Veterans in support of the Tucson VA on Friday, May 2, 2025. Groups like Veterans for Peace say they will be outside of the Tucson VA every Friday morning showing their support for staff.
Activism in Tucson continued Friday morning, following Thursday’s nationwide May Day protests.
Veterans gathered in front of the Tucson VA Medical Center to show support for its workers amid looming layoffs since the Department of Veterans Affairs outlined plans to cut 15% of its workforce.
Alex Maldonado, veteran and organizer with the group Veterans for Peace said that’s too much.
“Those are the people we need right now to answer phones, talk to veterans, talk to us about our appointments, just somebody to talk to,” Maldonado said.
He highlighted concerns about cuts made to services like the Veterans Crisis Line, when veteran suicide is a top issue.
VIEW LARGER Veterans and family members of veterans outside of the Tucson VA on Friday, May 2, 2025. “We need these people that are down here at the starting core level, for them to take care of us,” Maldonado said.
Veterans like Michael Mullen and Cara Bissell echoed support for the Tucson VA, urging people to understand the cost of wars.
“The cost of war, beyond the physical violence that is perpetrated against people, both the enemy and us, the cost of it is sustained afterwards and we need to take care of our veterans,” Mullen said. “It’s important and we’re not suckers and we’re not losers.”
“They’ve increased the military so much and yet they’re decreasing the funding for the VA Health Care System, it just doesn’t make sense,” Bissell said.
VIEW LARGER Henry Trejo outside of the Tucson VA on Friday, May 2, 2025. Trejo, a veteran, says he is supporting VA staff amid potential layoffs agency-wide. Henry Trejo, who is also a veteran said that staff are under a lot of stress because of the uncertainty of losing their jobs.
“They usually treat you real nice here and sometimes they forget to say, ‘Thank you for your service,” he said. “People are so busy trying to do their job so they won’t get in trouble that they sometimes forget to be as courteous as they used to be.”
The group said that starting today, activists will be outside of the VA every Friday morning.
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