The Pitt Cast on ICE

I’m hardly alone in my obsession with The Pitt, as the HBO Max medical drama has quickly become the new gold standard for quality television. Still, when I first saw ICE agents enter the emergency department in Hour 11, I was shaken by it. I felt an urgent need to talk to someone about the episode, which resonated with me for two big reasons: the first is that I first saw it only two days after the fatal shooting of ICU nurse Alex Pretti by ICE agents in Minneapolis. I was covering Sundance Film Festival 2026 at the time, and the first person I could talk to candidly about The Pitt turned out to be Isa Briones, who plays Dr. Trinity Santos, who was at the festival to see a friend’s film, and told me that the ICE plotline was important to everyone involved in the show. The other reason that the story jumped out at me is that, as an entertainment journalist, I’ve had the privilege of getting to know Emmy and Golden Globe-winner Noah Wyle, and last February, I texted him to suggest such a plotline. I’ve since had a chance to talk to Wyle about it, as well as speaking with Fiona Dourif, Shabana Azeez, Ned Brower, Josell Mariano and Ramona DuBarry.

“You were hitting the nail on the head as we all looked into a crystal ball and tried to see where the country was gonna be ten months later,” Wyle says. The producers and writing team received feedback from numerous people who felt this topic needed to be covered, and they landed on this week’s story: Fear ripples through Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center as two ICE agents, Correa and Russo, bring in Pranita, an undocumented woman who was injured during a raid on the restaurant where she works. Patients leave without being seen, and several staff members — including five nurses — walk out mid-shift. When nurse Jesse Van Horn steps between the agents and Pranita, the situation quickly escalates and Jesse is taken away in handcuffs. For Brower, the actor who plays Jesse Van Horn, the storyline was a big deal. “It felt like we were making something important, new and timely,” Brower says, grateful to have been a part of the story. Brower is a triple threat: actor, real-life emergency nurse and musician (his new band dropped two singles from their self-titled debut album, Bloodwerk, this week), and he notes that The Pitt often uses its setting as a way to reflect the world outside the hospital doors. “It’s an opportunity for us to sort of turn the mirror back on society and show these real-life issues,” Brower says. The decision for Jesse to be the character to intervene felt true to the character for Brower, who describes the character as “a tough guy” and “kind of punk rock,” the kind of person who would put himself on the line to protect a patient. 

Dourif, who plays Pranita’s doctor, Cassie McKay, remembers the atmosphere on set. “It felt harrowing,” Dourif says. The emotional tension was hard to shake. “The whole thing felt deeply uncomfortable — Difficult, wrong and complicated,” Dourif says. Part of that realism comes from how The Pitt is made. The production shoots quickly — often eight or nine pages a day — and the hospital set is designed to feel fully authentic. “You walk through these doors, and you feel like you’re in a hospital,” Dourif says. “There’s a ceiling, there’s no breakaway walls. Every drawer has actual medical equipment in it…It just feels like you’re in the circumstance.” 

For Azeez, who plays Dr. Victoria Javadi, the storyline intersects with a broader arc for her character. “There’s a big storyline about social media this season for Javadi,” Azeez says. “She’s the youngest woman on the team, very Gen Z, and people might dismiss her as just this young girl on TikTok.” But Azeez sees those qualities as part of the character’s strength rather than a weakness. “I really wanted to show that those younger qualities don’t negate her intelligence… They’re positive characteristics.” When Javadi reaches for her phone to record the incident, it’s the Gen Z-er in her springing into action. “The way we do activism between generations is so different. And it’s all good… We’re just doing what we can with the tools that we have.”

For guest stars DuBarry, Alexander and Mariano, this was an opportunity to be part of the most celebrated drama on television, in a storyline that had personal impact. “I was very honored to have this role, and to be able to just demonstrate the nonsense of it all,” DuBarry says of playing Pranita  “The second that I got it and I read the (script) sides, I was already taken in by this character, and I just fell right into it,” DuBarry says. When DuBarry got the call offering her the role, “I am a US citizen, but still, I will not lie — I’ve traveled around with my passport just in case,” DuBarry says. For Alexander and Mariano, the roles of agents Correa and Russo came with some misgivings. “Playing an ICE agent, had it not been The Pitt, I probably would have turned it down,” Alexander says, while his counterpart shared those feelings. “When I saw “ICE Agent,’’ I was like, ‘Oh God, how am I gonna explain this to all my friends,’” Mariano says. “I’m from San Diego, right next to the border. Mostly everybody that I grew up with were immigrants.”

As part of the writer’s room, Wyle notes that much thought was put into avoiding sensationalizing the storyline, and he felt good about how the show handled the subject when the episode was made. “We all weighed the significance of what we were doing with this storyline,” Wyle says. The sense of confidence in where they landed with it was shaken in January, and the story took on a whole new urgency with the fatal shootings of Pretti and Renée Good, as well as the shooting of Julio Cesar Sosa‑Celis. “It almost seems disproportionate the other way,” Wyle says somberly. “I’m too close to it to be objective about where it could have been, should have been, needs to be. But I’m glad we addressed it, and I’m glad that it’s got resonance. I think it’s a super important topic to talk about.”

As the remaining four episodes of The Pitt premiere throughout March and April, there’s plenty of pulse-pounding drama left to see, and even now, after ICE has pulled out of Minneapolis, the real-life drama isn’t over.

Read more coverage of The Pitt:
Patience is A Virtue For Ernest Harden Jr, and There’s Virtue in Patients
Noah Wyle’s Direct Approach to The Pitt Season Two