Are hospital staff now staging fake meetings to help ICE trap their employees? That seems to be what happened recently in Minnesota. Aditya Wahyu Harsano’s case highlights how hospital officials do not care about their patients or staff, and underscores the need for healthcare workers to fight back against these attacks.
Harsono, a 33-year-old Indonesian supply chain manager at a Minnesota hospital, is a father to an eight-month-old child with special needs who was recently arrested by ICE in his former workplace Avera Hospital in Marshal, MN. Harsano had a valid student visa, a pending green card application through marriage to a U.S. citizen, and no history of deportable offenses. None of this mattered when his own workplace — a hospital that claims to prioritize care and compassion — colluded with ICE to facilitate him being detained. Hospital staff, under pressure from federal agents, lied to him, staging a fake meeting in the basement where he was ambushed, handcuffed, and taken away.
During his detention, the hospital that facilitated his arrest then fired him. His wife and child were left without their primary support, and now face the imminent threat of homelessness. Meanwhile, per Harsano’s lawyer, Judge Sarah Mazzie denied a motion to dismiss his case on humanitarian grounds, proving once again that the courts are not neutral arbiters of justice but enforcers of state repression.
What was Harsano’s crime? A minor graffiti charge from years ago — an offense the government retroactively weaponized to revoke his visa without notice. Contrary to state propaganda, the real reason for his targeting is clear: Harsono was an advocate for Palestinian liberation, using his small nonprofit to fundraise for Gaza. His arrest is part of a broader campaign by the Trump administration to criminalize dissent and instill fear in immigrant communities.
Hospitals like the one that betrayed Harsono have long proven they care nothing for patients or workers — only for extracting profit from human suffering. When Trump first lifted protections against ICE raids in “sensitive locations” like hospitals, these institutions did not resist. They complied, because their loyalty lies with capital and the capitalist state, not with the people they claim to serve. The same administrators who hid in mansions during COVID, forcing frontline workers to risk their lives, are the ones now allowing armed agents to abduct employees from their workplaces.
After Harsano’s arrest, the Minnesota Nurses Association released a statement of condemnation. But if hospitals will not protect their own staff from state terror, then workers must organize across roles — nurses, technicians, janitors, and more — to fight back. Know Your Rights trainings can make sure staff are informed, able, and willing to resist ICE and protect patients, but they are nowhere near enough. What if hospital workers staged walkouts every time ICE targeted a patient or coworker? What if they formed solidarity networks with teachers, tenants, and other sectors under attack that could shut things down when communities are attacked? The ruling class relies on our fear and fragmentation; collective resistance is the only answer.
Harsono’s case lays bare the truth: hospital executives, like all capitalist bosses, are parasites that do not care about the health of individual patients or the communities they claim to serve. They profit from illness, exploit labor, and collaborate with state violence. This case underscores the need for healthcare workers ourselves to control our workplaces. If healthcare workers democratically controlled these institutions, no one would ever be handed over to ICE. The fight for Harsono’s freedom is inseparable from the fight for workers’ power — because under capitalism, no one will be truly safe until we tear this entire system down.
