San Francisco Nurses Fight for Kaiser Employee Terminated Over DACA Status

Dozens of nurses rallied outside Kaiser San Francisco on Monday to advocate for a San Francisco nurse who is set to lose her job — after the federal government did not process her temporary legal status in time.

The surgical nurse, who has lived in the U.S. for most of her life and will remain anonymous due to safety concerns, immigrated from the Philippines when she was two years old. As an employee of Kaiser Permanente San Francisco Medical Center on Geary Boulevard, the nurse filed her DACA, or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, renewal application on Dec.1 — exactly 135 days before her status was set to expire on April 15. Despite applying well within the recommended window, she said she has not heard back.

When her status lapsed, Kaiser placed her on 30 days of unpaid leave. That window closes on May 14. In response to her inquiries, Kaiser wrote that “It is your responsibility to keep your work authorization current,” according to Mission Local, which first reported her case. Kaiser declined KQED’s request for comment.

Outside of Kaiser on Monday, dozens of nurses chanted: “Defend DACA now,” calling on the hospital to extend the nurse’s unpaid leave. In a statement read aloud by fellow nurses at the rally, the soon-to-be-terminated nurse wrote: “I feel devastated and torn to pieces to be in a position where the fault lies with the innocent.”

“So, I ask Kaiser to extend my leave, because I want to thrive, too,” it said.

Hers is not an isolated case. According to the Migration Policy Institute, an estimated 500,000 immigrants currently hold DACA status, and many have been caught in a surge of federal processing delays — a trend that advocates told KQED accelerated this year.

The East Bay Sanctuary Covenant, which serves more than 1,000 active DACA clients, said that over half of renewal requests filed since November 2025 remain pending.

Lisa Hoffman, the organization’s co-executive director, said delays of 150 days or more are now common.

“This is just the latest attack,” Hoffman said. “It feels like DACA is being chipped away at piece by piece every day.”

Sydney Simpson, a registered nurse at Kaiser San Francisco, said the hospital’s decision is both morally and practically wrong.

“To replace a nurse with her level of expertise is extremely painful for the organization — it’s expensive, it hurts our morale as nurses and it hurts patient quality of care,” Simpson said. “It seems like a really easy decision, but for whatever reason, they are holding their ground.”

Nurses pointed to a stark contrast with the University of California health system. Maureen Dugan, a UCSF registered nurse, said at Monday’s rally that the UC’s union contract explicitly protects DACA nurses from termination during renewal delays — and guarantees recall rights if they are temporarily let go.

“UC is committed to supporting DACA staff,” Dugan said. “We won that language in our last contract negotiations.”

Last week, a coalition of Bay Area immigrant rights groups — including Justice Action Center, East Bay Sanctuary Covenant, the Immigration Institute of the Bay Area and Cornell Law School’s Path2Papers — filed a Freedom of Information Act request, demanding the Trump administration release data on how it is processing DACA renewals and what, if any, policy changes are driving the delays.

Advocates say DACA recipients are now making major life decisions — about their jobs, their housing, their families — without knowing when or whether their renewals will come through.

Vanessa Rivas-Bernardy, a staff attorney at Justice Action Center, said the delays reflect a program under sustained administrative pressure.

“DACA recipients have been living in two-year increments — all their decisions, their whole lives are in these two-year chunks,” Rivas-Bernardy said. “This is just an exacerbation of that uncertainty and risk, but it’s been completely ramping up in recent months in a way we really haven’t seen before.”

If the government does not respond to the FOIA request within 20 calendar days, Rivas-Bernardy said the coalition is prepared to file a federal lawsuit to compel disclosure.

San Francisco Supervisor Connie Chan attended Monday’s rally and called on Kaiser to change course.

“Our nurses — DACA or otherwise — should not be punished for the Trump administration’s incompetence,” Chan said.

In her written statement, the nurse said she is still holding on to hope.

“I know I am worthy, good enough, an exceptional nurse and member of this society,” she wrote. “I am a DACA recipient — a dreamer.”