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_This article was originally published byTruthout on Aug. 06, 2026. It is shared here under a __Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) license._ Can a lawsuit hold fossil fuel companies responsible for climate-change and its impact? That’s the question a Washington State-based woman is hoping to answer. Misti Leon is suing several big oil companies — including ExxonMobil, Chevron, BP, and others — over the 2021 heat-related death of her mother Juliana, who died during a record-breaking heat dome over the Pacific Northwest. For years, individuals and institutions have attempted to protect human lives from climate change using litigation. In 2015, a public interest law firm called Our Children’s Trust, representing nearly two dozen young people sued the federal government for failing to protect them against the impending impacts of fossil fuel emissions. Courts dragged their feet for more than a decade only for the case to reach a dead end at the United States Supreme Court in 2025. Leon’s civil suit is significant, not just because a Washington judge unexpectedly cleared the case for discovery and trial, but because Leon can directly link her mother’s death to climate change. Scientists concluded that the 2021 heat dome was, in the words of one research paper, “virtually impossible without human-caused climate change.” It’s about a crime that already occurred instead of hypothetical harm. “Ms. Leon’s case is unique in that it is the first of its kind to seek to hold big oil companies accountable for their role in an individual’s death in a climate-related disaster,” Mike Meno, communications director at the Center for Climate Integrity, a nonprofit advocacy group that supports community efforts to hold Big Oil accountable for climate change, explained in an interview. Juliana Leon was one of an estimated 1,200 people across the Pacific Northwest whose deaths were linked to the heat dome. “She was found unresponsive in her car,” said Meno. “The medical examiner determined that her death was caused by hyperthermia,” a condition that is the opposite of the more well-known cold-related condition of hypothermia. Hyperthermia-related deaths have sharply risen over the past decade, a predictable outcome of fossil fuel emissions. Oil companies such as Exxon have long been aware of the devastating impacts their product would have on the climate. “Major oil and gas companies decades ago knew, their own scientists told them internally, that if we kept burning fossil fuels, it would lead to, in the words of one internal Exxon document, potentially catastrophic events, just like the 2021 Pacific Northwest heat dome,” said Meno. > Juliana Leon was one of an estimated 1,200 people across the Pacific Northwest whose deaths were linked to the heat dome. Big Oil’s failure to act on this information has drawn comparisons to Big Tobacco. Companies like Philip Morris knew about the impacts of cigarette smoking on human health and kept it secret for years. Since that information was made public, individuals suffering from their addictive products have sued repeatedly and won. A major lawsuit brought by state attorneys general culminated in 1998 in what became known as the Master Settlement Agreement, where dozens of tobacco companies settled to the tune of billions of dollars for public health. Notably, the federal government also sued tobacco companies for violations of racketeering laws over their deception. **GET FEARLESS, AD-FREE, UNCOMPROMISING REAL NEWS IN YOUR INBOX** Sign up Yet while individuals and states are taking action in the case of oil companies, the federal government clearly has no interest in holding Big Oil accountable for climate change. Instead, President Donald Trump says he wants the Justice Department to investigate fossil fuel companies for _raising_ oil prices in the wake of the Iran war. This appears to be a classic case of deflection, given that a majority of voters blame Trump for price increases at the pump. He isn’t interested in holding companies accountable for climate change; he’s upset they made it harder for people to consume oil. Moreover, his administration is suing states for trying to enforce environmental regulations aimed at oil companies. In addition to keeping their own research secret, fossil fuel companies spent years sowing doubt over the cause-and-effect relationship between greenhouse gases and a warming climate. “What that decades-long deception campaign did is it stole a generation’s worth of time when action could’ve been taken, and we could’ve averted the worst of some of these climate disasters,” said Meno. This year, more extreme weather records are expected to be broken as climate change intensifies. The first half of 2026 was the third-warmest half-year on record. An El Niño phenomenon developing this year is expected to be one of the strongest in modern history. Whether or not the Trump administration admits that the climate is changing, Americans know it is. “Anyone of a certain age who can look back over enough time just knows, as a matter of common sense, that the climate we are all living in today is not what we had a few years ago,” said Meno. The industry knows it too — and, according to Meno, oil companies “are in absolute panic mode, fighting tooth and nail to escape accountability.” Leon’s lawsuit is hardly the only one they fear. Numerous states, counties, cities, and tribal governments are suing Big Oil, and making headway. Meno explained that companies have “been pleading with the U.S. Supreme Court to take up one of these cases for years.” The Supreme Court finally agreed to review a case in Colorado where that state’s supreme court in May 2025 ruled the City of Boulder and Boulder County could move forward with discovery and trial in their suit against ExxonMobil and Suncor. Not content with leaving it to the U.S. Supreme Court, Big Oil has been lobbying Congress to grant the industry immunity over its role in climate change — and conservative lawmakers have complied. In April, Wyoming Rep. Harriet Hageman and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz introduced the “Stop Climate Shakedowns Act of 2026.” If Congress were to pass the bill, according to Meno, it “would be a truly unprecedented legal shield that would strip the public of their right to hold these corporations accountable for the harm they’ve caused.” Meno’s Center for Climate Integrity is urging members of the public to demand their elected representatives vote against Hageman and Cruz’s bill. Big Oil says it deserves immunity because it shouldn’t be penalized for giving the public what it wants. In a joint statement, American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers President and CEO Chet Thompson and American Petroleum Institute President and CEO Mike Sommers said: “These efforts to retroactively penalize companies for lawfully meeting consumer demand are misguided and counterproductive.” What they didn’t say is that they have worked for years to prevent fair competition from renewables. It’s why the state of Michigan launched an antitrust lawsuit against ExxonMobil, BP, Chevron, and others because they acted “as a cartel … to forestall meaningful competition from renewable energy in order to maintain their dominance.” Fossil fuel companies have long known their products are deadly, kept it secret, unfairly ensured their dominance, then argued that they ought not to be sued for delivering a product the public wants. Now, as climate-related deaths stack up, the industry claims it isn’t responsible. Misti Leon, whose mother might be alive today if governments and courts had reined in Big Oil, told _The New York Times_: “I never would have in a million years guessed that a heat dome and climate change would be what killed my mother and what took her from me. There’s no way to comprehend that and to kind of even rationalize it.” TRNN — Support Independent Journalism The Real News Network Independent · Nonprofit · Nonpartisan ## The journalism that _refuses_ to be bought. Funded by people like you. TRNN produces fearless, fact-based reporting on the stories that matter — the ones corporate media ignores, minimizes, or gets wrong. No paywalls. No advertisers. No billionaire owners. Just the truth, sustained by viewers like you. Workers & Labor Rights U.S. Politics & Democracy Palestine & Global Justice Economic Inequality Media Accountability Make a donation Monthly One-time Yearly $10 $25 $50 $100 $250 $500 $ Donate Now → Tax-deductible · Secure · Cancel anytime The Real News Network is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. 100% Viewer Supported $0 Corporate Funding 20+ Years of Independent Journalism **Every dollar you give** goes directly toward the reporting corporate media won't do. ### _Related_ Republish This Story Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license. Close window ## Republish this article This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. We encourage republication of our original content. Please copy the HTML code in the textbox below, preserving the attribution and link to the article's original location, and only make minor cosmetic edits to the content on your site. # Juliana Leon died in a climate-linked heat wave. Her daughter is suing Big Oil. by Sonali Kolhatkar, The Real News Network August 7, 2026 <h1>Juliana Leon died in a climate-linked heat wave. Her daughter is suing Big Oil.</h1> <p class="byline">by Sonali Kolhatkar, The Real News Network <br />August 7, 2026</p> <div class="wp-block-media-text is-stacked-on-mobile" style="grid-template-columns:33% auto"> <figure class="wp-block-media-text__media"><img src="https://therealnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/truthout-logo.jpeg" alt="" class="wp-image-277549 size-full" /></figure> <div class="wp-block-media-text__content"> <p><em>This article was originally published by <a href="https://truthout.org/articles/juliana-leon-died-in-a-climate-linked-heat-wave-her-daughter-is-suing-big-oil/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Truthout</a> on Aug. 06, 2026. It is shared here under a <em> </em><a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)</a> license.</em></p> </p></div> </div> <p class="has-drop-cap">Can a lawsuit hold fossil fuel companies responsible for climate-change and its impact? That’s the question a Washington State-based woman is hoping to answer. <a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/05062025/the-estate-of-a-woman-who-died-in-the-2021-pacific-northwest-heat-dome-sues-big-oil-for-wrongful-death/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Misti Leon</a> is suing several big oil companies — including ExxonMobil, Chevron, BP, and others — over the 2021 heat-related <a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/05062025/the-estate-of-a-woman-who-died-in-the-2021-pacific-northwest-heat-dome-sues-big-oil-for-wrongful-death/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">death</a> of her mother Juliana, who died during a <a href="https://www.climatehubs.usda.gov/hubs/northwest/topic/2021-northwest-heat-dome-causes-impacts-and-future-outlook" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">record-breaking heat dome</a> over the Pacific Northwest.</p> <p>For years, individuals and institutions have attempted to protect human lives from climate change using litigation. In 2015, a public interest law firm called Our Children’s Trust, representing nearly two dozen young people <a href="https://www.ourchildrenstrust.org/juliana-v-us" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">sued the federal government</a> for failing to protect them against the impending impacts of fossil fuel emissions. Courts dragged their feet for more than a decade only for the case to reach a dead end at the United States Supreme Court in 2025.</p> <p>Leon’s civil suit is significant, not just because a Washington judge unexpectedly <a href="https://climateintegrity.org/news/view/first-wrongful-death-climate-case-against-big-oil-wins-major-rulings-moves-toward-trial" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">cleared</a> the case for discovery and trial, but because Leon can directly link her mother’s death to climate change. Scientists <a href="https://www.worldweatherattribution.org/wp-content/uploads/NW-US-extreme-heat-2021-scientific-report-WWA.