More Unions Are Saying ‘ICE Out’

More unions across the country are taking a stand against Immigration and Customs Enforcement since the January 23 mass strike in Minneapolis and the January 24 killing of Alex Pretti, an intensive care nurse and union member.

Pretti was a member of the Government Employees (AFGE) Local 3669, working in the Minneapolis Veterans Affairs Hospital. His death at the hands of Border Patrol agents has shocked and outraged people across the country. Health care and V.A. workers have felt it even more keenly.

National Nurses United, which has 225,000 members, became the first national union to call for the abolition of ICE, holding a week of actions beginning January 26 on that theme.

AFGE held a nationwide day of remembrance for Pretti on February 1, with vigils outside V.A. hospitals in 22 cities. The union called for the resignation of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Deputy White House Chief of Staff Stephen Miller for branding Pretti a “domestic terrorist.”

A GROWING CHORUS

The day of Pretti’s killing, the AFL-CIO called “for ICE to immediately leave Minnesota.” The Communications Workers (CWA) soon did too.

They joined unions that have been making similar calls since the January 7 killing of Renee Good, including SEIU, which has called for “ICE out of our communities,” and the Postal Workers (APWU), which has called for “an end to these dangerous and disruptive ICE raids” and objected to the use of postal facilities as ICE staging areas.

Even some more conservative unions felt the need to say something about Pretti’s death. The Electrical Workers (IBEW) condemned the administration’s “excessive use of force and government overreach” in Minnesota. The Building Trades (NABTU) said Pretti’s killing “has raised serious concerns about excessive force, as multiple videos and eyewitness accounts contradict federal claims about the moments leading up to his death.”

Pretti’s union, AFGE, is in a complex position. The National Border Patrol Council is an AFGE affiliate, and put out an immediate statement the morning of his killing falsely claiming that he had been “brandishing” a gun, and asserting that officers had “utilized justifiable force in eliminating the threat.”

SUPPORT LABOR NOTES

BECOME A MONTHLY DONOR

Give $10 a month or more and get our "Fight the Boss, Build the Union" T-shirt.

AFGE Local 17, which represents workers in the V.A.’s central office, has demanded that the V.A. offer grief counseling and mental health support, lower flags to half-staff, and apologize for blaming Pretti’s death on Minnesota’s insufficient compliance with the deportation machine.

PUTTING WORDS INTO ACTION

In Portland, Oregon, the state labor council and two dozen unions backed a “Labor Says ICE Out!” march and rally January 31. Thousands of people turned out, many wearing union gear and carrying their union banners. The Northwest Labor Press reported that marchers filled the streets for nine blocks.

Though the march was family-friendly, with plenty of kids and elders participating, when some protesters approached the ICE facility the police attacked with teargas and projectiles. The gassing was so intense that the effects lingered in the air for days, even indoors in nearby buildings, including a hospital.

The same day in Seattle, workers organized three union-backed “ICE out!” rallies—one for educators, one for health care workers, and one for tech workers—and converged for a joint march of thousands.

Some unions, such as the Chicago Teachers, have answered the call from Minneapolis activists to hold protests outside and inside Target stores nationwide. The retail chain Target is one of the biggest companies headquartered in the Twin Cities, and it has been allowing ICE to enter its stores and arrest employees. Other corporate targets are the hardware chain Home Depot, Enterprise car rentals, Hilton hotels, and a home builder called DR Horton.

In Minneapolis, labor solidarity has continued after the monumental strike. Teamsters Local 120 sent its food truck to support AFGE’s vigil at the V.A. At another hospital, nurses and doctors told the press that ICE was clearly lying about how a construction worker got his skull shattered. (ICE claimed he had deliberately run into a brick wall.)

And members of the Letter Carriers (NALC) Branch 9 passed a resolution January 27 declaring that ICE activities on their delivery routes pose a major threat to members’ safety, and encouraging carriers to report it as a safety hazard when management tries to send them out in dangerous conditions.