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Large group of Maine nurses demanding justice for Debora

Debora Kapisha, RN, freed from ICE custody, returns home

Debora Kapisha, the registered nurse detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) recently at Boston Logan International Airport, has been released from ICE custody and is on her way home to Maine. Kapisha, a medical-surgical nurse at Maine Medical Center (Maine Med) in Portland, is a member of Maine State Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee (MSNA/NNOC), an affiliate of National Nurses United (NNU), the country’s largest nurses union.

Maine State Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee
August 6, 2026

• MSNA, • NNOC

Large group of Maine nurses demanding justice for Debora

200+ Maine nurses, community members, and elected officials rallied outside Maine Medical Center to demand ICE release colleague Debora Kapisha, RN

Hundreds of union registered nurses, community allies, and elected officials rallied in Portland, Maine to demand the release of Debora Kapisha, RN, a nurse at Maine Medical Center who is currently detained by ICE. They scored a major first victory by successfully blocking her transfer from Massachusetts to Louisiana, where she would have been far from her family, legal counsel, and support network.

August 5, 2026

• MSNA, • NNOC

Picture of Red Alert tour bus against city backdrop

Chicago nurses put Community First Medical Center on “RED ALERT” status

On Saturday, Aug. 8, Community First Medical Center nurses will hold a rally and community event in Chicago to highlight their concerns about the impact of federal funding cuts on the hospital, which is already struggling with chronic staffing and equipment shortages exacerbated by poor management. A report from NNU put Community First on “Red Alert” status, warning that it faces a dire threat of service cuts and closure because of its reliance on federal funding.

National Nurses United
August 5, 2026

CNA/NNOC image with nurses in front of capitol and signs "Our Patients. Our Union. Our voice."

Sierra Nevada Memorial Hospital nurses to protest CommonSpirit layoffs and reduction in services

RNs at Sierra Nevada Memorial Hospital, a CommonSpirit hospital in Grass Valley, California, will hold a rally on Aug. 6, 2026, to protest the hospital’s planned layoffs of seven nurses who work at the hospital. Nurses are also extremely concerned that hospital management is proposing to cut the patient care hours of the Ambulatory Treatment Center.

California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee
August 5, 2026

Many MSNA/NNOC nurses holding banner "Safe Staffing Saves Lives"

Maine Medical Center nurses demand immediate release of their colleague from ICE detention

Nurses at Maine Medical Center in Portland, Maine are staging an emergency protest Wednesday, Aug. 5 to demand the immediate release of an RN colleague who is being detained by ICE despite the fact that she is legally authorized to live and work in the country while she waits for her asylum case from Zambia to be processed.

Maine State Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee
August 4, 2026

• MSNA, • NNOC

Group of CommonSpirit nurses with signs "Some Cuts Don't Heal"

Nurses deliver petition opposing CommonSpirit Health’s planned layoffs of frontline health care workers

RNs delivered a petition to their employer opposing CommonSpirit Health’s planned layoffs of more than 175 frontline health care workers signed by more than 5,000 nurses. The nurses held a rally and press conference to protest the proposed layoffs at 17 hospitals in California and their impact on patient safety. The nurses are demanding that CommonSpirit Health immediately rescind the layoffs.

California Nurses Association/National Nurses United
August 3, 2026

Nurses in front of capitol holding NNU banner.

Statement on Israeli bombings of medical supply warehouses

NNU castigated the Israeli government for destroying or badly damaging almost all of Gaza’s medicine warehouses as part of its ongoing genocide against the Palestinian people and in flagrant violation of a United Nations resolution prohibiting the targeting of medical facilities and medical workers during armed conflict.

August 2, 2026

Large group of nurses outside hospital holding signs calling for patient safety and other measures

Registered nurses to protest layoffs at 17 CommonSpirit Health hospitals in California

Registered nurses will hold a press conference and rally at California Hospital Medical Center, in Los Angeles, Calif., on Monday, Aug. 3, to protest owner and operator CommonSpirit Health’s planned layoffs at 17 hospitals in California. Nurses say layoffs will jeopardize patient care and harm communities.

California Nurses Association/National Nurses United
July 31, 2026

• CNA, • NNU

Group of six nurses, side-by-side, smiling

Nurses plan informational picket at Jackson Park Hospital to highlight patient safety concerns

Registered nurses at Jackson Park Hospital and Medical Center (JPH) will hold an informational picket on Friday, July 31, 2026, to raise their concerns about short staffing of both nurses and ancillary staff putting patients at risk, contributing to a high staff turnover, and creating challenges recruiting and retaining nurses.

National Nurses Organizing Committee/National Nurses United
July 30, 2026

• NNOC, • NNU

Large group of nurses outside, holding banner "Nurses Say Abolish ICE"

Nurses to join protests demanding justice for Lorenzo Salgado Araujo and Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero

National Nurses United announced today that RNs will be joining protests on Saturday, July 25 to demand justice for the murders of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Texas and Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero in Maine by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.

National Nurses United
July 24, 2026