In a national protest, rights advocates and community members are calling for justice for the dead immigrants shot by ICE amid Republican President Donald Trump’s mass deportation campaign.
A total of 73 cardboard coffins were carried this Saturday through the streets of downtown Los Angeles, as part of a national day that included more than 300 events to honor the deceased immigrants and demand that “justice be done.”
Protest events were held in several cities across the country, including New York and Long Island, with the support of Disappeared in America, NDLON, The Workers Circle, Detention Watch Network and LULAC, the oldest Hispanic organization in the United States.
The organizers and participants in the events also held in places such as Chicago and Houston, among hundreds of other locations, demanded greater transparency from the White House.
It should be noted that the representation of the funeral procession, which passed in front of the Los Angeles City Hall, was part of a commemoration called “Justice for Lorenzo. Justice for Johan. Justice for all. Abolish ICE,” scheduled for this weekend in about 330 US communities.
The national movement, promoted by immigrant rights organizations and religious groups, emerged after the deaths of two immigrants at the hands of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in recent weeks.
Mexican Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, father of three American citizens, was shot on July 7 in Houston (Texas) while driving to work. Less than a week later, on July 13, Colombian Johan Sebastián Guerrero died in Biddeford (Maine) after being shot in front of his partner and his young son.
«It is our obligation to denounce this injustice. These two immigrants should still be alive, like all those who have died in ICE prisons as victims of neglect. This cannot continue,” said Guillermo Torres, a member of Clérigos y Laicos Unidos por una Justicia Económica (CLUE), a religious organization that participated in the call.
The pastor and human rights defender explained that the 73 coffins symbolize the deaths of immigrants related to the White House policy to reach record numbers of deportations.
In addition to the two men killed by ICE agents, the funeral representation included the names of the 53 immigrants who died in ICE custody since Trump’s inauguration, 33 of them during fiscal year 2026.
anti-immigrant hate
Among the protesters’ demands is that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) release and not deport the three people who were traveling with Salgado in the van and witnessed the incident – Daniel Tirado Pantoja, José Trinidad Rojas Pliego and Víctor Hugo Salgado – so that they can give statements.
“We must come together to defend ourselves and honor immigrant workers and day laborers, who bear the brunt of anti-immigrant hate while building our communities and defending human rights. Today we gather to mourn their loss and demand an end to ICE’s reign of terror,” said Erika Andiola, political director of the National Day Laborers Network (NDLON).
In Houston, the city where Lorenzo Salgado lived for more than thirty years before being shot and killed by an ICE agent, hundreds of people, including members and leaders of local unions, marched to demand accountability in the investigation into the incident.
Salgado’s son, Lorenzo Jr., also participated in the march and assured that he will dedicate his life to achieving “justice” for his father’s death, according to The Houston Chronicle.
At the national level, the organizers called on the state and local leaders of the 330 communities where the events were held to stop allocating resources to support federal immigration control efforts and to cease all coordination with ICE.
Likewise, activists urged companies and corporations such as Home Depot and Target to exercise their rights enshrined in the Fourth and Fifth Amendments of the Constitution to protect their employees, customers and communities, by refusing to cooperate with ICE, which includes preventing access to private property and refusing to hand over customer information or other resources.
“We are here today because Los Angeles refuses to remain silent as ICE violence tears families apart,” said Michelle Arkin, lead organizer of No Concentration Camps CA.