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">concluded</a> that the 2021 heat dome was, in the words of one research paper, “virtually impossible without human-caused climate change.” It’s about a crime that already occurred instead of hypothetical harm.</p> <p>“Ms. Leon’s case is unique in that it is the first of its kind to seek to hold big oil companies accountable for their role in an individual’s death in a climate-related disaster,” Mike Meno, communications director at the <a href="https://climateintegrity.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Center for Climate Integrity</a>, a nonprofit advocacy group that supports community efforts to hold Big Oil accountable for climate change, explained in an <a href="https://risingupwithsonali.com/climate-change-is-here-can-suing-big-oil-work/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">interview</a>.</p> <p>Juliana Leon was one of an estimated <a href="https://www.kuow.org/2026-06-29/five-years-after-the-dome-washington-is-still-vulnerable-to-extreme-heat" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">1,200 people</a> across the Pacific Northwest whose deaths were linked to the heat dome. “She was found unresponsive in her car,” said Meno. “The medical examiner determined that her death was caused by hyperthermia,” a condition that is the opposite of the more well-known cold-related condition of hypothermia.</p> <p>Hyperthermia-related deaths have <a href="https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2822854" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">sharply risen</a> over the past decade, a predictable outcome of fossil fuel emissions. Oil companies such as Exxon have long been <a href="https://www.climatefiles.com/exxon-knew/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">aware</a> of the devastating impacts their product would have on the climate. “Major oil and gas companies decades ago knew, their own scientists told them internally, that if we kept burning fossil fuels, it would lead to, in the words of one internal Exxon document, potentially catastrophic events, just like the 2021 Pacific Northwest heat dome,” said Meno.</p> <figure class="wp-block-pullquote alignright"> <blockquote> <p>Juliana Leon was one of an estimated 1,200 people across the Pacific Northwest whose deaths were linked to the heat dome.</p> </blockquote> </figure> <p>Big Oil’s failure to act on this information has drawn comparisons to Big Tobacco. Companies like Philip Morris knew about the impacts of cigarette smoking on human health and kept it secret for years. Since that information was made public, <a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC1117897/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">individuals</a> suffering from their addictive products have sued repeatedly and won.</p> <p>A <a href="https://www.naag.org/our-work/naag-center-for-tobacco-and-public-health/the-master-settlement-agreement/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">major lawsuit</a> brought by state attorneys general culminated in 1998 in what became known as the Master Settlement Agreement, where dozens of tobacco companies settled to the tune of billions of dollars for public health. Notably, the federal government also sued tobacco companies for violations of <a href="https://www.fightcancer.org/what-we-do/big-tobacco-lawsuit" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">racketeering laws</a> over their deception.</p> <p>Yet while individuals and states are taking action in the case of oil companies, the federal government clearly has no interest in <a href="https://truthout.org/articles/republicans-are-trying-to-give-big-oil-immunity-for-causing-climate-chaos/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">holding Big Oil accountable</a> for climate change. Instead, President Donald Trump <a href="https://fortune.com/2026/06/25/trump-accuses-big-oil-of-price-gouging/">says</a> he wants the Justice Department to investigate fossil fuel companies for <em>raising</em> oil prices in the wake of the Iran war. This appears to be a classic case of deflection, given that a majority of voters <a href="https://www.wkow.com/news/national/most-voters-blame-trump-for-rising-gas-prices-quinnipiac-poll-shows/article_2d034979-abdd-4ec0-aa73-a374dbcba7be.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">blame Trump</a> for price increases at the pump. He isn’t interested in holding companies accountable for climate change; he’s upset they made it harder for people to consume oil. Moreover, his administration is <a href="https://truthout.org/articles/dojs-environmental-enforcement-arm-has-been-captured-by-industry-critics-say/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">suing states</a> for trying to enforce environmental regulations aimed at oil companies.</p> <p>In addition to keeping their own research secret, fossil fuel companies spent years sowing doubt over the cause-and-effect relationship between greenhouse gases and a warming climate. “What that decades-long deception campaign did is it stole a generation’s worth of time when action could’ve been taken, and we could’ve averted the worst of some of these climate disasters,” said Meno.</p> <p>This year, more extreme weather records are expected to be broken as climate change intensifies. The first half of 2026 was the <a href="https://www.carbonbrief.org/state-of-the-climate-rapidly-developing-el-nino-raises-chance-of-record-warm-2026" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">third-warmest</a> half-year on record. An <a href="https://prospect.org/2026/07/28/climate-change-wildfires-smoke-el-nino-renewable-energy-trump/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">El Niño phenomenon</a> developing this year is expected to be one of the strongest in modern history.</p> <p>Whether or not the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/09/climate/climate-change-deniers-trump.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Trump administration admits</a> that the climate is changing, Americans <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/708050/climate-change-concern-near-high-point.aspx" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">know</a> it is. “Anyone of a certain age who can look back over enough time just knows, as a matter of common sense, that the climate we are all living in today is not what we had a few years ago,” said Meno.</p> <p>The industry knows it too — and, according to Meno, oil companies “are in absolute panic mode, fighting tooth and nail to escape accountability.” Leon’s lawsuit is hardly the only one they fear. Numerous states, counties, cities, and tribal governments are <a href="https://climateintegrity.org/uploads/media/CCI-BigOilAccountabilityLawsuits.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">suing</a> Big Oil, and making headway.</p> <p>Meno explained that companies have “been pleading with the U.S. Supreme Court to take up one of these cases for years.” The Supreme Court finally <a href="https://bouldercolorado.gov/news/us-supreme-court-decides-hear-climate-case-against-exxon-and-suncor-entities" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">agreed</a> to review a case in Colorado where that state’s supreme court in May 2025 <a href="https://bouldercolorado.gov/news/colorado-supreme-court-advances-historic-boulder-climate-accountability-case" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">ruled</a> the City of Boulder and Boulder County could move forward with discovery and trial in their suit against ExxonMobil and Suncor.</p> <p>Not content with leaving it to the U.S. Supreme Court, Big Oil has been lobbying Congress to grant the industry immunity over its role in climate change — and <a href="https://truthout.org/articles/republicans-are-trying-to-give-big-oil-immunity-for-causing-climate-chaos/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">conservative lawmakers</a> have complied. In April, Wyoming Rep. Harriet Hageman and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz <a href="https://hageman.house.gov/media/press-releases/rep-hageman-introduces-bill-shield-american-energy-producers-leftist-climate" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">introduced</a> the “Stop Climate Shakedowns Act of 2026.”</p> <p>If Congress were to pass the bill, according to Meno, it “would be a truly unprecedented legal shield that would strip the public of their right to hold these corporations accountable for the harm they’ve caused.” Meno’s Center for Climate Integrity is <a href="https://www.noimmunityforbigoil.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">urging members of the public</a> to demand their elected representatives vote against Hageman and Cruz’s bill.</p> <p>Big Oil says it deserves immunity because it shouldn’t be penalized for giving the public what it wants. In a joint statement, American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers President and CEO Chet Thompson and American Petroleum Institute President and CEO Mike Sommers <a href="https://hageman.house.gov/media/press-releases/rep-hageman-introduces-bill-shield-american-energy-producers-leftist-climate" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">said</a>: “These efforts to retroactively penalize companies for lawfully meeting consumer demand are misguided and counterproductive.”</p> <p>What they didn’t say is that they have worked for years to <a href="https://influencemap.org/briefing/Undermining-Progress-Investigating-the-Fossil-Fuel-Sector-s-Continual-Dominance-26562" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">prevent fair competition</a> from renewables. It’s why the <a href="https://www.michigan.gov/ag/news/press-releases/2026/01/23/attorney-general-nessel-files-lawsuit-against-fossil-fuel-defendants" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">state of Michigan</a> launched an antitrust lawsuit against ExxonMobil, BP, Chevron, and others because they acted “as a cartel … to forestall meaningful competition from renewable energy in order to maintain their dominance.”</p> <p>Fossil fuel companies have long known their products are deadly, kept it secret, unfairly ensured their dominance, then argued that they ought not to be sued for delivering a product the public wants. Now, as climate-related deaths stack up, the industry claims it isn’t responsible. Misti Leon, whose mother might be alive today if governments and courts had reined in Big Oil, told <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/29/climate/oil-companies-wrongful-death-lawsuit-heat-dome.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><em>The New York Times</em></a>: “I never would have in a million years guessed that a heat dome and climate change would be what killed my mother and what took her from me. There’s no way to comprehend that and to kind of even rationalize it.”</p> <p>This <a target="_blank" href="https://therealnews.com/juliana-leon-died-in-a-climate-linked-heat-wave-her-daughter-is-suing-big-oil">article</a> first appeared on <a target="_blank" href="https://therealnews.com">The Real News Network</a> and is republished here under a <a target="_blank" href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License</a>.<img src="https://i0.wp.com/therealnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/cropped-TRNN-2021-logomark-square.png?resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1" style="width:1em;height:1em;margin-left:10px;"></p> <img id="republication-tracker-tool-source" src="https://therealnews.com/?republication-pixel=true&post=345687&amp;ga4=G-7LYS8R7V51" style="width:1px;height:1px;"><script> PARSELY = { autotrack: false, onload: function() { PARSELY.beacon.trackPageView({ url: "https://therealnews.com/juliana-leon-died-in-a-climate-linked-heat-wave-her-daughter-is-suing-big-oil", urlref: window.location.href }); } } </script> <script id="parsely-cfg" src="//cdn.parsely.com/keys/therealnews.com/p.js"></script> Copy to Clipboard

