Maine nurses hold vigils to honor Alex Pretti

PORTLAND (WGME) – Maine nurses from medical centers across the state are holding vigils Friday night to honor Alex Pretti, who was killed by ICE agents in Minneapolis last week.

There was one in Bangor, and another vigil in Portland.

Maine nurses held these vigils to remember Pretti and all those who have been killed by federal immigration agents.

Pretti was protesting ICE’s presence in Minnesota, along with thousands of other people, the day before he was killed.

The Maine State Nurses Association is the group behind these vigils.

The organization isn’t only honoring those who have been killed by ICE agents, they’re calling on Congress to halt all funding for ICE and reverse the agency’s $85 billion budget.

The organization says 32 people across the country died in ICE’s custody last year, and many of those detainees died from lack of medical care.

According to government records, ICE has stopped paying outside medical providers for detainee care since October of last year.

In Maine, one nurse says some of her patients aren’t showing up to appointments because they are afraid to leave their homes.

“What we saw a lot of this week was people not showing up for their appointments,” nurse Taylor Wescott said. “We would call and check in. I’m a labor and delivery nurse, especially at the end of a pregnancy, they are presenting frequently to their scheduled routine visits, and we had multiple days where nobody came.”