US’s Largest Nurses’ Union Demands Abolition of ICE After Alex Pretti Killing

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 block the vote, but Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer reportedly told his caucus in a call on Sunday not to back calls to abolish the agency; instead, he said, the message must be to “restrain, reform and restrict ICE.”

On the date of the general strike in Minneapolis on Friday, just a day before Pretti’s killing, NNU had put out a statement condemning the House for its passage of the DHS appropriations bill.

The union, which has 225,000 members, has pledged to do “everything in our power” to get any members of Congress who vote to pass funding for ICE voted out of office.

Pretti was also a union member, part of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), which condemned his killing in a statement, but did not name ICE.

Other nurses’ unions have spoken out, including the Oregon Nurses Association, which said: “Provision 8.2 of the American Nurses Association Code of Ethics for Nurses is clear: ‘Where there are human rights violations, nurses ought to and must stand up for those rights and demand accountability.’ That is exactly what Alex was doing.”

Those who knew Pretti have described him as a man who was drawn to nursing and opposed to ICE’s raids because of his deep care for people and passion for helping those in need. Pretti’s family condemned the Trump administration’s “sickening lies” about Pretti, as officials sought to label him as a terrorist and “would-be assassin” after the shooting.

NNU’s statement adds to growing calls for the abolition of ICE, which, along with DHS and CBP, was created under the Bush administration in order to surveil Americans and enforce the global “war on terror” at home, to disastrous effect.

Pretti was the second person to be shot and killed by federal agents on the streets of Minneapolis in a matter of weeks, with agents killing Renee Nicole Good earlier this month.

As a result of escalating ICE violence, polls have found rapidly increasing support for abolishing ICE. Whereas data analyzed by Civiqs in January 2025 found that only 24 percent of Americans supported abolishing the agency, a YouGov/Economist poll found last week that 45 percent now support the idea, tied with those opposed.