An anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement protest and vigil for those killed by enforcement agents was hosted by the North Central Florida Indivisible group in front of Gainesville City Hall July 25.
Over 20 protesters stood in front of City Hall from 6 to 8 p.m., waving a variety of posters and flags with anti-ICE remarks and names of fallen civilians.
The names included the recent Maine and Texas deaths of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo and Joan Sebastian Duran Guerrero, as well as the January deaths of Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti.
Participants included older veterans and local Gainesville and Newberry members calling for change from local and national representatives.
The protest comes after the city’s July 16 decision to delay a community initiative by the Gainesville Immigrant Neighbor Inclusion Initiative to publicly denounce ICE and share its commitment to policy that would defend and protect immigrants, residents and neighbors.
Among signs bearing ICE victims' names and state death counts, a poster circulated by organizers listed offices with elections this year. Organizers asked participants to sign their name beneath a pledge to call their representatives and urge for a policy that would halt the migrant death toll.
NCF Indivisible Executive Director Jyoti Parmar said the protest was not directly tied to the city commission's decision to postpone the petition, instead reflecting a broader frustration with elected officials she said are avoiding the issue.
“We were compelled to act and show up in this space because we cannot leave these deaths unmarked, unmentioned and unacknowledged, " Parmar said.
Parmar said the event aimed to encourage attendees to press elected officials directly for answers rather than to prompt an official response from the city itself.
"Our question for all of them is: You seek to represent us. How are you going to defend us?” she said. “I want to know specific things you're going to do to keep us safe as your constituents, just as human beings in this community."
Parmar said local officials have chosen to lower their profile on the issue to avoid backlash, a stance she called a form of “privilege and luxury in sitting behind a podium.”
"We are not all activists or loud or even comfortable or well informed about all of the things that go into these policies, but we have a right to be safe and feel safe in the community," she said. "We shouldn't have to duck and hide while trying to take care of our families."
Amy Schwarzer, a member of the NCF Indivisible Leadership Team, helped organize the protest and vigil. She said the demonstration's purpose was to push attendees to demand answers from officials at every level of government.
"We don't necessarily expect them to respond to the protest itself,” Schwarzer said. “Part of the goal of this event is to get the people who are attending this event to then go to … other elected officials on other levels and demand answers as to what they're going to do to protect immigrants and other vulnerable communities."
Schwarzer said recent ICE-related deaths the past weeks were alarming and reflected overpolicing in America.
"It's outrageous," she said. "There are American citizens who die every day from police violence that are unarmed and innocent … We are now expanding that to our immigrant friends and neighbors."
More than 50 people have died in ICE detention nationwide, she said, citing cases like those of Salgado Araujo, Duran Guerrero and Juan Jairo Coronilla Duran.
Gainesville still has progress to make in minority representation in local government, she added.
"Gainesville and Alachua County have a long history of racist politics," she said. "[There are] artifact[s] of segregation, and I think we still have a long way to go to get to where we are treating all of our citizens with dignity and equality."
Historical records and community support groups support this claim, indicating income disparity and consequences of Jim Crow-era policies are still prevalent in East Gainesville, an area home to predominantly Black neighborhoods like Pleasant Street.
Some of the signs held by protesters featured pointed imagery and wordplay. One read "Crush ICE" alongside an image of an ice machine.
Maggie MacDonald, an 81-year-old Alachua County resident and member of the Badass Feminists Gainesville group, held the sign.
MacDonald said she felt shocked, horrified, disgusted and drained by the latest deaths related to immigration enforcement.
"How stupid… that they are [not] preventing and doing horrible things to immigrants when they are the lifeblood of our country?" MacDonald said.
She pointed to her teaching career at an Ohio university, which showed her how essential international students have been to American universities and the country's intellectual life.
"The lifeblood of the intellectual community in the United States has arrived through students coming from all over the world, the best and the brightest, going through American universities, staying in the country and enriching it in so many ways," she said.
The Badass Feminists Gainesville group began as an informal gathering protesting Tesla over Elon Musk's role in the Department of Government Efficiency, MacDonald said, and the group has since broadened its focus to many forms of government inefficiencies.
"It's really the best [we] can do — protest and write letters, and that's about it," she said.
An upside-down American flag fluttered above the group. It was carried by Robert Mounts, a retired U.S. Air Force Judge Advocate General attorney and UF class of 1984 law alumnus.
The inverted flag was meant to send a message of despair rather than disrespect, he said.
"The Navy has used it as a sign of distress, and I do believe our country is in great distress right now because of its leadership and because of the cruelty that's going on with ICE," Mounts said.
Mounts served on the Alachua County Democratic Executive Committee for eight years, he said, and he’s now supporting David Jolly's campaign for Florida governor. The Democratic candidate has advocated for removing detention centers and restricting ICE agents and their tactics.
He said he wants more people to continue denouncing ICE and protesting inaction.
"I wish that there's 300 [protesters] here and not 30," he said. "We need to grow this movement, and we need to stop the cruelty."
The city of Gainesville has not yet set a date to revisit the anti-ICE proposal. Alachua County is scheduled to take up a similar measure at its Aug. 11 meeting.
Contact Aaron Zagal Yaji at azagal@alligator.org. Follow him on X @azagalyaji.
Aaron Zagal Yaji is a Public Relations and Economics freshman in his first semester at The Alligator. He covers El Caimán's metro beat. In his free time, he enjoys going to the beach (or reminiscing about it), cooking Peruvian food, and squandering his money on golden shiny things.