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_This story originally appeared inPrism on Aug. 03, 2026._ Following the largest nurses strike in New York City history, Marilyn Shuler and 11 of her co-workers returned to their jobs at Montefiore Hospitals in the Bronx in February, only to find that their work environment had changed in a major way. At the time, Shuler worked in utilization review, a department that ascertains the need for medical care and whether care is covered by insurance. The veteran nurse, who worked at Montefiore for almost 40 years, had to begin using Datavant, a tool used to abridge the process by which the hospital sends patient and care information to insurance companies. Datavant’s website refers to itself as an AI platform. Shuler said she and other nurses thought the tool would just help process the backlog of cases created by the nurses strike. But when case volume returned to normal, the 12 nurses working in utilization review were told to continue using Datavant. In early July, after a few months of using the tool, Shuler was laid off from the position she held for six years. Her colleagues were all laid off too. They felt they had been replaced by artificial intelligence. Shuler’s case and that of her colleagues, she said, is far from an outlier. Hospitals will continue to automate and eliminate the jobs of nurses and other workers through AI, Shuler added. Job automation keeps nurses up at night. It was a concern raised by nurses represented by the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA) earlier in the year, when 15,000 walked off the job demanding a new contract. “Artificial intelligence should never replace real human caring from a nurse,” NYSNA President Nancy Hagans said in a press release issued when the 12 nurses at Montefiore lost their job. Montefiore representatives deny having replaced workers with Datavant. “As is often the case, the claims by NYSNA are inaccurate and misleading,” Joe Solmonese, Montefiore’s senior vice president for government relations and strategic communications, said in an email. “What is true is that we are always investing in new technology to ensure the best care and outcomes for our patients and will continue to do so for the betterment of the people we serve.” A spokesperson for the hospital said that Datavant’s tools are a nonclinical program that helps facilitate the paperwork process, but did not address whether the program uses AI. **GET FEARLESS, AD-FREE, UNCOMPROMISING REAL NEWS IN YOUR INBOX** Sign up Shuler said the laid-off nurses did not receive proper notice from the hospital. A union representative told the nurses on May 6, National Nurses Day, that the hospital planned to eliminate the 12 utilization review positions. “We just can’t believe that a machine can replace all the decades of … clinical judgment and knowledge that we have,” Shuler told Prism. Job automation through AI is bound to impact nurses in other parts of the country too. Joe-Ann Fergus, the executive director of the Massachusetts Nurses Association, said her union, which is engaged in a fierce contract battle with the largest hospital network in the state, is pushing back against an AI future in which hospitals deprioritize workforce development. A future in which hospitals deskill their workers, she said, could be disastrous for patients and hospitals alike. “We have already begun to see that in places where AI has been introduced around triaging,” Fergus said. “The younger, newer clinicians, the more exposure they have to AI, and the earlier exposure they have to AI, the higher the risk of them deskilling.” Fergus said healthcare workers should have a background education, but that they should also supplement that with real experience in the field and trial and error. Reading X-ray scans, Fergus said, is an example of a practice that is enhanced by AI tools. But workers should still be able to know what they are looking at. “We will lose the skill of doctors being able to read those tools as well, and when the inevitable happens that the system goes down, then nobody’s going to know how to read the images,” Fergus said. Using an AI system that does not account for the historical inequities of the healthcare industry, Fergus said, is also a deep concern. Fergus worries that hospitals might look to save money on the AI products they contract with and end up with a service that is not attuned to serving a diverse population. “If there’s any issues of racism, or the system is not properly programmed for the population that it’s in, then that additional programming of the AI can amplify the disparities that already exist and can actually result in injuries,” Fergus said. Despite hospitals onboarding AI systems as an addition to workers’ current workflows, Fergus said it is only a matter of time before hospitals look to automate jobs. She said most hospitals will likely see this as short-term savings. But if they don’t create more staffing to maintain and continuously train the products, “then the systems become obsolete, and they become harmful to the patients,” Fergus said. _Editorial Team:_ _Sahar Fatima, Lead Editor_ _Lara Witt, Top Editor_ _Stephanie Harris, Copy Editor_ TRNN — Support Independent Journalism The Real News Network Independent · Nonprofit · Nonpartisan ## The journalism that _refuses_ to be bought. Funded by people like you. TRNN produces fearless, fact-based reporting on the stories that matter — the ones corporate media ignores, minimizes, or gets wrong. No paywalls. No advertisers. No billionaire owners. Just the truth, sustained by viewers like you. 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Please copy the HTML code in the textbox below, preserving the attribution and link to the article's original location, and only make minor cosmetic edits to the content on your site. # New York City nurses say AI is replacing them by Eddie Velazquez, The Real News Network August 7, 2026 <h1>New York City nurses say AI is replacing them</h1> <p class="byline">by Eddie Velazquez, The Real News Network <br />August 7, 2026</p> <div class="wp-block-media-text is-stacked-on-mobile" style="grid-template-columns:20% auto"> <figure class="wp-block-media-text__media"><img src="https://therealnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/PRISMlogo-sized.png" alt="" class="wp-image-293467 size-full" /></figure> <div class="wp-block-media-text__content"> <p><em>This story originally appeared in <a href="https://prismreports.org/2026/08/03/new-york-city-nurses-say-ai-is-replacing-them/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Prism</a> on Aug. 03, 2026.</em></p> </p></div> </div> <p class="has-drop-cap">Following the <a href="https://prismreports.org/2026/03/04/nurses-strike-contracts/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">largest nurses strike</a> in New York City history, Marilyn Shuler and 11 of her co-workers returned to their jobs at Montefiore Hospitals in the Bronx in February, only to find that their work environment had changed in a major way. </p> <p>At the time, Shuler worked in utilization review, a department that ascertains the need for medical care and whether care is covered by insurance. The veteran nurse, who worked at Montefiore for almost 40 years, had to begin using <a href="https://www.datavant.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Datavant</a>, a tool used to abridge the process by which the hospital sends patient and care information to insurance companies. Datavant’s website refers to itself as an AI platform.</p> <p>Shuler said she and other nurses thought the tool would just help process the backlog of cases created by the nurses strike. But when case volume returned to normal, the 12 nurses working in utilization review were told to continue using Datavant. </p> <p>In early July, after a few months of using the tool, Shuler was laid off from the position she held for six years. Her colleagues were all laid off too. They felt they had been replaced by artificial intelligence.</p> <p>Shuler’s case and that of her colleagues, she said, is far from an outlier. Hospitals will continue to automate and eliminate the jobs of nurses and other workers through AI, Shuler added. </p> <p>Job automation keeps nurses up at night. It was a concern raised by nurses represented by the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA) earlier in the year, when 15,000 <a href="https://prismreports.org/2026/01/21/new-york-city-nurses-say-wealthy-hospitals-are-creating-untenable-work-conditions/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">walked off the job</a> demanding a new contract. </p> <p>“Artificial intelligence should never replace real human caring from a nurse,” NYSNA President Nancy Hagans said in <a href="https://www.nysna.org/press/bronx-needs-real-nurses-not-ai" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">a press release</a> issued when the 12 nurses at Montefiore lost their job.  </p> <p>Montefiore representatives deny having replaced workers with Datavant. </p> <p>“As is often the case, the claims by NYSNA are inaccurate and misleading,” Joe Solmonese, Montefiore’s senior vice president for government relations and strategic communications, said in an email. “What is true is that we are always investing in new technology to ensure the best care and outcomes for our patients and will continue to do so for the betterment of the people we serve.”</p> <p>A spokesperson for the hospital said that Datavant’s tools are a nonclinical program that helps facilitate the paperwork process, but did not address whether the program uses AI.</p> <p>Shuler said the laid-off nurses did not receive proper notice from the hospital. A union representative told the nurses on May 6, National Nurses Day, that the hospital planned to eliminate the 12 utilization review positions. </p> <p>“We just can’t believe that a machine can replace all the decades of … clinical judgment and knowledge that we have,” Shuler told Prism. </p> <p>Job automation through AI is bound to impact nurses in other parts of the country too. Joe-Ann Fergus, the executive director of the Massachusetts Nurses Association, said her union, which is engaged in a <a href="https://www.massnurses.org/2026/07/29/boston-medical-center-s-healthcare-workers-join-forces-at-the-picket-line/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">fierce contract battle</a> with the largest hospital network in the state, is pushing back against an AI future in which hospitals deprioritize workforce development. A future in which hospitals deskill their workers, she said, could be disastrous for patients and hospitals alike.</p> <p>“We have already begun to see that in places where AI has been introduced around triaging,” Fergus said. “The younger, newer clinicians, the more exposure they have to AI, and the earlier exposure they have to AI, the higher the risk of them deskilling.”</p> <p>Fergus said healthcare workers should have a background education, but that they should also supplement that with real experience in the field and trial and error. Reading X-ray scans, Fergus said, is an example of a practice that is enhanced by AI tools. But workers should still be able to know what they are looking at.</p> <p>“We will lose the skill of doctors being able to read those tools as well, and when the inevitable happens that the system goes down, then nobody’s going to know how to read the images,” Fergus said. </p> <p>Using an AI system that does not account for the historical inequities of the healthcare industry, Fergus said, is also a deep concern. Fergus worries that hospitals might look to save money on the AI products they contract with and end up with a service that is <a href="https://www.newark.rutgers.edu/news/ai-algorithms-used-healthcare-can-perpetuate-bias" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">not attuned</a> to serving a diverse population.</p> <p>“If there’s any issues of racism, or the system is not properly programmed for the population that it’s in, then that additional programming of the AI can amplify the disparities that already exist and can actually result in injuries,” Fergus said. </p> <p>Despite hospitals onboarding AI systems as an addition to workers’ current workflows, Fergus said it is only a matter of time before hospitals look to automate jobs. She said most hospitals will likely see this as short-term savings. </p> <p>But if they don’t create more staffing to maintain and continuously train the products, “then the systems become obsolete, and they become harmful to the patients,” Fergus said.</p> <p><em>Editorial Team:</em><br /><em>Sahar Fatima, Lead Editor</em><br /><em>Lara Witt, Top Editor</em><br /><em>Stephanie Harris, Copy Editor</em></p> <p>This <a target="_blank" href="https://therealnews.com/new-york-city-nurses-say-ai-is-replacing-them">article</a> first appeared on <a target="_blank" href="https://therealnews.com">The Real News Network</a> and is republished here under a <a target="_blank" href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License</a>.<img src="https://i0.wp.com/therealnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/cropped-TRNN-2021-logomark-square.png?resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1" style="width:1em;height:1em;margin-left:10px;"></p> <img id="republication-tracker-tool-source" src="https://therealnews.com/?republication-pixel=true&post=345677&amp;ga4=G-7LYS8R7V51" style="width:1px;height:1px;"><script> PARSELY = { autotrack: false, onload: function() { PARSELY.beacon.trackPageView({ url: "https://therealnews.com/new-york-city-nurses-say-ai-is-replacing-them", urlref: window.location.href }); } } </script> <script id="parsely-cfg" src="//cdn.parsely.com/keys/therealnews.com/p.js"></script> Copy to Clipboard

