nurse and he just lightened the situation,” his partner Kimberly told People. “There are nurses who come in and don’t really say anything, and Alex was not like that. I appreciated that I immediately felt comfortable with him. And I felt that Sonny was in good hands.”
“The veteran tells PEOPLE he’s had a headache and a stomach ache, as well as trouble sleeping, since he learned what happened to Pretti,” the report continued. “I don’t like looking at the TV about it. I don’t want to read any newspaper stories,” Fouts said. “I don’t use the word ‘hero,’ but I guess I could say that.”
Pretti’s death and the heartfelt words from his former colleagues and patients are reminders that when one member of our national community gets attacked, it affects all of us. And when the very people who help care for us have already been doing so under strenuous workplace circumstances that show no sign of improving any time soon, they deserve better. “We’re a profession where our purpose in life is to be the caretakers of society — the caretakers of people,” National Nurses United president and ICU nurse Mary Turner told The 19th. “That involves so much mental, emotional, physical, spiritual effort, that when something like what happened to Alex happens, it is a devastating blow to our very soul.”
