A crowd gathered in Harrisonburg on Friday evening to hold a vigil for people killed by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. WMRA's Randi B. Hagi reports.
[Crowd singing "Lord, listen to your children praying"]
People filled the courthouse's southern lawn down to the sidewalk, singing in remembrance of Renee Good, three others shot and killed by federal immigration officers in recent months, and 32 people who died in ICE custody last year. One of Friday's speakers read out each of their names and attendees responded with the Spanish word for "present."
SPEAKER: Silverio Villegas Gonzalez.
CROWD: Presente.
Paloma Saucedo, a longtime immigrant rights activist, told those gathered to trust their eyes.
PALOMA SAUCEDO: Renee Good, a Minneapolis mother of three, did not die in a tragic accident. We're not here because of a tragedy. … We are here because we are being murdered by ICE. There is no official statement, no carefully worded, reedited press release, no retold, reconstructed narrative that can wash away her blood or the blood of the countless others killed or disappeared by this system.
Another speaker, Jeremy Aldrich, told WMRA after the vigil that Harrisonburg is a community where people show up for one another.
JEREMY ALDRICH: There's a real sense of fear, powerlessness, hurt, and grief, and so we came together tonight to share that, to be present with each other, and to explore ways to turn our grief into something hopeful.
According to NPR, this vigil was one of more than a thousand events held across the country this weekend, protesting ICE in the wake of Renee Good's killing in Minneapolis.