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_This story originally appeared in Common Dreams on_AUg. 04, 2026 _._ _It is shared here under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0) license._ As wildfires ravaged large swaths of the Western US, a group of Democratic senators on Monday called on federal regulators to rein in prediction markets offering contracts tied to such disasters, warning that turning climate-fueled extreme weather into financial wagers creates “perverse incentives” that could motivate arson and other crimes. In a letter to Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Chair Michael Selig, Sens. Jeff Merkley (Ore.), Alex Padilla (Calif.), Jeanne Shaheen (NH), Adam Schiff (Calif.), Jacky Rosen (Nevada), Catherine Cortez Masto (Nevada), Martin Heinrich (NM), Ron Wyden (Ore.), and Amy Klobuchar (Minn.) wrote that “prediction markets have been enabled to expand rapidly, increasingly inviting speculation on war, political violence, disasters, and public emergencies that raise ethical and public policy concerns.” These markets risk creating perverse incentives, undermining public trust, and commodifying human suffering in ways that warrant careful scrutiny,” the lawmakers continued. “Recent public reports have highlighted how Polymarket—the largest prediction market platform in the world—accepted more than $1.2 million in bets surrounding the Palisades and Eaton fires in January 2025. These fires devastated the Los Angeles area, claiming the lives of 31 people and destroying more than 16,000 structures.” “Offering bets on destructive wildfires threatens to minimize communities’ suffering all so the rich and powerful can profit,” the letter argues. “There’s also the heightened risk—according to state and local fire officials—that individuals could be tempted to commit arson in order to make sure their bets are successful.” > Allowing prediction markets on wildfires is outrageously dangerous and will incentivize bad actors to spread or even start fires themselves. Frankly, this is betting on the suffering of our neighbors and families. > > I’m demanding the CFTC crack down on this practice before… pic.twitter.com/EMZ0Al5vq0 > > — Senator Cortez Masto (@SenCortezMasto) August 4, 2026 “By offering contracts on fires, prediction market sites run the risk of encouraging people to influence fires that have already started, creating additional concerns around public safety and insider trading,” the senators added. The CFTC controversially considers Polymarket and Kalshi designated contract markets (DCMs)—over which the federal agency has control versus state gambling regimes—and is currently developing nationwide rules. The letter’s signers asked Selig: * Is the CFTC considering prohibiting DCMs from offering event contracts on wildfires as part of the rulemaking process currently underway, given they are against the public’s interest? * Does the CFTC have any plans to curb bets on wildfires on prediction markets in the United States? * Does the agency have plans to address these contracts being offered on offshore markets? * Does the CFTC believe event contracts offered on the following wildfire-related events are in the public interest? * Does the commission have guidance or planned enforcement related to these wildfire event contracts? **GET FEARLESS, AD-FREE, UNCOMPROMISING REAL NEWS IN YOUR INBOX** Sign up “As the United States faces yet another record-breaking fire season this year, the [CFTC] cannot allow these prediction markets to offer unrestricted betting on wildfires,” the senators stressed. “While these bets appear to be offered only on the offshore Polymarket site, it is only a matter of time before other US-based designated contract markets try to offer these. The CFTC must lead the charge to rein in these contracts in the US and offshore and put in place commonsense guardrails to prevent people from profiting as wildfires threaten communities.” In addition to wildfires, Polymarket users can place wagers related to earthquakes, hurricanes, and volcanic eruptions. Polymarket responded to the senators’ letter in a statement to Claims Journal saying, “When tragedy unfolds, people turn to the news for commentary and to Polymarket for information.” “While we recognize the risks associated with these markets, removing them does not prevent a tragedy,” the company added. “It only makes timely, market-based information less accessible to those seeking to understand what may happen next.” The senators’ letter came days after Democratic New York Attorney General Letitia James announced a lawsuit targeting Polymarket competitor Kalshi for operating as “an illegal gambling operation” in “flagrant disregard” for the Empire State’s “Constitution, penal laws, and other statutes.” Last month, a coalition of consumer advocacy groups condemned the CFTC’s attempt to allow platforms like Kalshi and Polymarket “a green light to bypass state gambling regimes.” “Calling a sports wager an ‘event contract’ does not transform it into a legitimate tool for managing economic risk,” said Eric Naing, communications director for Demand Progress Education Fund, one of the groups decrying the regulator’s approach to such companies. TRNN — Support Independent Journalism The Real News Network Independent · Nonprofit · Nonpartisan ## The journalism that _refuses_ to be bought. Funded by people like you. TRNN produces fearless, fact-based reporting on the stories that matter — the ones corporate media ignores, minimizes, or gets wrong. No paywalls. No advertisers. No billionaire owners. Just the truth, sustained by viewers like you. Workers & Labor Rights U.S. Politics & Democracy Palestine & Global Justice Economic Inequality Media Accountability Make a donation Monthly One-time Yearly $10 $25 $50 $100 $250 $500 $ Donate Now → Tax-deductible · Secure · Cancel anytime The Real News Network is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. 100% Viewer Supported $0 Corporate Funding 20+ Years of Independent Journalism **Every dollar you give** goes directly toward the reporting corporate media won't do. ### _Related_ Republish This Story Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license. Close window ## Republish this article This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. We encourage republication of our original content. Please copy the HTML code in the textbox below, preserving the attribution and link to the article's original location, and only make minor cosmetic edits to the content on your site. # Senators urge regulator to ‘crack down on prediction markets’ amid wildfire betting by Brett Wilkins, The Real News Network August 5, 2026 <h1>Senators urge regulator to ‘crack down on prediction markets’ amid wildfire betting</h1> <p class="byline">by Brett Wilkins, The Real News Network <br />August 5, 2026</p> <div class="wp-block-media-text is-stacked-on-mobile" style="grid-template-columns:33% auto"> <figure class="wp-block-media-text__media"><img src="https://therealnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/cd_stacked_white_600.png" alt="Common Dreams Logo" class="wp-image-268291 size-full" /></figure> <div class="wp-block-media-text__content"> <p><em>This story originally appeared in Common Dreams on </em><a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/prediction-markets-wildfires" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">AUg. 04, 2026</a><em>.</em> <em>It is shared here under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0) license.</em></p> </p></div> </div> <p class="has-drop-cap">As <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/tag/wildfires" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">wildfires</a> <a href="https://www.americanforests.org/wildfire-map/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">ravaged large swaths</a> of the Western US, a group of Democratic senators on Monday called on federal regulators to rein in prediction markets offering contracts tied to such disasters, warning that turning climate-fueled <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/tag/extreme-weather" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">extreme weather</a> into financial wagers creates “perverse incentives” that could motivate arson and other crimes.</p> <p>In a <a href="https://www.merkley.senate.gov/wp-content/uploads/2026.08.03-LTR-Wildfire-Prediction-Markets-FINAL.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">letter</a> to Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Chair Michael Selig, Sens. <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/tag/jeff-merkley" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Jeff Merkley</a> (Ore.), Alex Padilla (Calif.), Jeanne Shaheen (NH), Adam Schiff (Calif.), Jacky Rosen (Nevada), Catherine Cortez Masto (Nevada), Martin Heinrich (NM), <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/tag/ron-wyden" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Ron Wyden</a> (Ore.), and <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/tag/amy-klobuchar" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Amy Klobuchar</a> (Minn.) wrote that “prediction markets have been enabled to expand rapidly, increasingly inviting speculation on war, political violence, disasters, and public emergencies that raise ethical and public policy concerns.”</p> <p>These markets risk creating perverse incentives, undermining public trust, and commodifying human suffering in ways that warrant careful scrutiny,” the lawmakers continued. “Recent public reports have highlighted how Polymarket—the largest prediction market platform in the world—accepted more than $1.2 million in bets surrounding the Palisades and Eaton fires in January <a rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank"></a>2025. These fires devastated the Los Angeles area, claiming the lives of 31 people and destroying more than 16,000 structures.”</p> <p>“Offering bets on destructive wildfires threatens to minimize communities’ suffering all so the rich and powerful can profit,” the letter argues. “There’s also the heightened risk—according to state and local fire officials—that individuals could be tempted to commit arson in order to make sure their bets are successful.”</p> <figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-x wp-block-embed-x"> <div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper"> https://twitter.com/SenCortezMasto/status/2084649274776682703?s=20 </div> </figure> <p>“By offering contracts on fires, prediction market sites run the risk of encouraging people to influence fires that have already started, creating additional concerns around public safety and insider trading,” the senators added.</p> <p>The CFTC <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/kalshi-polymarket" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">controversially considers</a> Polymarket and Kalshi designated contract markets (DCMs)—over which the federal agency has control versus state gambling regimes—and is currently developing nationwide rules.</p> <p>The letter’s signers asked Selig:</p> <ul class="wp-block-list"> <li>Is the CFTC considering prohibiting DCMs from offering event contracts on wildfires as part of the rulemaking process currently underway, given they are against the public’s interest?