Nurses union stages candlelight vigil outside Chicago VA to honor Alex Pretti: 'Our job is to protect other people' [View all]
Four days after federal immigration agents shot and killed intensive care unit nurse Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, some 150 people gathered outside the Jesse Brown Department of Veteran Affairs Medical Center in Chicago Wednesday evening to mourn his death and demand the end of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Despite the evening’s bitter cold, attendees huddled together on patches of days-old snow as speakers, from local nurses to elected officials, paid tribute to Pretti and denounced the weekend’s shooting.
The vigil, organized by National Nurses United, was the second held outside the local VA center in as many days, with dozens convening at the South Damen Avenue facility Tuesday as uproar over Pretti’s death — the second at the hands of federal immigration officers in Minneapolis this month — mounts.
Standing at the outskirts of the crowd Wednesday, emergency room nurse Megan Calcagna said turning out to show support for Pretti and his family was the least she could do. When the 33-year-old Naperville resident, who’s worked as an ER nurse for the past eight years, saw what had happened to Pretti, she was horrified.
“As nurses,” Calcagna said, “our job is to protect other people.”
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/01/29/alex-pretti-vigil-chicago-nurse-ice-immigration-shooting/
“ICE messed with the wrong profession,” National Nurses United wrote on its website. “We nurses will fight to abolish ICE and bring about a vision for a healthy society based on nurses’ values of caring, compassion, and community.” Couldn't have said it any better myself, since I'm a retired RN.
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