Portland, OR – On November 1, almost 50 community members celebrated Dia de los Muertos with a march and vigil to honor the 64 people killed by ICE in 2026. The vigil was held in Ventura Park, which is on the same route where U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) pursued and shot Yorlenys Zambrano-Contreras and Luis Niño-Moncada on January 8 of this year.

Omar Gil, a founding member of the host organization Portland Contra las Deportaciones (PDXCD), told the crowd that activists with PDXCD were at city hall trying to speak with city officials about ICE when news of the shooting broke out. 

Gil stated, “The terror tactics that Border Patrol and other federal agents employ, the dehumanization of immigrants, were showcased on that terrible day. While they were not murdered, it is clear that their lives have been destroyed.”

After the speeches, the crowd took to the street holding signs up high with names of those killed by ICE, chanting, “Stand up on your feet, killer ICE off our streets!” The crowd went around the block receiving waves and honks in support, with some drivers even slowing down to express their gratitude. 

The attendees marched back into the park where they could see the candles in the tamanalli (alter) all lit up. While entering the park, volunteers were handing out vigil candles, and the community started helping each other to light up their candles.

Protesters huddled and heard from the local group Latinx Choral, who sang the classical Día de Muertos song La Llorona and El Cóndor Pasa, a beautiful song about liberation and fighting oppression when Indigenous workers in Peru battled with the mine owners. 

After their performance, the musicians hummed with the guitar strumming while members of PDXCD, Beatriz Ibarra and Ivan Vargas, read aloud the 64 names of those killed by ICE. Later, a moment of silence was held, and the candles were blown out soon after.

The demand to shut down the Portland ICE facility was heard throughout the event. Ricardo Lopez spoke during the rally about the campaign to shut down the ICE facility on Macadam Avenue. 

Lopez said, “The pro-ICE slumlord Stuart Lindquist has submitted one appeal after another, which has held up the process in the Multnomah County Court. So, this November 20 we have the opportunity to pressure the judge hearing the case, Judge Steffen Alexander, to stop delaying this process.” The crowd chanted, “Revoke the permit” and “ICE out of Portland” and attendees sent emails to Judge Steffan Alexander, the judge overhearing the case. 

#PortlandOR #Portland #Oregon #DiadelosMuertos #KillerIce #ImmigrantRights

Denver, CO – In the late morning of November 2, Denver Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) gathered in the Lawrence Street Plaza on the Auraria Campus for a celebration on Dia de los Muertos.

Members of Denver SDS set up an ofrenda with pictures of and offerings for people murdered by ICE. Around the ofrenda were at least a dozen pages of ICE victims’ names from 2003, the year the agency was established, until now.

“In Mexico, this tradition is a communal one; neighbors, members of the community, come together at cemeteries to remember those who are loved amongst them,” stated Emil Mondragón, a member of Aurora Unidos CSO, “And this is exactly what we’re doing today, to remember those who have passed in our communities, in this country at the hands of ICE, DHS, and the presidential administration.”

Students chanted, “Money for jobs and education, not for bombs and deportations!” and “When la raza are under attack, what do we do? Stand up, fight back!”

For nearly two years, Denver SDS has been fighting for the Auraria Board of Administrators (ABoD) to pass a policy that bans ICE from campus entirely. However, despite trying to negotiate with ABoD, campus admin still declines anything that may risk their federal funding – even if it would benefit 40% Latino/Chicano student body.

In the 1970s, the Auraria campus was founded and built around, and eventually upon, the historically Chicano and Latino neighborhood of the same name. Campus founders forced out generations of Latino families, with a belated and false promise of financial support of future students from the neighborhood. Now there are only a few houses standing, and most of them are occupied by CU Denver and MSU Denver fraternity and department offices, with few still housing families.

“I’m standing on the graveyard of Mexican businesses and Mexican families, and this was a Latin neighborhood, and a majority of the people here spoke Spanish,” said Rodolfo Antonio “Tony” Rojas of Denver SDS, “This institute is supposed to serve us, and it doesn’t. It’s pretty pathetic and we shouldn’t be in this situation.”

Despite the struggle against ABoD’s refusal to pass a policy banning ICE on campus, Denver SDS will continue the fight to protect their fellow students and community members alike.

#DenverCO #CO #StudentMovement #ImmigrantRights #ICE #DiaDeLosMuertos

Tampa, FL – On a Sunday evening, November 1, activists with the Tampa Immigrants’ Rights Committee held a Dia de los Muertos celebration to honor the people killed by ICE and commit to the fight for those currently in detention and living under ICE terror.

The event was attended by about a dozen people, as well as more who passed by and joined in. Organizers set up an ofrenda with the names of those ICE has killed, as well as chalkboards to allow for folks to write in the names of those they would like to honor, which included recently-passed Community Service Organization and United Farm Worker organizer Dolores Huerta.

The mood was somber and defiant as speakers connected the holiday with Tampa’s collaboration with ICE in the form of the 287(g) agreement, which allows local law enforcement to act as immigration enforcement and notify ICE when an undocumented person is arrested. The Tampa Police Department has signed on to this agreement since 2025 and has taken at least $430,000 to train their officers for immigration enforcement.