</li> <li>Does the CFTC have any plans to curb bets on wildfires on prediction markets in the <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/tag/united-states" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">United States</a>?</li> <li>Does the agency have plans to address these contracts being offered on offshore markets?</li> <li>Does the CFTC believe event contracts offered on the following wildfire-related events are in the public interest?</li> <li>Does the commission have guidance or planned enforcement related to these wildfire event contracts?</li> </ul> <p>“As the United States faces yet another record-breaking fire season this year, the [CFTC] cannot allow these prediction markets to offer unrestricted betting on wildfires,” the senators stressed. “While these bets appear to be offered only on the offshore Polymarket site, it is only a matter of time before other US-based designated contract markets try to offer these. The CFTC must lead the charge to rein in these contracts in the US and offshore and put in place commonsense guardrails to prevent people from profiting as wildfires threaten communities.”</p> <p>In addition to wildfires, Polymarket users can place wagers related to earthquakes, hurricanes, and volcanic eruptions.</p> <p>Polymarket <a href="https://www.claimsjournal.com/news/national/2026/08/04/339269.htm" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">responded</a> to the senators’ letter in a statement to Claims Journal saying, “When tragedy unfolds, people turn to the news for commentary and to Polymarket for information.”</p> <p>“While we recognize the risks associated with these markets, removing them does not prevent a tragedy,” the company added. “It only makes timely, market-based information less accessible to those seeking to understand what may happen next.”</p> <p>The senators’ letter came days after Democratic New York Attorney General Letitia James <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/new-york-kalshi-lawsuit" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">announced</a> a lawsuit targeting Polymarket competitor Kalshi for operating as “an illegal gambling operation” in “flagrant disregard” for the Empire State’s “Constitution, penal laws, and other statutes.”</p> <p>Last month, a coalition of consumer advocacy groups <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/kalshi-polymarket" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">condemned</a> the CFTC’s attempt to allow platforms like Kalshi and Polymarket “a green light to bypass state gambling regimes.”</p> <p>“Calling a sports wager an ‘event contract’ does not transform it into a legitimate tool for managing economic risk,” said Eric Naing, communications director for Demand Progress Education Fund, one of the groups decrying the regulator’s approach to such companies.</p> <p>This <a target="_blank" href="https://therealnews.com/senators-urge-regulator-to-crack-down-on-prediction-markets-amid-wildfire-betting">article</a> first appeared on <a target="_blank" href="https://therealnews.com">The Real News Network</a> and is republished here under a <a target="_blank" href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License</a>.<img src="https://i0.wp.com/therealnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/cropped-TRNN-2021-logomark-square.png?resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1" style="width:1em;height:1em;margin-left:10px;"></p> <img id="republication-tracker-tool-source" src="https://therealnews.com/?republication-pixel=true&post=345602&amp;ga4=G-7LYS8R7V51" style="width:1px;height:1px;"><script> PARSELY = { autotrack: false, onload: function() { PARSELY.beacon.trackPageView({ url: "https://therealnews.com/senators-urge-regulator-to-crack-down-on-prediction-markets-amid-wildfire-betting", urlref: window.location.href }); } } </script> <script id="parsely-cfg" src="//cdn.parsely.com/keys/therealnews.com/p.js"></script> Copy to Clipboard

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_This article was originally published byTruthout on Aug. 03, 2026. It is shared here under a __Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) license._ Artificial intelligence (AI) has permeated our workplaces, where many employers have sought to boost productivity, cut labor costs, and eliminate jobs via the technology. A 2025 Pew Research Center poll found that 1 in 5 workers now use AI in their jobs. Organized labor’s response to the AI has been fraught. Where some see an inevitable shift that simply needs to be regulated and could potentially even create jobs, others see a dangerous trend that will result in further job losses along with a variety of other problems. The tension is succinctly summarized by a recent _Politico_ headline: “Voters fear AI. Unions want the jobs.” The ongoing debate over data centers encapsulates this tension. Across the country, community members have spearheaded efforts to block their construction over concerns about water depletion, higher utility bills, noise, and air pollution. In March, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York) introduced the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Data Center Moratorium Act, which would institute a pause on data center construction until federal safeguards can be established. “We need serious public debate and democratic oversight over this enormously consequential issue,” said Sanders in a statement on the bill. “The time for action is now.” The legislative effort is backed by multiple unions including National Nurses United (NNU), the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), and the Association of Flight Attendants. “The unchecked explosion of AI data centers is a public health crisis, an environmental crisis, and a workers’ rights crisis,” declared NNU co-president Jamie Brown at a press conference announcing the bill. However, there are also many unions that oppose any moratorium on data centers, particularly building trade unions that believe such construction can stimulate economic growth for struggling communities and provide members with work. “We need the guardrails on AI, we just don’t think that a moratorium is the way to get there,” AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler told _Punchbowl News_ in June. The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) is even calling on members to contact their congressional representatives and make social media posts connected to the issue. “I’m a proud IBEW member and I oppose any bans on data center construction since these bans would eliminate good-paying union jobs,” reads suggested text for a social media post. In June, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer appeared at the groundbreaking ceremony for Oracle and OpenAI’s planned 1.4-gigawatt data center in the state’s Saline Township. Alongside OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Whitmer told the assembled crowd that the state was setting an example for “the rest of the world” by ensuring the “responsible adoption” of AI. The project was opposed by many residents and local lawmakers. Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Michigan) called it “disgusting” and said she was “disappointed” with Whitmer, while Democratic State Rep. Dylan Wegela of Garden City said it was a “complete betrayal of the working class” and that the governor had sold out “Michigan to big tech billionaires.” However, the data center was backed by North America’s Building Trades Unions (NABTU), and its president, Sean McGarvey, was present at the groundbreaking. “America’s ability to lead in the next era of innovation depends, in part, on America’s ability to build, and our members are proud to be helping make that future possible,” he told the crowd. Speaking to _Politico_ in June, Senator Sanders’s chief political adviser, Faiz Shakir, said that the data center jobs heralded by certain unions won’t necessarily establish lasting occupations. “It’s fine to say that [data centers will] be built with good-paying union jobs now — and I hope that that’s the case — but what we’re also looking for on behalf of the working class of America is long-term sustainability of jobs,” he said. “It doesn’t help a lot in our view if you have a short-term infusion of good, union paying jobs at the cost of the decimation of many, many long-term jobs.” Support for AI within organized labor is receiving a boost from AI companies themselves. Last year, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) announced that it would create an AI training hub in New York City via $23 million from Microsoft, OpenAI, and Anthropic. **GET FEARLESS, AD-FREE, UNCOMPROMISING REAL NEWS IN YOUR INBOX** Sign up “The industry funding is part of a drive by U.S. tech companies to reshape education with generative A.I. chatbots,” noted _The_ _New York Times_. “These tools, like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Microsoft’s Copilot, can produce humanlike essays, research summaries and class quizzes.” AFT President Randi Weingarten said the academy was inspired by the work of other unions, like the United Brotherhood of Carpenters, and that the idea for the National Academy for AI Instruction sprang from a partnership established between Microsoft and the AFL-CIO in 2023. “AI holds tremendous promise but huge challenges — and it’s our job as educators to make sure AI serves our students and society, not the other way around,” declared Weingarten. “The direct connection between a teacher and their kids can never be replaced by new technologies, but if we learn how to harness it, set commonsense guardrails and put teachers in the driver’s seat, teaching and learning can be enhanced.” The way Weingarten is selling the hub is seemingly at odds with that of Roy Bahat, who first proposed the idea. In a LinkedIn post made shortly after the announcement, Bahat, who heads the venture capital firm Bloomberg Beta, essentially admits that the center can serve as a test case for applying AI more broadly — or, as Nolan Higdon put it in _Truthdig_: “Teachers are guinea pigs in Big Tech’s broader project to reengineer labor, one profession at a time.” “If we can figure out how teachers should teach with and about AI, we can affect the lives of millions of educators, and millions and millions of young people,” explains Bahat in the post. “And if we can figure out how to train teachers on using AI, maybe we can figure it out for other occupations.” The training hub, and union leadership’s wider connections to AI, have sparked criticism from labor activists and rank-and-file members. > “Using AI compliments, intensifies, and accelerates privatization of the public sector, and that’s in addition to any harm that it’s doing to work.” “Using AI compliments, intensifies, and accelerates privatization of the public sector, and that’s in addition to any harm that it’s doing to work,” author and teacher union activist Lois Weiner told _Truthout_. “The labor movement should be contesting the idea that the imposition of AI is inevitable. That’s the labor movement’s responsibility.” “What makes this so disturbing is that it raises fully the problem of union democracy,” she added. “These decisions were made without informed debate with union members. They have a moral responsibility to community and the kids we serve to have a voice.” Trevor Griffey, a labor historian, lecturer at UCLA and UC Irvine, and vice president of legislation for AFT Local 1474, told _Truthout_ that, since the collaboration was established, the AFT national has focused too much on trying to help teachers adapt to AI, and too little on organizing worker power in school districts. He believes unions should go on the offensive and push for deeper reforms, as AI is already having a dramatic impact. He points out that groups like the California Federation of Labor Unions are trying to bring together statewide unions in California to lobby on a range of bills targeting the dangers of Big Tech. “The question is less where unions stand on AI or other forms of technology, and more how they organize to resist the unsafe and unethical use of automation at work,” he told _Truthout_. “Unions need to invest in strategic research and organizing to support