Approximately 50 demonstrators gathered in Pasadena on Saturday morning to participate in a national day of remembrance for individuals who have died during immigration enforcement actions and while in detention since early 2025. The vigil, organized by members of the San Gabriel Foothills Indivisible group, brought together community members to honor the lives lost under U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations.

Participants wore laminated photos of 75 people who have died since January 2025, including local resident Roberto Carlos Montoya Valdez. Valdez, 52, was killed last year while attempting to evade immigration agents during a raid at a Home Depot store in Monrovia, California. Other individuals memorialized at the event included Francisco Gaspar-Andrés, who died in a Texas detention center in December 2025, as well as two recent fatalities: Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, 52, shot by an ICE agent in Houston on July 7 while driving his construction crew, and Johan Sebastian Guerrero, 25, fatally shot by an ICE officer during a traffic stop in Maine earlier this month.

The gathering took place at a busy intersection in Pasadena, where organizers Betsy Hanger, Andra Clarke, and others led chants and encouraged passing motorists to honk in support. Clarke, who stated that the group has held weekly vigils in the area since March, criticized ICE for what she described as a pattern of targeting people of color and immigrant communities rather than focusing solely on individuals with criminal records, as originally claimed by federal authorities.

“Now 75 people have died at the hands of ICE,” Clarke said. “We were originally told, ‘Oh, they’re going to go after the criminals, the people who are the worst of the worst.’ That is not what’s happening.” The demonstrators carried signs with slogans such as “No ICE No War,” “Stop ICE Murders,” and “Every person is sacred.”

During the vigil, Clarke read aloud the names of those who had died in enforcement encounters while Hanger accompanied each with the sound of a singing bowl. Among those remembered was Daphy Michel, a 31-year-old woman found unresponsive at a Pittsburgh bus shelter after being released by ICE into cold weather without apparent support for her mental health.

Several attendees spoke about the emotional toll of ongoing arrests and deaths tied to immigration enforcement. Leticia Lopez, a South Pasadena resident, described feeling a profound personal connection due to her family’s history of forced repatriation and current fears about potential profiling and detention of immigrants in her community.

Later in the day, about four miles away near the Home Depot in Pasadena, organizers erected a temporary cemetery of white crosses marked with photos and brief accounts of those who have died. These included individuals killed during raids, in detention centers, or while fleeing immigration agents. Among them was Keith Porter Jr., shot by an off-duty ICE officer in California, as well as others who died from accidents or violent encounters linked to enforcement actions.

Marlom Portillo, an educator with the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, was among those placing crosses. He emphasized the urgency of public awareness and action. “Are we going to wait until 70 more die to do something?” he asked. “What they want is for us to forget them. We will never get tired of denouncing this atrocity.”

Several attendees noted the relatively small turnout compared to the number of lives lost. Kathleen Vallee, a Monrovia resident, expressed frustration at the limited public response despite the seriousness of the issue, describing it as symptomatic of broader societal and political challenges.

Others, such as Sheri Lochner of the East Pasadena Community Defense Corner, focused on local impacts, recalling recent ICE raids and the ongoing fear they generate among immigrant communities. Lochner said her own family members, including one who supported the prior administration, agreed with her condemnation of the raids.

The vigil reflected a sustained local effort to bring attention to the human cost of immigration enforcement policies and to advocate for change amid continuing deaths linked to ICE operations across the country.