Community vigil honors lives lost to ICE

The evening of Jan. 29 was cold, but inside Virginia-Highland Church, the sanctuary was warm with candles and the bodies of hundreds of mourners. The community vigil brought together faith leaders, activist organizations, and families of detainees to honor the lives lost to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) violence and detention.

While the vigil honored the deaths of Alex Pretti, Renee Good, and Keith Porter, the three U.S. citizens who have been murdered by ICE agents since New Year’s Eve, the community also mourned the lives lost while in ICE custody, as well as the lives and families currently impacted by ICE detention.

The vigil included an ofrenda – a traditional Mexican altar to honor the dead – created by Li An Sanchez of Community Estrella, live paintings of Pretti and Porter by Arie Parker, musical performances by RŸL Heatherly and nYk p from the Qindred Qoalition.

Speakers from Park Avenue Baptist Church, Virginia-Highland Church, Community Estrella, Black Lives Matter Grassroots East Atlanta-DeKalb, and El Refugio grieved the dead, advocated for a future free of state violence against both immigrants and citizens, and encouraged attendees to keep fighting.   

“Resistance is justified, because when we are under the weight of oppressive systems, and we don’t have the ability to rely on the systems that are supposed to protect us, that are supposed to put things in check, we must resist,” Rev. Keyanna Moore of Park Avenue Baptist Church said. “Resistance is always justified. If you are angry, feel that and resist. If you are tired, feel that and still resist. If you are confused, feel that and resist.”

“Enough immigration prisons,” Sanchez said. “We don’t need more detention centers. We need to shut them down and build holistic health, healing, art, and community spaces.” 

Other speakers included the families of Rodney Taylor and Godfrey Wade, two Georgians who are currently detained by ICE. Christian Wade and April Watkins, Wade’s daughter and fiancée, recalled the day they went to visit him in Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, GA, and received the news upon their arrival that Wade had been moved to a facility in Louisiana – with no communication whatsoever. During Winter Storm Fern, the detention center lost water access for 48 hours, leaving detainees like Wade with no drinkable water, showers, or toilets.

Mildred Pierre, Taylor’s wife, described similarly harrowing conditions. Taylor, who is currently held at Stewart Detention Center, is a double amputee and has been placed in solitary confinement, received inadequate medical care for his prosthetics, and was forced to crawl to showers that were “filthy, full of human feces, bodily fluids, you name it.”

Related story: ‘Prisontown’ explores impact of ICE detention center on Lumpkin, GA

“We gather today because we believe in a different future,” Pierre said, “a future where no disabled person is thrown into solitary confinement, a future where medical care is treated as a human right, not a privilege, a future where immigration enforcement does not function as a death sentence, a future where families are not torn apart and left begging for basic compassion from elected leaders.” 

Pierre and Watkins both described the anxiety of constantly fearing the news that their partners had been deported – or died.

Both Wade’s and Taylor’s families have GoFundMe pages to raise money for legal and life expenses, and Wade’s family are asking for signatures on their petition to grant Wade an immigration hearing. Wade failed to show up to his immigration hearing in 2014 because the notice was mailed to the incorrect address.

Related stories:
• ‘ICE Out Everywhere’ protests, walkouts planned this weekend
• Students in metro Atlanta protest ICE crackdown and Minneapolis killings

Thursday’s vigil was organized by 50501 Georgia, Black Lives Matter Grassroots, Community Deeply Rooted, Community Estrella, Georgia Equality, Qindred Qoalition, Say Their Names Monuments, Virginia-Highland Church, and El Refugio. Noël Heatherland, the Statewide Organizing Manager at Georgia Equality, urges people to donate to El Refugio, an organization that accompanies and supports immigrants at Stewart Detention Center and their loved ones.