workers most likely to be negatively impacted by employers’ adoption of AI-powered technology — both at work, and in building political power sufficient to prevent the unethical and unsafe use of new technology. Beyond just regulating AI, unions should push for full employment and/or universal income policies to mitigate the disruptions to people’s lives that AI-related layoffs are already having.” These sentiments were echoed by Vishal Reddy, a union negotiator for nursing home workers and the executive director of WorkFour. “Unions at the local, international, and federation levels need to put real money and organizing capacity into figuring out which affirmative AI-related demands — four-day workweek, UBI [universal basic income], AI dividends, and so on — actually resonate with a wide swath of workers,” he told _Truthout_. “Just like in bargaining, we want to know which affirmative policy would be most deeply and widely felt, so we can prioritize it in the fights ahead, including May Day 2028.” “That means cross-union convenings, issue campaigns, commissioned polling and research, and real resourcing behind the bargaining fights where these policies are already surfacing,” Reddy added. “For example, if a fight over a 32-hour workweek is on the table somewhere, that’s exactly where the labor movement should be throwing its weight.” TRNN — Support Independent Journalism The Real News Network Independent · Nonprofit · Nonpartisan ## The journalism that _refuses_ to be bought. Funded by people like you. TRNN produces fearless, fact-based reporting on the stories that matter — the ones corporate media ignores, minimizes, or gets wrong. No paywalls. No advertisers. No billionaire owners. Just the truth, sustained by viewers like you. Workers & Labor Rights U.S. Politics & Democracy Palestine & Global Justice Economic Inequality Media Accountability Make a donation Monthly One-time Yearly $10 $25 $50 $100 $250 $500 $ Donate Now → Tax-deductible · Secure · Cancel anytime The Real News Network is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. 100% Viewer Supported $0 Corporate Funding 20+ Years of Independent Journalism **Every dollar you give** goes directly toward the reporting corporate media won't do. ### _Related_ Republish This Story Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license. Close window ## Republish this article This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. 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Please copy the HTML code in the textbox below, preserving the attribution and link to the article's original location, and only make minor cosmetic edits to the content on your site. # The labor movement is divided over how to deal with AI by Michael Arria, The Real News Network August 4, 2026 <h1>The labor movement is divided over how to deal with AI</h1> <p class="byline">by Michael Arria, The Real News Network <br />August 4, 2026</p> <div class="wp-block-media-text is-stacked-on-mobile" style="grid-template-columns:33% auto"> <figure class="wp-block-media-text__media"><img src="https://therealnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/truthout-logo.jpeg" alt="" class="wp-image-277549 size-full" /></figure> <div class="wp-block-media-text__content"> <p><em>This article was originally published by <a href="https://truthout.org/articles/the-labor-movement-is-divided-over-how-to-deal-with-ai/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Truthout</a> on Aug. 03, 2026. It is shared here under a <em> </em><a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)</a> license.</em></p> </p></div> </div> <p class="has-drop-cap">Artificial intelligence (AI) has permeated our workplaces, where many employers have sought to boost productivity, cut labor costs, and eliminate jobs via the technology. A 2025 Pew Research Center <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2025/10/06/about-1-in-5-us-workers-now-use-ai-in-their-job-up-since-last-year/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">poll</a> found that 1 in 5 workers now use AI in their jobs.</p> <p>Organized labor’s response to the AI has been fraught. Where some see an inevitable shift that simply needs to be regulated and could potentially even create jobs, others see a dangerous trend that will result in further job losses along with a variety of other problems.</p> <p>The tension is succinctly summarized by a <a href="https://www.politico.com/newsletters/morning-money/2026/06/02/voters-fear-ai-unions-want-the-jobs-00946226" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">recent <em>Politico </em>headline</a>: “Voters fear AI. Unions want the jobs.”</p> <p>The ongoing debate over data centers encapsulates this tension. Across the country, community members have spearheaded efforts to block their construction over concerns about water depletion, higher utility bills, noise, and air pollution.</p> <p>In March, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York) introduced the <a href="https://www.sanders.senate.gov/press-releases/news-sanders-ocasio-cortez-announce-ai-data-center-moratorium-act/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Artificial Intelligence (AI) Data Center Moratorium Act</a>, which would institute a pause on data center construction until federal safeguards can be established. “We need serious public debate and democratic oversight over this enormously consequential issue,” said Sanders in a statement on the bill. “The time for action is now.”</p> <p>The legislative effort is backed by multiple unions including National Nurses United (NNU), the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), and the Association of Flight Attendants. “The unchecked explosion of AI data centers is a public health crisis, an environmental crisis, and a workers’ rights crisis,” <a href="https://news.bloomberglaw.com/daily-labor-report/labor-unions-divided-over-data-center-construction-ai-use" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">declared</a> NNU co-president Jamie Brown at a press conference announcing the bill.</p> <p>However, there are also many unions that oppose any moratorium on data centers, particularly building trade unions that believe such construction can stimulate economic growth for struggling communities and provide members with work.</p> <p>“We need the guardrails on AI, we just don’t think that a moratorium is the way to get there,” AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler <a href="https://punchbowl.news/article/tech/unions-ai-policy/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">told</a> <em>Punchbowl News</em> in June.</p> <p>The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) is even calling on members to contact their congressional representatives and make social media posts connected to the issue. “I’m a proud IBEW member and I oppose any bans on data center construction since these bans would eliminate good-paying union jobs,” <a href="https://ibewgov.org/no-to-data-center-bans-yes-to-labor-standards-toolkit/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reads</a> suggested text for a social media post.</p> <p>In June, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer appeared at the <a href="https://truthout.org/articles/michigan-governor-joins-ai-ceos-at-ceremony-for-controversial-data-center/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">groundbreaking ceremony</a> for Oracle and OpenAI’s planned <a href="https://planetdetroit.org/2025/12/dte-data-center-contracts-approved/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">1.4-gigawatt data center</a> in the state’s Saline Township. Alongside OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Whitmer <a href="https://www.instagram.com/reels/DZFgSLoCE-_/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">told</a> the assembled crowd that the state was setting an example for “the rest of the world” by ensuring the “responsible adoption” of AI.</p> <p>The project was opposed by many residents and local lawmakers. Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Michigan) <a href="https://x.com/RashidaTlaib/status/2061512590514151916?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">called</a> it “disgusting” and said she was “disappointed” with Whitmer, while Democratic State Rep. Dylan Wegela of Garden City <a href="https://x.com/DylanWegela/status/2061504807341346975?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">said</a> it was a “complete betrayal of the working class” and that the governor had sold out “Michigan to big tech billionaires.”</p> <p>However, the data center was backed by North America’s Building Trades Unions (NABTU), and its president, Sean McGarvey, was present at the groundbreaking. “America’s ability to lead in the next era of innovation depends, in part, on America’s ability to build, and our members are proud to be helping make that future possible,” he <a href="https://www.oracle.com/news/announcement/related-digital-oracle-openai-walbridge-and-governor-whitmer-celebrate-construction-of-stargate-campus-in-saline-township-2026-06-01/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">told</a> the crowd.</p> <p>Speaking to <a href="https://www.politico.com/newsletters/morning-money/2026/06/02/voters-fear-ai-unions-want-the-jobs-00946226" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><em>Politico</em></a> in June, Senator Sanders’s chief political adviser, Faiz Shakir, said that the data center jobs heralded by certain unions won’t necessarily establish lasting occupations.</p> <p>“It’s fine to say that [data centers will] be built with good-paying union jobs now — and I hope that that’s the case — but what we’re also looking for on behalf of the working class of America is long-term sustainability of jobs,” he said. “It doesn’t help a lot in our view if you have a short-term infusion of good, union paying jobs at the cost of the decimation of many, many long-term jobs.”</p> <p>Support for AI within organized labor is receiving a boost from AI companies themselves. Last year, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) announced that it would create an AI training hub in New York City via $23 million from Microsoft, OpenAI, and Anthropic.</p> <p>“The industry funding is part of a drive by U.S. tech companies to reshape education with generative A.I. chatbots,” <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/08/technology/chatgpt-teachers-openai-microsoft.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">noted</a> <em>The</em> <em>New York Times</em>. “These tools, like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Microsoft’s Copilot, can produce humanlike essays, research summaries and class quizzes.”</p> <p>AFT President Randi Weingarten said the academy was inspired by the work of other unions, like <a href="https://www.carpenters.org/itc/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">the United Brotherhood of Carpenters</a>, and that the idea for the National Academy for AI Instruction sprang from a partnership established between Microsoft and the AFL-CIO in 2023.</p> <p>“AI holds tremendous promise but huge challenges — and it’s our job as educators to make sure AI serves our students and society, not the other way around,” <a href="https://www.aft.org/press-release/aft-launch-national-academy-ai-instruction-microsoft-openai-anthropic-and-united" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">declared</a> Weingarten. “The direct connection between a teacher and their kids can never be replaced by new technologies, but if we learn how to harness it, set commonsense guardrails and put teachers in the driver’s seat, teaching and learning can be enhanced.”</p> <p>The way Weingarten is selling the hub is seemingly at odds with that of Roy Bahat, who first proposed the idea. In a LinkedIn post made shortly after the announcement, Bahat, who heads the venture capital firm Bloomberg Beta, essentially admits that the center can serve as a test case for applying AI more broadly — or, as Nolan Higdon put it in <a href="https://www.truthdig.com/articles/randi-weingartens-ai-betrayal/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><em>Truthdig</em></a>: “Teachers are guinea pigs in Big Tech’s broader project to reengineer labor, one profession at a time.”