The nation’s largest nurses union is being accused of stoking radicalism over a poster pledging to “crush ICE” that shows a health care worker’s Crocs shoe trampling on the Immigration and Customs Enforcement acronym.
National Nurses United drew blowback Tuesday over its posters that say “will crush ICE for our patients,” part of its campaign against the Trump administration’s heightened immigration enforcement efforts.
“Nurses take a sacred oath to advocate for our patients so when armed agents create a climate of fear in our communities, we take action!” the organization posted Sunday on X. “Nurses don’t just treat symptoms — we fight the causes. #AbolishICE.”
Critics on social media took issue with the specter of a Crocs-wearing nurse threatening to “crush” an agency, calling it “gross,” “radical,” “dangerous” and “absolutely terrifying.”
“Every nurse responsible for this post should lose their license immediately,” said Libs of TikTok, the popular conservative account.
Several people who identified themselves as nurses also took issue with the NNU stance.
“There are many nurses who disagree with you. You have a lot of nerve using the title National Nurses United. We are not united on this topic,” one commenter said.
Another said: “You do not speak for ALL nurses. Nurses don’t fight illegal causes. You should be designated a terrorist organization.”
Nurses take a sacred oath to advocate for our patients so when armed agents create a climate of fear in our communities, we take action!
— National Nurses United (@NationalNurses) February 8, 2026
Nurses don’t just treat symptoms – we fight the causes. #AbolishICE pic.twitter.com/b18T1snMwS
National Nurses United, an arm of the AFL-CIO, is known for its left-wing activism, including its support for Medicare for All, which is shorthand for a single-payer government health care system.
The union, which endorsed Sen. Bernard Sanders in the Democratic presidential primaries of 2016 and 2020, lists its membership at 225,000 nurses in 50 states.
NNU has focused its anti-ICE campaign over the Trump administration’s decision to rescind an Obama-era guidance listing schools, churches and hospitals as “sensitive areas” to be avoided except in cases of “exigent circumstances.”
“Nurses make a vow to care for all people, and we know hospitals should remain places of healing, where all people can receive care, without fear. Armed, masked ICE agents are standing in the way of nurses effectively caring for patients,” said the union on its website.
Concerns about the politicization of the nursing field have soared in recent weeks over posts by health care workers threatening to harm ICE agents.
A nurse was fired last month by Virginia Commonwealth University Health over a TikTok video encouraging medical workers to inject agents with a paralytic drug.
“How Afraid of Nurses Should We Be?” asked conservative writer Rod Dreher in a Jan. 30 Substack article.
“This week, X has seen chilling videos of nurses saying terrifying things about what they would do to ICE agents should ICE agents come under their care,” he said.
Nurses do not take the Hippocratic Oath, but they often take the Practical Nurse Pledge, a modern version of the Nightingale Pledge, which vows to uphold the profession’s standards: Do nothing “evil or malicious,” never prescribe harmful drugs knowingly, and never divulge confidential patient information.
• Valerie Richardson can be reached at vrichardson@washingtontimes.com.
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