The Minnesota Nurses Association (MNA) announces its support for the ICE Out of Minnesota: A Day of Truth and Freedom on January 23 and encourages members as well as the public to participate in the statewide economic blackout and the 2:00 p.m. rally as a visible show of solidarity with immigrant communities, workers, and families impacted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) actions in Minnesota.
While supporting participation in the day of action, MNA is not calling for a work stoppage or walkout. Nurses hold a unique and essential role as caregivers and patient advocates, and MNA encourages members to honor the no-strike provisions of their contracts and report to work as scheduled. Continuing to provide care is not an absence from this moment — it is an act of solidarity. By showing up for patients while standing together, nurses are protecting Minnesota’s most vulnerable community members in the ways only nurses can.
“As nurses, we cannot be absent when fear is driving people away from care and tearing families apart,” said MNA President Chris Rubesch, RN. “Participation in this day is about standing with our patients, our coworkers, and our communities.”
MNA represents nurses and healthcare workers, including many who are immigrants or have immigrant loved ones directly impacted by ICE enforcement. That reality exists alongside nurses’ shared commitment to patient care and community safety.
In healthcare settings statewide, nurses and healthcare workers care for patients during moments of illness, injury, fear, and vulnerability, including immigrants and patients from mixed-status families. When fear delays care, caregivers see the consequences immediately. Patients arrive sicker, crises escalate, and outcomes worsen. Those impacts are immediate and show up not just at the bedside, but in families and communities across the state.
MNA is joining a broad and growing coalition of labor organizations, faith leaders, business owners, and community members across Minnesota. Labor partners endorsing the January 23 action include SEIU and every AFL-CIO regional labor federation and labor council in Minnesota.
The demands of the ICE Out of Minnesota: A Day of Truth and Freedom include:
- ICE must leave Minnesota now.
- The officer who killed Good must be held legally accountable.
- No additional federal funding for ICE in the upcoming Congressional budget and ICE should be investigated for human and Constitutional violations of Americans and our neighbors.
- We call upon MN and National Companies to become 4th Amendment businesses, cease economic relations with ICE and refuse ICE entry or using their property for staging grounds.
“Our charge as nurses is to care for our communities,” said MNA First Vice President Melisa Koll, RN. “That means showing up — visibly and collectively — while continuing to do the work our patients rely on us to do every day.”