</p> <p>“If we can figure out how teachers should teach with and about AI, we can affect the lives of millions of educators, and millions and millions of young people,” <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/posts/roybahat_in-a-world-with-more-ai-what-will-it-take-activity-7348358108810768386-stYv/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_ios&rcm=ACoAAAClK3UBQJtSMgIJhV3hIrWcXy81ILTqBjk" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">explains</a> Bahat in the post. “And if we can figure out how to train teachers on using AI, maybe we can figure it out for other occupations.”</p> <p>The training hub, and union leadership’s wider connections to AI, have sparked criticism from labor activists and rank-and-file members.</p> <figure class="wp-block-pullquote alignright"> <blockquote> <p>“Using AI compliments, intensifies, and accelerates privatization of the public sector, and that’s in addition to any harm that it’s doing to work.”</p> </blockquote> </figure> <p>“Using AI compliments, intensifies, and accelerates privatization of the public sector, and that’s in addition to any harm that it’s doing to work,” author and teacher union activist Lois Weiner told <em>Truthout</em>. “The labor movement should be contesting the idea that the imposition of AI is inevitable. That’s the labor movement’s responsibility.”</p> <p>“What makes this so disturbing is that it raises fully the problem of union democracy,” she added. “These decisions were made without informed debate with union members. They have a moral responsibility to community and the kids we serve to have a voice.”</p> <p>Trevor Griffey, a labor historian, lecturer at UCLA and UC Irvine, and vice president of legislation for AFT Local 1474, told <em>Truthout</em> that, since the collaboration was established, the AFT national has focused too much on trying to help teachers adapt to AI, and too little on organizing worker power in school districts. He believes unions should go on the offensive and push for deeper reforms, as AI is already having a dramatic impact. He points out that groups like the California Federation of Labor Unions are trying to bring together statewide unions in California to lobby on a range of bills targeting the dangers of Big Tech.</p> <p>“The question is less where unions stand on AI or other forms of technology, and more how they organize to resist the unsafe and unethical use of automation at work,” he told <em>Truthout</em>. “Unions need to invest in strategic research and organizing to support workers most likely to be negatively impacted by employers’ adoption of AI-powered technology — both at work, and in building political power sufficient to prevent the unethical and unsafe use of new technology. Beyond just regulating AI, unions should push for full employment and/or universal income policies to mitigate the disruptions to people’s lives that AI-related layoffs are already having.”</p> <p>These sentiments were echoed by Vishal Reddy, a union negotiator for nursing home workers and the executive director of <a href="https://workfour.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">WorkFour</a>.</p> <p>“Unions at the local, international, and federation levels need to put real money and organizing capacity into figuring out which affirmative AI-related demands — four-day workweek, UBI [universal basic income], AI dividends, and so on — actually resonate with a wide swath of workers,” he told <em>Truthout</em>. “Just like in bargaining, we want to know which affirmative policy would be most deeply and widely felt, so we can prioritize it in the fights ahead, including May Day 2028.”</p> <p>“That means cross-union convenings, issue campaigns, commissioned polling and research, and real resourcing behind the bargaining fights where these policies are already surfacing,” Reddy added. “For example, if a fight over a 32-hour workweek is on the table somewhere, that’s exactly where the labor movement should be throwing its weight.”</p> <p>This <a target="_blank" href="https://therealnews.com/labor-movement-ai">article</a> first appeared on <a target="_blank" href="https://therealnews.com">The Real News Network</a> and is republished here under a <a target="_blank" href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License</a>.<img src="https://i0.wp.com/therealnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/cropped-TRNN-2021-logomark-square.png?resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1" style="width:1em;height:1em;margin-left:10px;"></p> <img id="republication-tracker-tool-source" src="https://therealnews.com/?republication-pixel=true&post=345583&amp;ga4=G-7LYS8R7V51" style="width:1px;height:1px;"><script> PARSELY = { autotrack: false, onload: function() { PARSELY.beacon.trackPageView({ url: "https://therealnews.com/labor-movement-ai", urlref: window.location.href }); } } </script> <script id="parsely-cfg" src="//cdn.parsely.com/keys/therealnews.com/p.js"></script> Copy to Clipboard

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_This story originally appeared inPrism on July 27, 2026._ Hundreds of noncitizens detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have gone on hunger strikes across the country to protest the widespread denial of due process and deteriorating conditions in detention centers during the Trump administration, according to advocates and detainees. Conditions in ICE detention facilities have never been good, typically prompting around a dozen hunger strikes a year, said Josefina Mora-Cheung, director of organizing at La Resistencia, a grassroots organization that supports detainees at the Northwest ICE Processing Center (NWPIC) in Tacoma, Washington. Last year, La Resistencia documented 16 such protests, mostly carried out by single detainees. But this year, the group has already documented 18 hunger strikes involving about 25 individuals at NWPIC, the most recent of which ended July 20. “This year we’ve seen such a skyrocketing of numbers that indicates how much people are willing to put their lives at risk in order to call attention to these conditions that are ultimately life-threatening for people,” Mora-Cheung said. “People are not willing to give up so easily or to have their spirits broken.” Hunger strikes in ICE jails have also been reported at Adelanto ICE Processing Center in California; North Lake Processing Center in Michigan; Moshannon Valley Processing Center in Pennsylvania; Prairieland Detention Center and Camp East Montana in Texas; Torrance County Detention Facility in New Mexico; the ICE unit at the Louisiana State Penitentiary or “Angola”; and Delaney Hall in New Jersey. About 500 noncitizens have reportedly joined the strikes. Advocates say there have likely been more hunger strikes across the 425 jails administered by ICE and its network of private contractors, but the agency denies they are taking place and, according to the advocates, quickly tries to break them up through threats or coercion. ICE did not respond to a request for comment. Detainees complain about inhumane conditions—including unsanitary food and water, lack of medical care, widespread physical abuse, and retaliation for filing complaints—along with racist abuse and a complete absence of justice and due process. Take the case of Rogelio Bolufé Izquierdo, a Cuban national who has gone on multiple hunger strikes, including one that lasted nine days in Torrance. Initially sent to the notorious “Alligator Alcatraz” in Florida, Bolufé was transferred nine times in retaliation for his organizing, according to La Resistencia. Bolufé spoke with Prism over the phone from Guayaquil, Ecuador, where he was deported in June despite having an open asylum case and a pending appeal before an immigration court. **GET FEARLESS, AD-FREE, UNCOMPROMISING REAL NEWS IN YOUR INBOX** Sign up He claimed that detainees are denied access to legal counsel at the Torrance ICE jail and very likely at the other jails where he’d been detained. He also claimed that his legal court documents were taken from him and that facilities do not provide mail service, which is the only way detainees can follow their deportation proceedings or request asylum. “That was one of the main reasons we went on hunger strike,” Bolufé said. “The legal proceedings do not follow due process. They are a farce,” he added. “The Fifth Amendment does not exist in U.S. immigration proceedings.” Torturous conditions in ICE jails have been well-documented by advocacy groups over the past two decades. These conditions have not only persisted during the current Trump administration but have worsened, according to advocates. At least 52 people have died in ICE custody since President Donald Trump’s inauguration last year. According to Human Rights Watch, this mortality rate is nearly four times that of the Biden administration and more than two and a half times that of the first Trump administration. In the largest documented hunger strike of the year, at Delaney Hall in New Jersey, more than 300 men and women participated in a weekslong labor and hunger strike that ended in June. They denounced degrading conditions and a lack of due process, including arbitrary denials of bond and coercion to sign legal documents that would result in deportation. “We see with profound helplessness and frustration that the right to due process & legal counsel were violated, and benefits granted in the 4th, 5th, and 6th Amendments of the U.S. Constitution were unacknowledged,” wrote 25 of the Delaney Hall hunger strikers in a public letter. The author, identified as Leonardo Villalba, was summarily transferred to another ICE jail, according to the letter’s postscript. ICE could not simply deny that the massive hunger strike at Delaney Hall was happening, so agents resorted to violence, said Jenny García, a campaign coordinator at the nonprofit American Friends Service Committee’s New Jersey Immigrant Rights Program. ICE officers cut off the detainees’ external communication, repeatedly threatened to sabotage their cases, and brutally assaulted and pepper-sprayed them, García said. Hunger strikers at Torrance were stripped naked and sent to cold cells, where they were exposed to 24-hour lighting, according to Bolufé, who spent seven months in that prison. Innovation Law Lab, an immigrant and refugee justice organization, has documented these cold chambers at Torrance, calling them torture. At some point during his strike, Bolufé said he asked himself, “Why should I go on if it makes no sense? No one will find out. It’s a lawless situation; the law isn’t respected here, no one will know.” Despite the odds, strikes have brought individual victories: answers about cases from ICE officials, release from solitary confinement, and release from detention altogether at NWPIC and Delaney Hall, which also secured $12 million in pro bono legal services, said Mora-Cheung. “This is strong,” García said about the ability of detainees to organize and encourage one another amid the horrific and inhumane conditions in which they are confined. “What’s happening inside is the best of humanity.” _Editorial Team:_ _Sahar Fatima, Lead Editor_ _Lara Witt,_ _Top Editor_ _Rashmee Kumar, Copy Editor_ TRNN — Support Independent Journalism The Real News Network Independent · Nonprofit · Nonpartisan ## The journalism that _refuses_ to be bought. Funded by people like you. TRNN produces fearless, fact-based reporting on the stories that matter — the ones corporate media ignores, minimizes, or gets wrong. No paywalls. No advertisers. No billionaire owners. Just the truth, sustained by viewers like you. Workers & Labor Rights U.S. Politics & Democracy Palestine & Global Justice Economic Inequality Media Accountability Make a donation Monthly One-time Yearly $10 $25 $50 $100 $250 $500 $ Donate Now → Tax-deductible · Secure · Cancel anytime The Real News Network is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. 