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national nurses united
‘Pretti’s Death Will Not Be in Vain’: Nurses Plan Nationwide Week of Action Against ICE Terror
"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."
Jan 27, 2026
The largest union of nurses in the United States is holding protests across the country this week to protest the killing of one of their own, Alex Pretti, by federal officers in Minneapolis and to demand the abolition of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, whose agents are terrorizing communities nationwide.
Demonstrations organized by National Nurses United (NNU) have been planned in more than a dozen states—from California to Florida to New York—as grassroots backlash against the Trump administration's lawless mass deportation efforts, detentions, and violent crackdowns on dissent continue to mount.
"Pretti's death will not be in vain. ICE messed with the wrong profession," NNU said in a statement. "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."
NNU, which represents more than 225,000 nurses in the US, said in the hours after Pretti's killing that federal agents "have executed one of our fellow nurses, Alex Pretti, who saved veterans’ lives as an intensive care unit RN for the Veterans Health Administration."
"He not only advocated for his patients inside the VA as a member of American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), but also took his advocacy to the streets to stand up for his community as nurses do," the union said. "We demand justice and accountability for his murder."
While demanding ICE's elimination as a federal agency, the nurses' union is also pushing senators to oppose any government funding legislation that includes money for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which oversees ICE.
"Call your senators and tell them to oppose any appropriations package that includes the Homeland Security Appropriations bill," NNU wrote in a social media post on Tuesday. "Congress must not give a penny to ICE. Our taxpayer dollars must not be used to murder and terrorize our communities!"
URGENT: Call your senators and tell them to oppose any appropriations package that includes the Homeland Security Appropriations bill.
Congress must not give a penny to ICE. Our taxpayer dollars must not be used to murder and terrorize our communities!
☎️ 202-998-6094 ☎️ pic.twitter.com/h3i7iMvZPD
— National Nurses United (@NationalNurses) January 27, 2026
Ahead of a possible government shutdown at the end of the week, the US Senate is set to consider a legislative package that includes six appropriations bills, including a $64.4 billion DHS funding bill that contains $10 billion for ICE. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has said Democrats won't provide the votes Republicans need to advance the appropriations package if the DHS bill is included.
Members of the Senate Democratic caucus are demanding that the DHS funding be stripped from the broader appropriations package and considered on its own, along with concrete reforms to ICE.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), a close ally of union nurses, put forward a series of demands on Monday, including repeal of the $75 billion ICE funding that Republicans and President Donald Trump approved last summer, unmasking of ICE agents, and immediate removal of federal immigration agents from Minnesota and Maine.
"ICE is out of control, ignoring the law and our Constitution,” said Sanders. “Congress must vote NO on any additional funding for DHS."
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Medicare for All Backers Argue It's a Better Solution Than Whatever Trump Is Cooking Up
"Republicans have a million ideas regarding healthcare. Except one," said Sen. Bernie Sanders. "They will never acknowledge that healthcare is a human right—to be guaranteed to ALL."
Nov 25, 2025
As President Donald Trump postpones unveiling his supposed plan to tackle soaring US healthcare costs—reportedly after pushback from congressional Republicans—Medicare for All advocates have renewed calls for shifting to a single-payer system.
"Republicans have a million ideas regarding healthcare. Except one," Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who caucuses with Democrats, said on social media Monday afternoon. "They will never acknowledge that healthcare is a human right—to be guaranteed to ALL."
The union National Nurses United also called for Medicare for All on Monday, pointing to a recent West Health/Gallup poll that found 47% of US adults are worried they won't be able to afford healthcare next year, the highest level since they began tracking in 2021.
"The urgency around this is real," West Health president Timothy Lash told NBC News. "When you look at the economic strain that is on families right now, even if healthcare prices didn't rise, the costs are rising elsewhere, which only exacerbates the problem."
