Vallejo Kaiser nurses join union day of action against ICE

VALLEJO – Registered nurses at Kaiser Permanente in Vallejo joined their union for a week of action to declare U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement a public health threat and demand that hospitals provide clear guidance on how to protect their patients if ICE agents enter the facility.

“We are demanding that Kaiser chooses a side, and nurses stand with immigrants. We do not stand with ICE,” said Raquel Benito, an emergency room nurse and a union leader with National Nurses United. “We signed up to care for people and not to harm people.”

Benito said the nurses are looking for Kaiser to implement and provide guidance on Senate Bill 81, which Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law in September. SB 81 prohibits health care providers from granting ICE agents access to non-public areas of hospitals unless they have a valid judicial warrant or court order. It also states that a patient’s immigration status is protected medical information that can’t be disclosed unless the agents have a judicial warrant.

The bill further states that each hospital is required to designate, with obvious signage, which areas are private spaces protected from enforcement, and create guidance for personnel if ICE agents do show up. 

Benito said there hasn’t been any immigration enforcement activities at the Vallejo facility, but having clear SB 81 guidelines would help both staff and patients if that ever occurs. The bill mandated that hospitals comply with the new requirements by November 2025.

“If ICE comes, do I feel like I’m going to be safe, or that my patients are going to be safe? Right now, no, I don’t,” said Benito. She said that management has given vague guidelines on how to deal with immigration enforcement, but the staff is looking for much more direction. “We need to all be on the same page.”  

A spokesperson for Kaiser did not respond to a request for comment.

SB 81 was passed in response to the Trump Administration scrapping the “sensitive locations” policy that designated areas like schools, churches, and hospitals as places safe from ICE activity. This has led to federal agents waiting in hospital lobbies and listening to private conversations with doctors in hospital rooms.

Nurses also cited the conditions in immigration detention camps as examples of a public health crisis. According to a New York Times report, immigrants being held at ICE detention centers have described the conditions as unsanitary and inhumane, with people being denied medications and cases of COVID-19 and measles breaking out. ProPublica similarly found that the children being held at a Dilley, Texas, facility suffered from malnutrition, food poisoning, and unclean water.

According to The Guardian, 40 people have died in ICE custody since immigration crackdowns began in 2025.

“ICE has gone unchecked and unbalanced, and for members of our community, they’re terrified,” said registered nurse Matthew Harville, adding that it’s “disgusting” that the people in the detention centers are not receiving proper medical care. “It's a basic human right to have food, hygiene, and a proper place to sleep.”

Benito noted that the union is also seeking to hold Congress accountable for funding ICE while cutting back on health care. President Donald Trump’s “One Big, Beautiful Bill” slashed funding for Medicaid by over $900 billion over the next decade, which will increase the number of uninsured people by 10 million, according to KFF. In comparison, that same bill gave $75 billion to ICE. 

“You pulled these millions out of healthcare, where we were using that to take care of our community, to take care of our patients, and now you're putting that into all of these other policies that are hurting people,” said Benito. 

The nurses also reflected on Alex Pretti, an intensive care nurse at a veterans hospital in Minneapolis who was shot and killed by ICE agents in January after protecting a woman who was pushed to the ground. The Vallejo nurses held a vigil for Pretti on Jan. 26.

“It was heartbreaking. He was a person,” said nurse case manager Gabrielle Assemian. “I didn’t know him, but I know that, just like me right now, he was here to help. None of us are here to do harm to anybody.”