100% Viewer Supported $0 Corporate Funding 20+ Years of Independent Journalism **Every dollar you give** goes directly toward the reporting corporate media won't do. ### _Related_ Republish This Story Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license. Close window ## Republish this article This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. We encourage republication of our original content. Please copy the HTML code in the textbox below, preserving the attribution and link to the article's original location, and only make minor cosmetic edits to the content on your site. # Hunger strikes are spreading in ICE jails amid widespread due process violations, advocates say by Maurizio Guerrero, The Real News Network August 3, 2026 <h1>Hunger strikes are spreading in ICE jails amid widespread due process violations, advocates say</h1> <p class="byline">by Maurizio Guerrero, The Real News Network <br />August 3, 2026</p> <div class="wp-block-media-text is-stacked-on-mobile" style="grid-template-columns:20% auto"> <figure class="wp-block-media-text__media"><img src="https://therealnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/PRISMlogo-sized.png" alt="" class="wp-image-293467 size-full" /></figure> <div class="wp-block-media-text__content"> <p><em>This story originally appeared in <a href="https://prismreports.org/2026/07/27/hunger-strikes-ice-detention-centers/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Prism</a> on July 27, 2026.</em></p> </p></div> </div> <p class="has-drop-cap">Hundreds of noncitizens detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have gone on hunger strikes across the country to protest the widespread denial of due process and deteriorating conditions in detention centers during the Trump administration, according to advocates and detainees.</p> <p>Conditions in ICE detention facilities have never been good, typically prompting around a dozen hunger strikes a year, said Josefina Mora-Cheung, director of organizing at <a href="https://laresistencianw.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">La Resistencia</a>, a grassroots organization that supports detainees at the <a href="https://prismreports.org/2026/02/16/ice-detainees-detention-centers/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Northwest ICE Processing Center (NWPIC)</a> in Tacoma, Washington. Last year, La Resistencia documented 16 such protests, mostly carried out by single detainees. But this year, the group has already documented 18 hunger strikes involving about 25 individuals at NWPIC, the most recent of which ended July 20. </p> <p>“This year we’ve seen such a skyrocketing of numbers that indicates how much people are willing to put their lives at risk in order to call attention to these conditions that are ultimately life-threatening for people,” Mora-Cheung said. “People are not willing to give up so easily or to have their spirits broken.”</p> <p><a href="https://stateline.org/2026/05/29/migrants-detained-at-ice-facilities-launch-hunger-strikes-to-protest-conditions/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Hunger strikes</a> in ICE jails have also been<a href="https://popularresistance.org/around-500-people-are-on-hunger-strike-at-five-ice-detention-centers/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"> reported</a> at Adelanto ICE Processing Center in California; North Lake Processing Center in Michigan; Moshannon Valley Processing Center in Pennsylvania; Prairieland Detention Center and Camp East Montana in Texas; Torrance County Detention Facility in New Mexico; the ICE unit at the <a href="https://prismreports.org/2026/04/06/immigrants-complain-of-poor-conditions-in-notorious-unit-at-angola-prison/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Louisiana State Penitentiary</a> or “Angola”; and <a href="https://prismreports.org/2026/05/28/delaney-hall-protests-hunger-strike/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Delaney Hall</a> in New Jersey.<a href="https://popularresistance.org/around-500-people-are-on-hunger-strike-at-five-ice-detention-centers/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"> About 500</a> noncitizens have reportedly joined the strikes.</p> <p>Advocates say there have likely been more hunger strikes across the<a href="https://www.vera.org/ice-detention-trends" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"> 425 jails</a> administered by ICE and its network of private contractors, but the<a href="https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/delaney-hall-hunger-strike-protests/6506125/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"> agency denies</a> they are taking place and, according to the advocates, quickly tries to break them up through threats or coercion. </p> <p>ICE did not respond to a request for comment. </p> <p><a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2026/06/03/new-jersey-hunger-strikers-allege-abysmal-detention-conditions" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Detainees complain</a> about<a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2026/06/us-turk-alarmed-deaths-ice-custody-calls-urgent-preventive-action" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"> inhumane conditions</a>—including unsanitary food and water, lack of medical care, widespread physical abuse, and retaliation for filing complaints—<a href="https://www.detentionwatchnetwork.org/pressroom/releases/2026/hunger-strikes-ice-detention-are-ramping-up-coast-coast" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">along with</a> racist abuse and a complete absence<a href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2026/06/1167816" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"> of justice</a> and due process.</p> <p>Take<a href="https://popularresistance.org/around-500-people-are-on-hunger-strike-at-five-ice-detention-centers/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"> the case</a> of Rogelio Bolufé Izquierdo, a Cuban national who has gone on multiple hunger strikes, including one that lasted nine days in Torrance. Initially sent to the notorious <a href="https://prismreports.org/2026/06/25/after-detainees-relocated-from-alligator-alcatraz-environmental-group-presses-forward/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">“Alligator Alcatraz”</a> in Florida, Bolufé was transferred nine times in retaliation for his organizing, according to La Resistencia.</p> <p>Bolufé spoke with Prism over the phone from Guayaquil, Ecuador, where he was deported in June despite having an open asylum case and a pending appeal before an immigration court.</p> <p>He claimed that detainees are denied access to legal counsel at the Torrance ICE jail and very likely at the other jails where he’d been detained. He also claimed that his legal court documents were taken from him and that facilities do not provide mail service, which is the only way detainees can follow their deportation proceedings or request asylum. </p> <p>“That was one of the main reasons we went on hunger strike,” Bolufé said.</p> <p>“The legal proceedings do not follow due process. They are a farce,” he added. “The Fifth Amendment does not exist in U.S. immigration proceedings.”</p> <p><a href="https://phr.org/our-work/resources/mutlimedia-behind-closed-doors/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Torturous conditions</a> in ICE jails have been<a href="https://www.hrw.org/report/2026/07/15/youre-only-getting-out-deported-or-dead/abusive-us-immigration-detention-at-ft" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"> well-documented</a> by advocacy groups over the past two decades. These conditions have not only persisted during the current Trump administration but have worsened, according to advocates.</p> <p>At least 52 people<a href="https://www.hrw.org/report/2026/06/25/dying-in-detention/rising-deaths-in-an-expanding-us-immigration-detention-system" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"> have died</a> in ICE custody since President Donald Trump’s inauguration last year.<a href="https://www.hrw.org/report/2026/06/25/dying-in-detention/rising-deaths-in-an-expanding-us-immigration-detention-system" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"> According to</a> Human Rights Watch, this mortality rate is nearly four times that of the Biden administration and more than two and a half times that of the first Trump administration.</p> <p>In the largest documented hunger strike of the year, at Delaney Hall in New Jersey, more than 300 men and women participated in a weekslong labor and hunger strike that ended<a href="https://jerseyvindicator.org/2026/06/25/delaney-hall-hunger-and-labor-strike-ended-after-weeks-of-protests-and-alleged-retaliation/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"> in June</a>. They denounced<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/10/nyregion/delaney-hall-ice-conditions-unsanitary.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"> degrading conditions</a> and a lack of due process, including arbitrary denials of bond and coercion to sign legal documents that would result in deportation.</p> <p>“We see with profound helplessness and frustration that the right to due process & legal counsel were violated, and benefits granted in the 4th, 5th, and 6th Amendments of the U.S. Constitution were unacknowledged,” wrote 25 of the Delaney Hall hunger strikers in a<a href="https://www.lahuelga.com/elgrito" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"> public letter</a>. The author, identified as Leonardo Villalba, was summarily transferred to another ICE jail, according to the letter’s postscript.</p> <p>ICE could not simply deny that the massive hunger strike at Delaney Hall was happening, so agents resorted to violence, said Jenny García, a campaign coordinator at the nonprofit American Friends Service Committee’s New Jersey Immigrant Rights Program. ICE officers cut off the detainees’ external communication, repeatedly threatened to sabotage their cases, and brutally assaulted and pepper-sprayed them, García said.</p> <p>Hunger strikers at Torrance were stripped naked and sent to cold cells, where they were exposed to 24-hour lighting, according to Bolufé, who spent seven months in that prison. Innovation Law Lab, an immigrant and refugee justice organization, has documented these<a href="https://prismreports.org/2023/06/15/torture-rampant-ice-facilities/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"> cold chambers</a> at Torrance, calling them<a href="https://innovationlawlab.org/sites/default/files/2026-02/2023.02.15-Torrance-Report.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"> torture</a>.</p> <p>At some point during his strike, Bolufé said he asked himself, “Why should I go on if it makes no sense? No one will find out. It’s a lawless situation; the law isn’t respected here, no one will know.”</p> <p>Despite the odds, strikes have brought individual victories: answers about cases from ICE officials, release from solitary confinement, and release from detention altogether at NWPIC and <a href="https://ndlon.org/women-detainees-continue-strike-as-ice-escalates-transfers-at-delaney-hall/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Delaney Hall</a>, which also secured $12 million in pro bono legal services, said Mora-Cheung.</p> <p>“This is strong,” García said about the ability of detainees to organize and encourage one another amid the horrific and inhumane conditions in which they are confined. “What’s happening inside is the best of humanity.”</p> <p><em>Editorial Team:</em><br /><em>Sahar Fatima, Lead Editor</em><br /><em>Lara Witt,</em> <em>Top Editor</em><br /><em>Rashmee Kumar, Copy Editor</em></p> <p>This <a target="_blank" href="https://therealnews.com/hunger-strikes-are-spreading-in-ice-jails-amid-widespread-due-process-violations-advocates-say">article</a> first appeared on <a target="_blank" href="https://therealnews.com">The Real News Network</a> and is republished here under a <a target="_blank" href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License</a>.<img src="https://i0.wp.com/therealnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/cropped-TRNN-2021-logomark-square.png?resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1" style="width:1em;height:1em;margin-left:10px;"></p> <img id="republication-tracker-tool-source" src="https://therealnews.com/?republication-pixel=true&post=345561&amp;ga4=G-7LYS8R7V51" style="width:1px;height:1px;"><script> PARSELY = { autotrack: false, onload: function() { PARSELY.beacon.trackPageView({ url: "https://therealnews.com/hunger-strikes-are-spreading-in-ice-jails-amid-widespread-due-process-violations-advocates-say", urlref: window.location.href }); } } </script> <script id="parsely-cfg" src="//cdn.parsely.com/keys/therealnews.com/p.js"></script> Copy to Clipboard 1