National Nurses United, the country’s largest union and professional association of registered nurses, today warned that President Trump’s order to forcibly remove, jail, or involuntarily commit unhoused people from Washington, D.C. streets is not only a violation of their civil and human rights, but will also damage the city’s health care infrastructure by flooding hospitals with a surge of patients who don’t need to be there. Nurses expect emergency department wait times to dramatically lengthen because there will be fewer beds for admissions since beds may be occupied by people who are involuntarily hospitalized.

“People experiencing homelessness certainly deserve our help and need services and support,” said Mary Turner, RN and NNU president. “But make no mistake: Trump’s actions are not at all about helping unhoused people. They are about criminalizing people for being poor or sick, and their situations are the result of massive structural problems with our government policies that prioritize the profits of corporations and billionaires over the needs of working people. People living on our streets is visual proof of our failure as a country to meet the needs of our people. The ones who benefit from this gross inequality just don’t want to see it or be reminded of their complicity in mass suffering. They just want to sweep them away and lock them up. That’s wrong.”

Advocates say that there are only about 40 shelter beds in the city for the more than 900 people who live outside, essentially giving unhoused people no options besides being jailed or institutionalized.

“Our emergency department is already overwhelmed with wait times up to six to 10 hours plus,” said Yvonne Carandang, an RN leader at MedStar Washington Hospital Center. “We have admitted patients who are crowded in the hallways waiting for rooms, but with Trump’s new policy, patients throughout each unit in the hospital will suffer more. The overburdened nurses work with limited resources already, and this policy will reduce direct patient-to-nurse care time.”

Nurses believe this order is an unlawful and immoral use of National Guard troops and city police. Critics say Trump’s actions are reminiscent of Nazi Germany’s roundup and incarceration of people it deemed “undesirable.”

Nurses condemn this mistreatment of people who need our help and healing, instead calling for passage of programs such as Medicare for All to guarantee health care for all people living in the United States, and policies that provide decent housing, living wages, education, and safe environments for all.

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.