Nurses speak up for coworkers, friends, and neighbors targeted by ICE

Maine nurses represented by Maine State Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee (MSNA/NNOC) are speaking up and speaking out against federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents detaining, intimidating, and terrorizing members of their community since its operation began in Maine on Tuesday.

“We are caregivers. We don’t care how you got here, we just care that you heal and get home to your family, your job, and your community,” said Emily Wilder, RN in Maine Medical Center’s cardiac intensive care unit. “To see armed thugs roaming our streets and randomly picking people up because of the color of their skin is the most heinous reality I can imagine. We know that those who survive these encounters with ICE are often shipped off to concentration camps, where some are dying due to the lack of adequate food and medical care. This is not ‘Making America Great,’ it is making America deadly to our most vulnerable neighbors.”

Meg Sinclair, RN in the Maine Medical Center emergency department said, “We are fortunate at Maine Med to work with so many folks from other countries, backgrounds, and cultures. But I can tell you that, right now, many of them are terrified to come to work. And for what? Scaring people into not coming to work doesn’t make us safe. It compromises the care of our patients. It does nothing but feed the racist fever dreams of fascists and white supremacists. I’m proud to be part of a union that stands boldly against the dehumanization of our coworkers, friends, and neighbors.”

Kelli Brennan, a Maine Med nurse on Richards 6, a neuro-trauma unit was harassed by ICE on Wednesday morning, as she drove her immigrant neighbor to work. While driving toward the hospital, Kelli and her coworker were approached by an ICE vehicle.

“At a red light, one of the officers rolled down his car window and made an insulting remark to me,” Brennan said. “I responded that we don’t need ICE in our community. After seeing my coworker in the passenger seat, and before driving off, the ICE officer said: ‘I’m going to arrest an extra three families today, just for you.’”

Maine Medical Center nurses are members of the Maine State Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee (MSNA/NNOC), which represents over 4,000 nurses and caregivers from Portland to Fort Kent. NNOC is an affiliate of National Nurses United, the largest and fastest-growing labor union of registered nurses in the United States with more than 225,000 members nationwide.