STATEMENT: Almost 500 people gather for a peaceful protest to denounce ICE’s brutality
Carolina Bortolleto
For Immediate Release
Thursday, January 8th, 2025
Contact: Carolina Bortolleto | bortollet...@gmail.com | 203-942-3052
Connecticut holds vigil in response to the ICE murder of Renee Nicole Good and all attacks on immigrants
Almost 500 people gather for a peaceful protest to denounce ICE’s brutality and demand “Stop ICE terror from Connecticut to Minneapolis!”
Hartford, CT- On a cold evening Wednesday, January 8th, almost 500 people from across the state gathered for a vigil and speak-out on the sidewalk in front ICE’s field office at 450 Main Street, Hartford.
Speakers included labor leaders, clergy, migrant community organizers, and CT victims of ICE’s violence speakers voiced one call to action - to come together in community and denounce ICE’s violence in our community.
Evan, CT Civil Liberties Defense Union, “Today, we held a peaceful vigil in front of the federal building where every day our community members are disappeared. We saw what community looks like - labor leaders, clergy, immigrant community members from across the state came together with one clear call - denouncing ICE’s violence in our communities. The tragic loss of Renee Good - a mother, poet, and friend - makes perfectly clear what ICE, DHS, and border patrol are meant to do, they are agencies meant to instill fear in all our communities. But our love for one another and commitment for a better future will protect us. We protect us. We must condemn state violence in Minneapolis and here in Connecticut.”
Tabitha Sookdeo - CT Students for a Dream Executive Director - "We gather not only to mourn, but to refuse the normalization of violence. When our communities are treated as expendable, the people must stand together and demand justice"
Sierra-Marie Gerfao, Connecticut Unitarian Universalist Social Justice Ministery, the Interfaith Family Ministry for Detained Families, and Danbury United for Immigrants “These moments are for grief, these moments include fear, these moments unearth righteous rage. And these moments are calls to community. To action. To coming back to the work more faithful than ever, more certain than ever that fear – while real – is best held not in isolation but in community, where we can meet it with the power of the people, with the courage of the hope we offer one another, and with the demands that come from what we sometimes call in my faith, “a love beyond imagining. We leave tonight not departing in different directions, not really, but moving closer toward one another, moving into the we that keeps us safe, moving together as neighbors into that transformed future that we cannot yet fully imagine but that is a beautiful seed, here and not yet, in need of our care and nurture.”
Mars, member CT Working Families Power, “History tells us we now have two choices: embrace the utter hopelessness and fear they want us to feel, or, organize our communities and workplaces to resist fascism. At a bare minimum, call your local officials and state legislators demanding they implement stronger protections for immigrants against ICE and express how DISGUSTED you are with the shameless lies and brutality of this administration. We must move immigration hearings entirely online and begin holding ICE agents accountable for their criminal behaviors. The Trump administration’s response to what happened in Minneapolis is clear. They want to give ICE agents impunity to freely murder anyone who stands against them, trampling over our civil liberties.”
Juliana Soares, Danbury Unites for Immigrants, “No one is safer when masked men and women stalk our streets. No one is safer when armed officers refuse to identify themselves. No one is safer when families are ripped apart without warrants, without accountability, without consequences. No one is safer when neighbors are treated like enemies. But this is what the unchecked power coming from this administration looks like. And it did not happen overnight. I have watched this escalation happen right here in our state, in Danbury. But history has shown us, over and over again, that silence does not protect us, compliance does not protect us, government overreach and ICE do not protect us, pretending this isn’t happening does not protect us. We protect us! It’s the neighbors showing up for one another like Renee Good did. It’s mutual aid groups. It’s people showing up with with care, with solidarity. Because when we stand together, their masks, intimidation, and lies don’t work. If they can do this to a woman in broad daylight, in front of witnesses, in front of cameras, we have to ask ourselves: What are they doing when no one is watching? Who else is being hurt in silence? And what kind of future are we allowing if we don't speak out”
Julio N - CT Democratic Socialists of America/ CT DSA International Working Group “The brutal murder of Renee Nicole Good shows the depths of sickening violence that ICE has been perpetrating under every administration. The government can keep spewing their lies, but our eyes see the truth: ICE is nothing but masked terrorists who tear families apart and rob children of their parents. We are done begging at press conferences for people to just be treated like human beings. As socialists and DSA members, we will fight for a future that affirms every person’s dignity—no matter their race or national origin. ABOLISH ICE NOW!”
Erna - CT Palestine Solidarity Coalition “It should therefore be no surprise that ice is being used here in the United States not just to ethnically cleanse this country from indigenous people and other immigrants, but against political dissidents as well. During the student intifada Mahmoud Khalil was abducted by ice for simply calling for a ceasefire. Leqaa Kordia is a Palestinian activist from the Colombia student movement who is still in ice detention after 10 months. Ice is not just genocidal, it is a form of political repression, silencing the voices of those who dare to speak up.”
Chelsea-Infinity Gonzalez (she/they) Public Policy and Advocacy Director ACLU CT “Last night Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials shot an unarmed woman to death in broad daylight in a Minnesota neighborhood. This horror is the predictable consequence of the Trump administration encouraging armed, militarized immigration enforcement agents to engage in horrifying abuses with impunity. It is a deliberate policy choice that has fueled fear, abuse, and violence across our country. The ACLU of Connecticut condemns ICE’s violence and abuse in the strongest possible terms and demands our elected leaders refuse to be complicit in it. No one should lose their life because the government chose fear, force, and cruelty over human rights.”
The Rally was endorsed by CT Civil Liberties Defense Committee, ACLU CT, Indivisible CT, 5051CT, National Day Laborer Organizing Network, Hartford Deportation Defense, CT Students for a Dream, Danbury Unites for Immigrants, Teamsters 1150 Pride Caucus, Jewish Voices for Peace, Stamford Norwalk United with Immigrants, CT Democratic Socialists of America, Muslim Justice Center, Hartford Jewish Organizing Collective, Party for Socialism and Liberation, Working Families Power, Workers' Voice CT