Issue link: https://nnumagazine.uberflip.com/i/1546784
E very two years for the last 13 years, the Kaiser Perma- nente nurse had diligently applied on time to renew her work authorization so that she could keep growing in the profession that she loved. As a person living and working in the United States under Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) status, she knew full well the risks of missing deadlines. Every time she had applied before, without fail, the approval had come within just a couple of weeks. (She doesn't want to use her real name for fear of deportation and retribution by the federal government, so we agreed to call her Kaiser Nurse One.) But with the Trump administration using Immigration and Cus- toms Enforcement to indiscriminately detain non-white people and deporting even citizens without due process, she felt her situation was even more tenuous. So this past year, she made sure to follow the government's instructions to the letter and submitted her renewal paperwork at the earliest possible date in mid December 2025. Weeks passed. No approval. A month passed. No approval. Two months. She worried. She made calls. She emailed. Still no approval. She contacted indifferent managers who told her to talk to national HR. No answer. Three months. She began to panic. She contacted her Congressional representatives. Four months! Kaiser's national human resources department sent her automated letters and reminders to submit her updated work authorization. Her work authorization expired in mid April and so did her driver's license. Kaiser sent a letter putting her on unpaid administrative leave for 30 days and stated that if she could not produce her work doc- uments by the end of that time, she would be terminated. Kaiser Nurse One was devastated. None of this was her fault nor under her control, and now she would be losing her income, her position, and potentially her career. As an operating room nurse, she had been working toward a role as an RN co-lead for a specialized vascular trauma team at her facility, Kaiser Permanente San Francisco Medi- cal Center. If she were fired, she'd have to start from scratch even if she were able to get hired on again. It was a dark, lonely, and depressing time for her. She was scared to death of leaving her apartment for fear of being picked up by ICE and stayed inside all day, venturing out only to walk her dog around her immediate block. With the May 15 deadline looming, Kaiser Nurse One finally reached out to her union, California Nurses Association (CNA). As an undocumented Filipina woman living in the United States, she had been taught and socialized by her parents from a young age to stay under the radar and not divulge information about her immigration status to others. So she was extremely scared and hesi- tant to approach her union, but felt she had no other choice. She needed help. After learning her story, CNA nurse leaders and staff jumped into action. On May 11, they staged a packed rally of her coworkers, sup- porters, and local elected officials in front of her workplace, expressing their outrage that Kaiser would side with the Trump administration in vilifying immigrants and demanding that Kaiser retract its threat of termination. In addition to the visible protest, CNA nurse leaders lob- bied elected officials and even the Kaiser CEO to intervene on her behalf. The local media covered her story widely. All of it worked. Kaiser informed the nurse a couple of days later that it was extending her unpaid leave for an additional 30 days, and then soon after that, her DACA renewal was approved. She was able to return to work in mid June. "I'm so thankful for the support of my union," she said in an interview, with tears brimming in her eyes. "Many DACA recipients don't have union support so it's huge to be backed up by the largest and strongest nurse union. It's great to have this voice and be able to speak about this issue." Her case was not an isolated one. Over the past year, California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee has learned of a handful of RN members who have DACA status and have run into major delays getting their status renewed. The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), the federal agency that processes these applications, has been inordinately slow with no clear explanations for why—though applicants can guess given the aggressively anti-immigrant stance of the Trump adminis- tration. As a result of processing delays, the lives of thousands of DACA recipients, or Dreamers as they are often called, have been thrown into fear and turmoil. Without active DACA status, they lose income, could lose health coverage, cannot have a valid driver's license, and are in danger of being detained and deported. The nurses discussed in this article all came here as small children with their parents—with some arriving legally but then losing their status due to some change in their parents' work situations. CNA knew Kaiser's threat of termination was unnecessary. Nurses whom CNA also represented in the University of California system had the foresight, during contract negotiations in 2025, to 24 N A T I O N A L N U R S E W W W . N A T I O N A L N U R S E S U N I T E D . O R G J U LY | A U G U S T | S E P T E M B E R 2 0 2 6 KEEPING THE DREAM ALIVE Under Trump, DACA nurse members are enduring long delays for status renewals and even facing termination. Learn how our union is fighting to protect these RNs. WHEN HOME IS NOT SAFE "I'm so thankful for the support of my union. Many DACA recipients don't have union support so it's huge to be backed up by the largest and strongest nurse union."