Healthcare provider Kaiser Permanente is threatening to terminate a nurse if she cannot provide visa renewal paperwork by Thursday.
The nurse, who’s anonymous for safety reasons, is currently on unpaid leave. She’s waiting for the federal government to respond to her visa renewal application under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA.
KALW spoke to Sydney Simpson, a fellow nurse, who was at the demonstration.
"She's been here since she was a baby, essentially. She turned in all of her paperwork on time, but because of the delays from the Trump administration, her paperwork has not processed, has not come through. And so rather than put her on leave and give her time to complete the process, Kaiser is terminating her despite our pleas for another route."
The nurse submitted the application for renewal four months prior to its expiration on April 15th. Simpson says that this wouldn’t be happening if they were employed by a different system.
"So Kaiser really just needs to look down the street to UC and see that it is possible to keep her on. We're not asking them to pay her, obviously, but just put her on unpaid leave."
Kaiser Permanente did not respond to KALW’s request for comment.
