National Nurses United condemns ICE killing in Maine

National Nurses United (NNU), the largest union of registered nurses in the United States, said Monday that it is condemning the latest killing by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, this time in Biddeford, Maine. The union said the incident is part of what it described as violence that is affecting communities across the country, and it again called for the abolition of ICE.

The statement follows another recent killing by ICE in Texas. NNU said the Maine case came just days after ICE’s murder of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Texas, though the source did not provide additional details about either incident.

NNU executive director Puneet Maharaj said the use of deadly force by ICE has continued without accountability. In remarks included in the statement, Maharaj said that mass calls for justice and for ICE’s abolition have not been matched by action from federal officials. Maharaj also said the situation is unacceptable and argued that ICE should be ended as an institution.

The union also included comments from Matthew MacDonald, a registered nurse in the surgical intensive care unit at Maine Medical Center in Portland. MacDonald said communities in Maine have already been subjected to horrors by ICE agents. He said it is past time for ICE to get off the streets and out of communities, and said people in power in Washington need to act before more people are killed by federal agents.

NNU’s statement said the Trump administration continues to spread terror in nurses’ communities by targeting innocent people of color through what it called “Kavanaugh stops,” which the union described as allowing agents to target victims based on racial profiling. The statement said the fundamental orientation of ICE’s enforcement activity is overt racism and linked that to the latest deadly force incident.

The union also said Congress and the White House have advanced a legislative class war against working people by defunding hundreds of hospitals to fund ICE. The source did not provide further details about that claim. NNU also said the current administration and its allies are criminalizing dissent against what the union described as a campaign of terror.

In the same statement, NNU pointed to federal charges against anti-ICE protesters in Minnesota, sentencing of protesters and activists in Texas, and raids on the offices of nonprofit organizations in Ohio. The union said those actions are coordinated attacks aimed at undermining democracy and stripping away freedoms. The source did not provide additional context about those cases.

NNU said nurses are committed to building solidarity to protect patients and communities from what it described as escalating attacks by officials under the Trump administration. The union said it has consistently called for ICE’s abolition and that nurses have taken several actions to demand an end to what it called community harassment and endangerment.

National Nurses United said it represents more than 225,000 nurses across the country and advocates for policies and legislation that improve the lives of nurses and communities. The union said it is the largest and fastest-growing union and professional association of registered nurses in the United States. Its affiliates include the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee, the DC Nurses Association, the Michigan Nurses Association, the Minnesota Nurses Association, and the New York State Nurses Association.

The source also listed general union information, including continuing education classes, organizing support, and contact details, but those items were not related to the statement on the Maine incident.