We write as nurses, nursing students, nursing leaders, healthcare workers, advocates, and allies from across the United States to object to the devastating impact of current U.S. immigration enforcement policies and practices on healthcare, education, and community safety.

We urge concrete government action to reduce that harm, including immediate reforms to curb the deadly abuses we have seen and a withdrawal of immigration enforcement agents from healthcare and other community spaces.

Recent events, including the death of a Minneapolis nurse during an immigration enforcement operation, have made visible what many nurse clinicians have long experienced. Current immigration enforcement practices are causing widespread fear among patients and families, disrupted access to care, and profound moral distress among healthcare workers.

Vulnerable communities are losing access to health care, education, and other critical elements of life because they reasonably fear for their lives and liberty. Detainees, including children, are being held in conditions that are plainly incompatible with health and wellbeing.

Nurses are ethically obligated to preserve life, reduce harm, and protect human dignity. Alex Pretti was meeting these obligations to his profession and community by peacefully recording immigration enforcement activities and offering aid to a fellow observer in distress.

When enforcement actions destabilize hospitals, schools, and neighborhoods, the consequences extend beyond immigration policy and become public health issues affecting patient outcomes, workforce stability, and community trust.

We call for an end to these harmful actions and we urge all nurses to do the same.
We recognize the complexity of immigration policy. However, that complexity does not absolve immigration agents of responsibility for abusive conduct and creating an atmosphere of sustained terror. Systems must include safeguards to prevent foreseeable harm.

We respectfully call for:

-The withholding of further funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement until reforms are in place

-Reforms of immigration enforcement practices through a public health and human rights lens, with input from frontline clinicians, including an end to mass enforcement operations like the one in Minneapolis and training for agents to de-escalate confrontations with community members

-Clear protections from immigration enforcement for healthcare and educational spaces

-Transparent accountability mechanisms for immigration enforcement actions resulting in injury, death, or disruption of care

-Concrete advocacy and guidance from all nursing and healthcare organizations, about the obligations of nurses with regard to immigration enforcement activities

-Formal recognition of moral distress as an occupational and ethical impact on nurses

Nursing has a long history of advocating for patient safety and community health through evidence, accountability, and moral clarity. We offer this letter in that tradition.