{"id":143704,"date":"2026-01-30T05:45:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T05:45:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/143704\/"},"modified":"2026-01-30T05:45:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T05:45:10","slug":"el-paso-nurses-call-for-action-during-vigil-for-nurse-killed-by-federal-officers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/143704\/","title":{"rendered":"El Paso nurses call for action during vigil for nurse killed by federal officers"},"content":{"rendered":"

EL PASO, Texas (KTSM<\/a>) \u2014 Nurses, advocates and El Pasoans honored Alex Pretti \u2014 the ICU nurse who was shot and killed by federal immigration officers in Minneapolis \u2014 and remembered all who have been killed by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers, calling for action on Thursday, Jan. 29.<\/p>\n

The vigil, organized by National Nurses United and held at 1801 N. Oregon St., is part of a nationwide effort demanding that ICE be abolished.<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"<\/p>\n

Dozens of demonstrators arrived at the vigil with candles and flowers, honoring Pretti with a moment of silence. Signs of \u201cnurses care for all people\u201d and \u201cNurses care. No Exceptions.\u201d were seen throughout the crowd. After the last speaker, demonstrators began chanting, remembering Pretti\u2019s name, \u201cBut Alex was there.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut we\u2019re honoring him here today, and whatever happens, we\u2019ll continue coming up and protesting this, this barbarism,\u201d said Diana Duron, a participant in the vigil.<\/p>\n

After honoring Pretti, demonstrators then called to action against ICE, saying, \u201cStand up and fight back.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is what the United States is all about. We\u2019re supposed to be able to accept our different opinions and try to work through them peacefully, and nobody should be getting killed for that. That\u2019s what makes United States great,\u201d Belen Torres, an El Pasoan and registered nurse, said.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, a small group of nurses gathered outside UCLA West Valley Medical Center in Los Angeles to honor Pretti and to protest ICE, and in Washington, D.C, a larger crowd gathered outside the veterans\u2019 headquarters with the same goal. More memorials and protests are scheduled across the nation in the next few days, including the one in El Paso.<\/p>\n

\u201cEl Paso nurses are appalled by the murder of fellow nurse\u00a0Alex\u00a0Pretti\u00a0for protesting ICE\u2019s cruel, illegal, inhumane deportation machine, and will come together to stand in sorrow and solidarity. It is outrageous that nurses are now targeted and killed for rendering care like\u00a0Alex\u00a0did. This has gone too far. We echo the call of NNU for Congress to halt further funding of ICE,\u201d Juan Anchondo, chief nurse representative at Las Palmas, said.<\/p>\n

According to the organization, registered nurses have been \u201coutraged\u201d by\u00a0the presence of ICE in the communities\u00a0and the escalating violence that has led to\u00a0the deaths of\u00a0Pretti\u00a0and\u00a0Renee Nicole Good \u2014 the 37-year-old woman who was also shot and killed by an ICE agent on Jan. 7 in Minneapolis \u2014 as well as\u00a0the 32 people\u00a0who died in ICE custody in 2025 and the families torn apart by the Trump administration.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe escalation in intimidation, violence, and general lawlessness by ICE comes as the Republican Party and Trump cut nearly a trillion dollars in health care funding for Medicaid and Medicare to help finance\u00a0the deportation machine,\u201d read the news release by National Nurses United, the organizers of the vigil.<\/p>\n

The organization said it will also call on Congress to stop any further funding to the Department of Homeland Security for ICE and reverse $85 million in current ICE funding, according to the news release.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTSM 9 News. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) \u2014 Nurses, advocates and El Pasoans honored Alex Pretti \u2014 the ICU nurse who…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":143705,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[58529,138,140,139,34722,60250,3647,59771,12811,60249,60251,60252],"class_list":["post-143704","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-el-paso","tag-alex-pretti","tag-el-paso","tag-el-paso-headlines","tag-el-paso-news","tag-el-pasoans","tag-icu-nurse","tag-immigration-and-customs-enforcement","tag-immigration-officers","tag-minneapolis","tag-national-nurses-united","tag-nurses-care","tag-the-vigil"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143704","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=143704"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143704\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/143705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=143704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=143704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}