Chicago-area nurses, healthcare workers honor Alex Pretti with a candlelight vigil
For many healthcare workers in Chicago and beyond, the recent killing of Alex Pretti, an intensive care nurse at the Veterans Affairs (VA) hospital in Minneapolis, has become a moment for solidarity, pride, and profound grief. Hundreds of nurses and healthcare professionals gathered in below-freezing temperatures Wednesday night for a vigil to honor Pretti at Jesse Brown VA Medical Center.
Federal agents shot Pretti multiple times on Saturday morning in Minneapolis during an incident in which video footage shows him recording agents’ actions on his cell phone and attempting to help a woman whom an agent had shoved to the ground.
“My heart broke on Saturday,” says Carla Tozer, a nurse practitioner and professor at the University of Illinois Chicago College of Nursing. “Then I became angry. It feels inspiring to see people come out. It’s encouraging to see that so many people feel the same way.”
Many speakers and attendees said Pretti’s actions exemplified the best of nurses and healthcare workers.
“I think we all see ourselves in Alex,” says Kate, a nurse at UChicago Medicine who asked that her last name not be used. “I think any single one of us would have done exactly the same thing he did. We are just devastated by what happened to him and are hoping to see change.”
For many at the vigil, Pretti’s death correlated with broader Trump administration policies affecting the healthcare system, including cuts to Medicaid, reductions in medical research funding, and changes to the VA.
“The bullets and the agents who shot Alex were funded by cuts to health care,” said Tina Godinho, an ICU nurse at Jesse Brown, addressing the crowd. “Cuts to the VA [are] leaving nurses and veterans short-staffed and unsafe. Now nurses have to do what nurses do: continue to come together in this fight to protect our patients and our communities.”
Several speakers, including Navy veteran Michael Applegate, called for general strikes and criticized Veterans Affairs’ Secretary Doug Collins for allowing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to use the Edward Hines Jr. VA Hospital in Chicago’s west suburbs as a staging ground. They also condemned what they described as a broader overhaul of the VA and attacks on unions and collective bargaining.
“Long before his life was taken, Alex was under attack just by being a VA employee,” Applegate told the crowd. “These attacks are nothing new. Members of both parties for decades now have voted to cut funding for life-saving programs and to privatize veteran healthcare in order to enrich themselves. We demand more from our representatives than just strongly worded letters or tweets.”
Pretti is the latest in a string of often fatal incidents involving ICE and Border Patrol agents, including the shootings of Renee Good in Minneapolis and Silverio Villegas Gonzáles in Chicago.
Marimar Martinez, who survived being shot five times in Chicago and later had all charges dropped, recently asked a federal judge to unseal body-camera video and other evidence from her case. In a motion filed on her behalf in U.S. District Court, her attorneys wrote that the protective order “keeps the entire country in the dark about how DHS responds to lethal force incidents by their agents, which have now unfortunately become a weekly occurrence.”
Like Minnesota, Chicago saw an expanded ICE presence for months this past fall as part of Operation Midway Blitz. Several nurses say the heightened enforcement has taken a toll on patients.
“A lot of patients are suffering,” says Nora Engelman, a Chicago-area nurse of more than 25 years who has worked extensively with immigrant and underserved communities. “Sometimes, they don’t come to their appointments because they are scared now,” She says.
Engelman and other nurses say some patients either miss appointments or delay care out of fear of being questioned about their identification or migration status, and potentially detained or deported.
“We can no longer safely do our jobs,” Greg Kelley, president of the Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, and Kansas chapter of Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Healthcare, said in his speech. “People should not be cancelling appointments out of fear of ICE’s presence. Hospital workers should not have to watch for ICE in their communities, on their way to work or allow ICE to roam their hallways, harassing staff and patients based on how they look or their accent.”
According to Minku Sharma, a certified nursing assistant and nursing student at Malcolm X College, many Chicago-area hospitals have adopted protocols and training if federal agents arrive on site, with an emphasis on patient and staff safety.
“I try to reassure people, as long as they are with us, they are in good hands,” Sharma says. “We are not trying to deport them. It doesn’t matter where they come from or what their status is, we are going to take care of them and provide them with the exact care we’d provide anybody else.”
On Friday, January 30, doctors throughout Chicago are planning a rally in solidarity with Minnesota, to demand ICE out of hospitals. They will gather at the University of Illinois Health Building, 1737 W. Taylor St. in Chicago.
Organizers wrote in a statement, “As frontline healthcare workers, doctors are duty-bound to care for and protect their patients. That is why doctors and other community members across Chicago are standing in solidarity to ensure ICE does not recreate this type of violence in their workplaces, in Minnesota, or anywhere else.”
Looking for support in this moment? Here are some organizations offering counseling, legal support, and advocacy:
- Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR): Know-your-rights information, legal referrals, and public benefits assistance
- National Immigrant Justice Center: Advocacy and legal counsel for immigrants and refugees
- National Immigration Law Center (NILC): Policy updates and advocacy for immigrants’ rights in healthcare and public services
- ACLU – Immigrants’ Rights Project: Resources on civil rights, accountability, and reporting incidents involving federal agents
- NAMI Helpline (National Alliance on Mental Illness): Free information and support for mental health and trauma at 800‑950‑NAMI (6264)
Aaron Dorman is a reporter based in the Chicago area who specializes in environmental and/or technology issues. He doesn’t understand the difference between mostaccioli and baked ziti; thinks it might be a marketing scam.
