RNs denounce use of Palantir software by hospitals

Registered nurses and community allies in Palo Alto, Calif. will hold a vigil on Thursday, Feb. 5 to honor the lives lost to federal immigration agents, including that of Alex Pretti, a fellow RN who was killed while observing immigration forces in Minneapolis, Minn. The vigil and march will take place near Palantir’s Palo Alto campus, in order to draw attention to the close cooperation between the tech behemoth and the federal government in its brutal and illegal immigration crackdown, announced National Nurses United. 

“Across our profession, nurses have been shaken by the murder of Alex Pretti because he was killed for demonstrating nursing values of care and compassion,” said Blaine Walke, RN in the endoscopy unit at HCA Good Samaritan Hospital in San Jose, Calif. “Justice for Alex Pretti–and all the immigrants and observers harmed and murdered by immigration officers–starts with calling attention to every single person and corporation enabling and profiting from this cruelty. As far as nurses are concerned, Palantir has blood on their hands.”

The escalation in intimidation, violence, and lawlessness conducted by ICE and enabled by Palantir comes as the federal government led by the Republican Party and President Trump have cut nearly a trillion dollars in health care funding for Medicaid and Medicare, in part to finance the deportation and detention complex. Meanwhile, hospital CEOs, including Samuel Hazan of HCA–HCA owns Good Samaritan Hospital in San Jose, Calif.–have been clamoring to hand over patient data to Palantir to automate staffing. For example, HCA worked with Palantir to develop Timpani, an AI-enabled application that nurses report creates unsustainable and faulty schedules that ultimately perpetuate the national short-staffing crisis. Nearby San Mateo Health System may also use Palantir technology in its operations. 

Who: Bay Area RNs, immigrant advocates, faith leaders, union and community members with Silicon Valley Rising Action, National Nurses United, and Bay Resistance.
What: ICE KILLS, PALANTIR PROFITS candlelight vigil and community action
When: Thursday, Feb. 5 at 4:30 p.m. 
Where: Heritage Park, 300 Homer Avenue, Palo Alto, Calif. 

Just this past July, the Department of Defense announced a $10 billion agreement with Palantir to use its technology to share data across federal agencies, enabling unprecedented surveillance power. This followed a $30 million contract awarded to Palantir by the Department of Homeland Security to build an AI-powered system that would identify immigrants for deportation. New reporting from Jan. 2026 confirms that Palantir’s surveillance technology powers deadly immigration raids, allowing ICE to target, stalk, and arrest civilians using Medicaid data–even as this administration slashes Medicaid funding.

In addition to working closely with the U.S. government, Palantir has also entered into partnership with Israel’s Ministry of Defense to support their “war effort” in Gaza which Israeli human rights organizations, the globe’s leading association of genocide scholars, and a United Nations Special Committee, among others, have concluded is a genocide. More than 1,500 health care workers, in addition to tens of thousands of innocent civilians, have been murdered in Gaza since Israeli invaded in October 2023.

Walke, RN, continued, “I became a nurse to help people, to protect them from harm, and to make sure that everyone is treated with dignity. When nurses see injustice, we are compelled – as a matter of our personal and professional responsibility – to point it out. Palantir is empowering one of the biggest threats to our collective safety: armed federal agents on our streets and in our communities. Palantir has no place in our government, in our hospitals, and in a society built on compassion and care.” 

RNs have been outraged by the presence of ICE and federal agents  in their communities and the escalating violence that has led to the killings of Pretti, Renee Nicole Good, Keith Porter, and Silverio Villegas González – as well as the 32 people who died in ICE custody in 2025 and the countless families torn apart by the Trump administration’s cruel policies. Many detainees died of inadequate medical care. Since October 2025 ICE has stopped paying outside medical providers for detainee care, according to news reports. Like RNs and thousands of concerned Americans, Pretti was protesting ICE’s presence in Minnesota, which galvanized tens of thousands of people and businesses to participate in an ‘ICE Out’ boycott just one day before his murder. 

The Feb. 5 vigil with community activists follows dozens of vigils held by National Nurses United members across the country last week in honor of Alex Pretti. 

National Nurses United is the largest and fastest-growing union and professional association of registered nurses in the United States with more than 225,000 members nationwide. NNU affiliates include California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee, DC Nurses Association, Michigan Nurses Association, Minnesota Nurses Association, and New York State Nurses Association.