Over objections from progressives, including Sanders, a small group of Senate Democrats earlier this month agreed to help GOP lawmakers end the longest federal government shutdown in US history in exchange for just the promise of a mid-December vote on extending Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies to help over 20 million Americans who face skyrocketing premiums.
Citing unnamed White House officials, MS NOW reported Sunday that Trump was set to introduce the Healthcare Price Cuts Act to combat what the sources called "surprise premium hikes" as soon as Monday.
"The plan would also eliminate 'zero-premium' subsidies currently offered under the ACA, intending to stop 'ghost beneficiaries,' a frequent Republican concern about alleged fraudulent policy recipients, by requiring a small minimum payment as a means to verify eligibility to receive benefits," according to the outlet.
"The nascent plan also features a deposit program that would incentivize lower-premium options on the ACA exchange," MS NOW continued. "For individuals who downgrade coverage, the difference in coverage costs would be distributed to a 'Health Savings Account' provided with taxpayer dollars."
However, as Politico detailed Monday, also citing unnamed sources, "Trump's healthcare plan is in limbo after pushback from Republicans who were caught off guard by the president's forthcoming proposal—questioning, in particular, whether it would include additional abortion restrictions."
As parts of Trump's proposal continued to leak in the absence of its formal introduction, the American Prospect's Ryan Cooper and David Dayen wrote Tuesday that "all told, there's a good chance that Democrats will accept this offer, or something like it, as the best they're likely to get for the time being."
"If they are ever in power again, they can fix the ACA permanently, and avoid the danger of subsidies expiring (as the Prospect advocated back in 2021). But it's quite revealing as to the total bankruptcy of the Republican Party when it comes to healthcare policy," the duo added. "The GOP will flinch from more than doubling health insurance premiums—at least if middle-class people and up are the most affected—but only if they can also make the insurance worse, and make poor people pay more."
Last week, in a pair of op-eds and a letter to Democratic lawmakers, Sanders argued that "at a time when the Republicans have been forced to finally talk about the healthcare crisis facing our country, it is essential that the Democratic Caucus unify behind a set of commonsense policies that will make healthcare more affordable and accessible."
He called for not only extending the ACA tax credits, but also repealing Trump and congressional Republicans' $1 trillion in cuts to the ACA and Medicaid; expanding Medicare to cover dental, vision, and hearing; cutting prescription drug costs by requiring pharmaceutical companies to charge no more for medications in the United States than they do in Europe or Canada; investing in expanding primary healthcare; and banning stock buybacks and dividends, and restricting CEO compensation.
Although Medicare for All lacks majority support in the Democratic Caucus, Sanders—the ranking member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions—also emphasized his belief that it remains the ideal long-term solution. He reintroduced the Medicare for All Act in April with Democratic Reps. Pramila Jayapal (Wash.) and Debbie Dingell (Mich.).
Other single-payer advocates have also seized on current concerns and debates about the ACA. In a column for Truthdig last Thursday, Conor Lynch wrote that "with Republicans spotlighting the greed, corruption, and inefficiency of US healthcare, progressive Democrats have an opening to take Medicare for All off the back burner and renew the push for a comprehensive overhaul."
"The fact that Republicans are calling out insurance companies for their profiteering shows how much the national mood has changed since the passage of the ACA," he continued. "With Republicans unable to offer anything but a return to an intolerable status quo ante, Democrats should make the case for moving beyond the broken status quo."
The previous week, CJ Mikkelsen, a retired firefighter and paramedic now leading a small nonprofit in Michigan, made the case in the Midland Daily News that "we need a system like every other country in the developed world has."
Mikkelsen shared some of his and his wife's health struggles and stressed the society-wide benefits: "Medicare for All would mean that everyone is covered for everything at all times. No more losing coverage because you’ve lost your job, want to go back to school, or are starting your own business. The last thing I want you to know about Medicare for All, and pay attention here—IT’S CHEAPER THAN WHAT WE'RE DOING NOW."
