Watsonville Community Hospital nurses reassure immigrant patients after reported ICE sighting

Nurses at Watsonville Community Hospital want immigrant residents in the Pajaro Valley to know they can safely seek medical care at the facility amid reports of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in the area Tuesday. “We need to make sure that our community knows that our patients are safe here,” said Roseann Farris, a nurse and union representative at Watsonville Community Hospital. Farris and nearly a dozen nurses and community members held an emergency press conference Tuesday afternoon following reports that ICE agents had been spotted on the hospital property at 8 a.m. Separately, reports that federal immigration agents detained an individual near Natividad Medical Center in Salinas had not been confirmed. Farris and two other speakers from neighboring hospitals said immigration agents have no place in the Watsonville community. Roseann Farris, a Watsonville Community Hospital nurse and union representative speaking at a press conference Tuesday