More than a hundred nurses and supporters gathered outside Maine Medical Center in Portland Friday evening to remember Alex Pretti, the VA nurse who was killed by federal agents last weekend in Minneapolis.
The crowd packed together in the bitter cold, with some using paper coffee cups to hold lit candles.
Labor and delivery nurse Taylor Wescott said Pretti's death was like a gut punch. At the same time, she said hospital workers and patients have been afraid to leave their homes because of the immigration enforcement surge in Maine.
"The first couple of days and then through the snowstorm, this place was really struggling, struggling to have rooms turned over and patients to get where they need," Wescott said.
Kelly Brennan, another nurse at Maine Med, said recent events have left a void inside in the hospital.
"Our coworkers are terrified of coming to work. Housekeeping, transport services, CNAs of color are calling out because they can't safely leave their houses and come to work. Hell, if nurses are the heartbeat of the hospital, these workers are its backbone," she said to applause from the crowd.
"Patients are delayed getting transported to X-rays and MRIs," Brennan added. "I had to teach an office person recently how to push a stretcher. Doctors are transporting patients."
The gathering, organized by the Maine State Nurses Association, came on the same day that hundreds of people, including in downtown Portland, protested as part of a national strike against Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Maine Med nurse Sarah English said even though ICE has reportedly wrapped up a large-scale operation in Maine, health care workers are still scared to come to work.
"We are afraid. We're afraid right now," she said. "And that's having a big impact on our daily lives, both inside the hospital and outside the hospital."
The nurses are also calling on Congress to abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and strip the agency of its funding.