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'Put Working People First,' Says AFL-CIO Angered by Trump Agenda and Government Shutdown
"The labor movement's message to the administration is clear: Get to work. Fund the government. Fix the healthcare crisis."
Oct 01, 2025
The largest federation of labor unions in the United States called out President Donald Trump's administration on Wednesday after a government shutdown began at midnight following failed votes on competing congressional funding bills.
"The federal government is shutting down right now because President Trump and his administration chose chaos and pain over responsible governing," declared American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) president Liz Shuler in a statement.
"Now," she said, "countless jobs, the essential government services we all rely on, and the economy powered by our workforce are in jeopardy—all because the administration wants to take one more swing at wrecking the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and throwing working people off our healthcare."
Republicans control the White House and both chambers of Congress but need some Democratic support to advance most legislation to a final vote in the Senate. While the GOP wanted to pass a House-approved stopgap bill, Democrats fought to extend expiring ACA subsidies and reverse Medicaid cuts in Trump's so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act, or HR 1.
"It's not Washington politicians who are at risk here—it's working people just like us."
"Hundreds of thousands of federal workers are being locked out and stand to lose the paychecks their families depend on," said Shuler. "Federal contractors, including custodians and cafeteria workers, won't have the assurance of back pay. It's not Washington politicians who are at risk here—it's working people just like us, more than 80% of whom live outside DC, and 30% are veterans."
Federal workers deemed essential continue working during a shutdown, and those deemed nonessential are furloughed; none receive pay until the government reopens. The Trump administration has threatened to use the shutdown to continue the Department of Government Efficiency's (DOGE) effort to gut the federal bureaucracy.
"These are the people who get our Social Security checks out on time, keep our food and water safe, care for our veterans, and protect us at airports and during natural disasters," Shuler noted. "Under the administration's Project 2025/DOGE agenda, federal workers have been fired, rehired, and fired again. They've been stripped of their collective bargaining rights and union contracts."
"Now, President Trump is shutting down the government, using federal workers as pawns and threatening to illegally fire them—all to avoid fixing the mounting healthcare cost crisis that will hurt millions of Americans," she concluded. "The labor movement's message to the administration is clear: Get to work. Fund the government. Fix the healthcare crisis. Put working people first."
Leaders of AFL-CIO affiliates shared similar messages on Wednesday, including American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) national president Everett Kelley, who stressed that "when the government shuts down, American families pay the price."
"Congress must stop playing politics with the livelihoods of federal workers and the communities they serve, end this shutdown immediately, and stop holding workers hostage," he said. "These employees should be able to do their jobs free of political interference. Instead, these employees and the services they provide are being thrown into chaos because Congress refuses to act."
"Making matters worse," Kelley noted, "President Trump and Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought are threatening to illegally fire mass numbers of federal employees during the government shutdown to inflict further pain on communities and workers across the nation—an action we are already challenging in court."
In the lead-up to the shutdown late Tuesday, AFGE and another AFL-CIO affiliate, the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), filed a federal lawsuit in hopes of protecting government workers from mass firings.
Mary Turner, president of National Nurses United, another AFL-CIO affiliate, said Tuesday that "the Trump administration's only desire appears to be to placate and please the billionaire class and to declare war on our country's own people. This was abundantly evident in the passage of HR 1, which gave corporations and the ultrarich huge tax breaks while stealing healthcare coverage from 16 million people."
"When the Republicans passed HR 1, they voted to upend an already fragile system," Turner added. "If Congress doesn't act immediately to reverse these cuts, our patients will suffer from going without care. They will have to ration their prescriptions and face bankruptcy just to see a doctor. Experts predict more than 50,000 people will die unnecessarily each year because of these cuts."
In a letter sent to federal lawmakers before the shutdown, the nurses had urged them to vote for the Democratic measure and "address the looming healthcare crisis that Republican congressional leadership created."
The union also emphasized that "by refusing to govern, Republicans bear full responsibility for the devastating consequences that would ensue if the government is shut down."
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