A vigil for two men shot dead by immigration agents during separate traffic stops spilled onto Michigan Avenue on Saturday, sending hundreds marching downtown in the latest public rebuke of the Trump administration’s intensified immigration enforcement.
Protesters gathered in Grant Park around 11 a.m. to mourn Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a Mexican father killed by immigration agents in Houston on July 7, and Joan Sebastian Guerrero, a 25-year-old Colombian father killed during an immigration operation in Maine days later.
“Remember the dead and demand the kind of world where we never would have lost them in the first place,” the Rev. Hannah Kardon, pastor of United Church of Rogers Park, told the crowd. “We will not forget them, and we will live differently because of them.”
Organized by four Chicago advocacy groups, the vigil called for an end to violence. Though the Department of Homeland Security last week ordered agents to pause most vehicle stops, organizers said reports of immigration raids continue to fuel fear and uncertainty throughout immigrant communities.
ICE and Border Patrol agents have fatally shot 11 people since President Trump’s second term began, according to publicly available reports, and more than 50 others have died in ICE custody, according to the National Immigrant Justice Center. On Saturday, volunteers held more than 60 signs bearing the names of the dead and the dates of their deaths.
Others carried cardboard monarch butterflies, a colorful symbol associated with the migration journeys of immigrants and refugees. Demonstrators chanted and sang alongside Singing Resistance Chicago, a local chapter of a national movement that uses public singing to protest immigration policies.
“You come away feeling better instead of just angry,” said Mark Osing, 69. “People have died and it hasn’t stopped people from showing up and protesting these guys.”
Osing, who lives in North Park, said recent immigration enforcement activity in Chicago has turned his frustration into action. He said he intends to keep protesting as long as the Trump administration pursues its mass deportation agenda, hoping each rally brings new faces.
For others in the crowd, the recent killings revived memories of last fall’s Operation Midway Blitz. Several protesters said even now, many immigrant families remain afraid to go to work and send their children to camps and summer school.
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“There’s collective trauma that impacted our communities that no one can understand unless you were here and felt the helicopters and saw the unpredictability of neighbors getting snatched off the streets,” said Melody Rose, 46.
Rose, who lives in Rogers Park, said each new report of immigration enforcement reminds her of the masked federal agents she saw stationed in her neighborhood last year. Saturday’s crowd was comparable to other recent protests in the Chicago area, said Rose, who tries to attend every demonstration she can.
“All of us, especially those who have been directly impacted and seen what that’s like, have to keep showing up and spreading the word because this isn’t over and it could be us any day,” she said.
Ald. Michael Rodriguez, 22nd, said masked federal agents arrested several community members during last year’s immigration enforcement operation in Little Village, including his chief of staff, Elianne Bahena, who was held for more than seven hours before being released. Gesturing toward Bahena in the crowd Saturday, Rodriguez asked demonstrators to remember those who were not as fortunate.
“What about the countless others who will never know home again?,” Rodriguez, who represents the 22nd Ward, asked the crowd. “We want justice, but we grieve. The reason we grieve is because we remember, and the reason we remember is to take action.”
The recent shootings have also reignited debate within the Trump administration over the use of traffic stops in immigration enforcement. Days after the pause on vehicle stops was announced, President Trump took to Truth Social to criticize the directive and call traffic stops one of law enforcement’s most effective crime-fighting tools.
The Department of Homeland Security declined to say whether ICE agents will continue making arrests during traffic stops but confirmed a July 14 arrest of an Ecuadorian national in Chicago’s Austin neighborhood, the Tribune reported. But immigration advocates say the agency has increasingly targeted people traveling to and from county courthouses in Illinois, describing the arrests as part of an effort to meet enforcement quotas.
Saturday’s crowd fell silent as Laura Garza, executive director of Arise Chicago, read aloud the names of those reported to have died at the hands of ICE and Border Patrol agents or while in ICE custody. Morna Brothers and her mother, Melinda Gordon, said they felt a responsibility to honor each victim by showing up.
“With all that’s happening, it’s easy to forget each little piece, but no piece is little when looked at on its own,” said Gordon, 80. “These are people, these are individuals, and I hope [the vigil] awakens some humanity.”
Volunteers handed out chalk around 12 p.m., inviting protesters to write the names of the dead across the sidewalk. Then, signs in hand, demonstrators made their way to the edge of Grant Park and gathered into a line.
The procession stepped onto Michigan Avenue, flanked by police officers on bicycles as several Chicago police vehicles followed behind. The crowd headed toward Trump Tower, passing the Art Institute of Chicago and Millennium Park along the way.
As the march passed through downtown, tourists lining Michigan Avenue applauded and cheered. Some stepped off the sidewalk and fell into line with the demonstrators.
One woman, however, remained rooted to the corner of Michigan Avenue and Jackson Boulevard, watching quietly as tears streamed down her face.
“It’s just moving that people are willing to take time to show people what’s right,” said Jill Gray, 46, who was visiting from Iowa with her family. “It makes me so proud of them and so mad that so much injustice is being done.”