At uptown vigil, protesters condemn ICE killings, planned NC detention facility
Uptown’s First Ward Park became a scene of resistance Saturday evening when about 75 people gathered to mourn two men who were fatally shot by ICE this month.
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Volunteers passed out candles and colorful flowers as attendees glanced at signs that read “Stand With Immigrants” and “Abolish ICE”
Speakers at the vigil called for local and state leaders to condemn the killings, and expressed their opposition to the development of a new ICE detention facility in rural North Carolina.
The vigil was organized by three activist groups — Indivisible CLT, Carolina Migrant Network and 50501.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents shot and killed Lorenzo Salgado Araujo and Johan Sebastian Duran Guerrero during separate traffic stops in Texas and Maine this month.
Salgado Araujo was from Mexico and Duran Guerrero was from Colombia. Both men were not the target of ICE enforcement operations.
“These are not accidents,” immigration attorney Jamiliah Espinosa said. “They are the predictable result of a system that moves too fast and answers to no one.”
Carolina Migrant Network founder Stefanía Arteaga read a list of demands from protest leaders in Texas and Maine, including a transparent investigation into the killings and the release of Salgado Araujo’s three passengers, who were detained by ICE.
“These are the stories that haunt us, but these are also the stories that give us strength to push forward,” Arteaga said.
Arteaga also called on local and state authorities to end their partnerships in ICE enforcement programs.
Mecklenburg County Sheriff Gary McFadden ended the department’s partnership with ICE in 2018, but 10 Charlotte-area sheriff’s deputies still work with the federal agency.
Those who spoke also condemned an ICE detention center set to open in Hertford County, about 280 miles north of Charlotte along the Virginia border.
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The 1,400-bed facility will be located at the former Rivers Correctional Institute, a for-profit prison that closed in 2021. It will be the first ICE detention facility in North Carolina.
Espinosa said the detention facility’s rural location will put a stranglehold on transparency and communication.
“A detention center 3½ hours from [Charlotte] means a mother that lives here cannot see her children,” she said. “It means a detainee cannot see their attorney. It means when someone dies, we find out weeks later through a press release.”
The detention center has been opposed by North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein, who had no role in approving it since the prison is not state owned.
Megan Argabrite, pastor at Amity Presbyterian Church in Charlotte, said local lawmakers should fight the planned detention facility.
“Every community deserves safety, and to know that power will be exercised with justice and mercy as North Carolina considers opening this immigration detention center,” Argabrite said.
At least 23 people have been shot by ICE agents since President Donald Trump began his second term, according to a New York Times investigation. Six people, including three U.S. citizens, have been killed.
Arteaga read a list with the names, ages and home countries of all 23 people killed.
The ceremony concluded with attendees placing flowers and candles on a table with photos of the two men who were killed.
A choir sang “This Little Light of Mine” as people solemnly walked away.
“We’re still coming out, and we’re still here,” Arteaga said. “We’re still being kind to each other, which is what they won’t want us to do.”
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