Nurses and healthcare workers gathered at the Capitol on Friday morning to protest fellow nurse Alex Pretti’s fatal shooting by U.S. Border Patrol officers in Minneapolis.
The protest was the first of many U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement protests at the Capitol during Friday’s nationwide “Ice Out Everywhere” effort which encouraged an economic blackout to oppose ICE’s intensified presence in Minneapolis and the rest of the nation.
Many of the mostly-female protestors wore knit hats and scarves as they chanted “Lean on Me,” and “Fuera ICE” on a cold morning with a ‘feels like’ temperature in the negatives.
“We've been disgusted by what we've been seeing. We knew we had to do something,” Emly, one of the protest organizers and labor and delivery nurse told The Daily Cardinal.
Melissa, a nurse, told the Cardinal Alex Pretti’s killing “hit close to home, because I recognized myself in his actions… We’re the people who are going to run towards it, when we see someone struggling. I would have done the same.”
Her friend Gwyn said nurses are a big voice when together and said it was important for her to show solidarity with people in Minnesota.
“If you know any Minnesotans, they're good people. They're nicer than Wisconsinites. A great community, and it feels so important to support them,” she said.
Protestors’ reactions to ICE in Minneapolis
Cindy Anderson, a retired nurse and Minnesota native, said family and friends in the Twin Cities have seen helicopters and masked, armed ICE agents knocking on doors in their neighborhoods.
“I'm just outraged that human beings are being treated like animals,” Anderson said. “We need to stop supporting anybody who allows this regime.”
Barbara, a retired pediatrics nurse who asked to be identified by first name only, told the Cardinal she was concerned about ICE deploying facial recognition technology to track Minneapolis protestors. She also expressed worry about ICE impersonators as a mother.
“I'm very disturbed by the tyrannical actions of our government against innocent people who are just trying to live,” Barbara said. “ICE needs to leave Minnesota. They need to stop harassing everybody. They need to stop assuming people are guilty until proven innocent.”
Anthony O’Rourke, an IT worker at UW Health, said he recently joined a local activism group and has since attended multiple ICE protests.
“Our government is lying to us,” O’Rourke told the Cardinal.
UW Health nurses Tamara Myers — who was raised in Minneapolis — and Angie Venturi attended the protest to demonstrate a “Midwestern breed of activism.”
“Between people being kidnapped, Alex Pretti being murdered, this is not what we stand for. We're here to help everybody,” Myers said.
Some protestors like Barbara called for ICE to be “reigned in”, while others wanted the organization to be abolished entirely.
“I am not against immigration enforcement when it's done humanely and reasonably, but we need to look at foreign policy decisions… and at companies that are hiring people without documentation and then complaining that they're here,” Barbara said.
Madison Metropolitan School District school nurses Abbi Dunning and Michelle Reddin attended the protest and said when students with international backgrounds hear rumors of ICE presence, which spread quickly through calls and social media, they don’t come to school. School nurses often are these students’ only point of contact for healthcare.
“You would be surprised how many students are here that don't have health insurance, [but] that we see every day,” Dunning said. “Their only connection to [health] resources is school.”
MMSD staff have organized quickly this year to develop plans if ICE agents entered school premises, including using internal messaging platforms and barring the agents from the building to the extent the law allows, according to Dunning.
“We want to see students still feel like they can come to school and feel safe and feel part of the community,” Dunning said.
Staff Writer