Tampa IRC member Nico Baisley stated, “We’re here to remember the dead and fight for the living. We’re here to remember the people who died in the horrid, inhuman conditions inside for-profit detention centers. People like Emiliano Andrade-Covarrubias, a green card holder from Mexico, with several pre-existing medical conditions, who was found dead in the Rio Grande Processing Center in Laredo.”

Lizette Chavez, daughter of Adelaido Chavez, the Seffner man arrested and brutalized by Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office deputies before being handed over to ICE and taken to Baker Correctional Institute, spoke about the horrible conditions there before her father was released.

Chavez stated, “No AC during hot summer months, where it almost reached 100 degrees at times. My father dealt with a lack of hygiene related items, like bars of soap, simply to be able to shower.” Chavez also emphasized the need to continue organizing for people who are still detained.

The event raised demands for ICE to get out of Tampa, for Tampa to end its collaboration with ICE, and for justice for those killed by ICE, CPB and DHS. Several attendees spoke later with the organizers about getting more involved in the fight.

#TampaFL #FL #ImmigrantRights #ICE #DiaDeLosMuertos

Minneapolis, MN – Over 100 people gathered for a celebration of Día de los Muertos on Sunday, November 1. The event is hosted annually by El Colegio High School and Danza Ketzal Coatlicue and supported by the Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee (MIRAC).

This year the event included dance performances, a display of altars created by the hosting organizations and community members, and food. The main altar honored those who were killed at the hands of ICE since Trump started his second term. The altar had 108 candles, one for each person killed, each with their name and photograph.

The program began with a procession led by a banner that read: “7 days since ICE murdered – that we know of,” followed by the danza group at the front and community members following. The procession ended at the high school with a dance performance outside. The community was then invited inside to see the altars and enjoy food, community and a few speakers.

MIRAC member Mari Mansfield spoke at the event, “ICE’s reign of terror is so relentless that by the time we finished making the candles, ICE had killed again! 108 candles lit for the people killed by ICE – these candles also symbolize the passion and resistance that burns within us, because all the 108 people were a light in this world and we cannot rest until they get justice!”

Mansfield also highlighted MIRAC’s current campaign to make Minnesota a sanctuary state and the immigrant rights movement’s continued fight against ICE terror.

#MinneapolisMN #MN #ImmigrantRights #ICE #MIRAC #DiaDeLosMuertos #OppressedNationalities #Featured

Tucson, AZ – El día de los muertos es una conmemoración anual en donde se les rinde tributo y honor a los familiares queridos que han fallecido. Aquí en Tucson existe ya una larga tradición que busca darle voz, visibilidad y presencia eterna a aquellos valientes seres humanos que han fallecido intentando cruzar el arduo desierto en busca de una mejor vida. Este año se celebró la XIV Peregrinación del Día de los Muertos. En una caminata de 8.5 millas desde la Iglesia St. Johns hasta la histórica Iglesia San Xavier, el digno pueblo de Tucson demostró una vez más el espíritu de amor, unidad, solidaridad y resistencia que posee, y de forma simbólica llena de espiritualidad, le dio voz y cuerpo a aquellos que han muerto en silenciosa soledad.

La peregrinación la realiza cada año la Coalición de Derechos Humanos, organización local que lucha por los derechos de los inmigrantes y la dignidad e igualdad de todo ser humano. Como parte indivisible de la rica cultura de Tucson, la marcha fue iniciada con el canto y la bendición del grupo indígena Calpolli Teoxicalli. Después de unos minutos de silencio de reflexión, familiares presentes de algunas de las victimas junto a cada otro peregrino, iniciaron la gran marcha cargando más de una cruz en representación de cada hombre, mujer y niña/o que ha fallecido cruzando la frontera. Pocas de las cruces tenían el nombre, el apellido, la edad y el año del fallecido, lo cual aporta un poco más a la dignificación de ese ser humano que ya no nos acompaña, sin embargo tristemente la mayoría de las cruces solo poseían el año en que murió la persona y como nombre solo se leía desconocida/o.

Esto significa que la política migratoria de los EE.UU, la militarización de la frontera, la criminalización de los inmigrantes, componentes cruciales de la opresión nacional del pueblo chicano; todo esto está llevando a cabo un la muerte de seres humanos, mucho de los cuales luego no pueden ni ser identificados por sus familiares y recibir una digna sepultura. Esta peregrinación les ofreció honor y gloria a todos aquellos desconocidas/os.

El destino final de la peregrinación fue la Iglesia San Xavier. Esta Iglesia se localiza en el territorio de la nación indígena Tohono O’dham y fue fundada por misioneros Jesuitas en 1692. Al llegar los peregrinos, se formo un gran círculo alrededor de miles de cruces que habían sido colocadas anteriormente de la misma forma. Después de que se leyeron los nombres de los fallecidos de este año, Raúl Alcaraz Ochoa, miembro del grupo comunitario Corazón de Tucson, dijo “Estamos aquí llenos de amor y respeto para hacer visible a los invisibles. Estos son nuestros mártires, y hoy nos reunimos aquí para decir que no serán olvidados. Seguiremos luchando y seguiremos resistiendo hasta que no haya ni una muerte más”

#TucsonAZ #ChicanoLatino #DiaDeLosMuertos