Over 1,000 nurses plan to march Sept. 30 in San Francisco to protest AI company Palantir’s work with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
National Nurses United and its affiliate, California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee, are organizing the march with community members, according to a Sept. 25 union news release. The march will begin at Jessie Square and end at the city’s ICE building.
The San Francisco protest is part of the People vs. Palantir Global Week of Action, which runs from Sept. 28 to Oct. 1. Protesters are calling on public institutions, hospitals, universities and pension funds to end their contracts and relationships with Palantir.
The nurses are focused on a Palantir-powered app federal agents use to identify people for arrest, drawing in part on what they say is improperly obtained Medicaid data.
Sandy Reding, RN, president of CNA/NNOC, said nurses “must actively refuse Palantir’s role in our hospitals and in our government.”
“Palantir is a software company, not a data company,” a Palantir spokesperson told Becker’s.
The spokesperson called the protesters’ claims “baseless,” saying Palantir does not collect or store data, does not conduct surveillance, and is not involved in immigration enforcement policymaking. The spokesperson added that Palantir’s work in hospitals helps reduce sepsis deaths and place patients in beds faster.
The march follows NNU demonstrations in eight cities on Aug. 27, where nurses called on hospitals and elected officials to cut ties with Palantir.
