Dozens protest ICE at Warren rally
Trending
WARREN — Terri Yendrek recalled childhood occasions in which she got into trouble after standing for what she felt was right.
The “now” is a vastly different set of circumstances for her, however, than the “then.”
“I’m here mainly to remember people harmed and killed by ICE,” Yendrek, of Brookfield, said.
Rather than facing negative trouble for standing up for her beliefs, Yendrek joined those who are part of Good Trouble Trumbull for a peaceful two-hour rally Saturday afternoon at Courthouse Square to remember and honor those who have died at the hands of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents since January 2025.
Good Trouble Trumbull takes its name from the late Georgia congressman and civil rights icon John Lewis, whose mantra was advocating for getting into good and necessary trouble, if necessary, in nonviolently fighting against injustices and for fairness and equality.
Yendrek, a counselor who has worked with people who have developmental challenges, said another motivator for her to join a few dozen who attended the gathering was to be a voice for those who are unable to advocate for themselves. In addition, she wanted to support immigrants, many of whom she said she feels continue to be demonized and dehumanized by some people who relish dividing others, and who see them as an enemy.
Saturday’s rally was among 83 such events that had been planned nationally. The local gathering also aligned with Disappeared in America, a project launched last year to document the names and stories of children, families and workers — and the overall human cost associated with them being swept up in a mass deportation policy that began last year.
According to Disappeared in America’s website, more than 605,000 people have been deported, more than 400,000 have been detained, and at least 117,400 children have been separated from their families.
In addition, Saturday’s rally was part of a national Day of the Dead, an occasion in which the living remember and connect with those who have died, Laura Liberman, a Good Trouble Trumbull organizer, noted.
In her remarks, Liberman provided a series of grim statistics, as well as an action plan to work toward counteracting the actions of many ICE agents.
“Since January 2025, ICE has shot and killed at least six people in the streets, half of whom were U.S. citizens. These people were not charged, they were not tried, they were shot,” she said. “An additional 62 people died in ICE custody, also without a trial.”
Too often, unidentified ICE agents have kidnapped unsuspecting people going to work, dropping off their children and in other circumstances, forced them into unmarked vehicles and taken them to detention centers, which is home to an estimated 65,000 people, Liberman added.
“So, we have mass incarceration of civilians kidnapped by masked agents, shipped off to places outside the legal process – concentration camps – where they disappear or die,” she said, adding, “That doesn’t secure the border; that doesn’t secure anybody. It makes us all less safe, and it has to stop.”
The six to whom Liberman alluded were Ruben Ray Martinez, 23, who was fatally shot March 15, 2025, in South Padre Island, Texas; Silverio Villegas Gonzalez, 38, who was killed Sept. 12, 2025, during a traffic stop near Chicago and left two young sons; Alex Pretti, 37, an intensive care unit nurse who was shot Jan. 24 in Minneapolis; Renee Good, 37, who was killed Jan. 7 in Minneapolis while driving away from an ICE agent; Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, 52, a construction worker who was fatally shot July 7 in Houston while driving a work crew to a construction site; and Johan Sebastian Duran Guerrero, 25, a Colombian immigrant who was killed July 13 during a traffic stop in Biddeford, Maine, after an ICE agent shot at his vehicle five times.
Liberman also was among several Good Trouble Trumbull members who read aloud the names of more than 60 people who lost their lives while in ICE custody.
Also at the rally, information was available about several adults and children who died directly or indirectly from decisions ICE agents made.
They included Linda Davis, 55, who was killed Feb. 16 in Savannah, Georgia, after her vehicle was struck by a driver on a high-speed chase fleeing from ICE agents, and Mario David Coronado Juarez, 36, who died in a car crash Sept. 20 following an attempted ICE traffic stop in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Others who were remembered were Nurul Amin Shah Alam, 56, a visually-impaired legal refugee who was found dead Feb. 24 on a Buffalo, New York, street after a Border Patrol agent left him at a coffee shop ahead of a major snowstorm without notifying his family or attorney; Orlin Hernandez Reyes, 3, who was tortured and killed March 4 after ICE left him with a violent estranged relative, and after his mother had been deported in January without due process; and Mohammad Nazeer Paktiawal, 41, whose asylum was pending from aiding the U.S. Army. He died March 14 in a Dallas hospital one day after ICE had taken him into custody.
In addition, Liberman read aloud an action plan that, in a sense, took on added urgency a few days before Tuesday’s midterm elections.
“We stay informed, we protect our community — and we vote. We vote for leaders who will get this ICE violence out of our communities, who will close the concentration camps and who will stop rewarding this un-American behavior with billions of dollars, when people can’t afford gas, groceries and healthcare,” she said, adding, “And after we elect those leaders, we write to them and call them and tell them that’s what we voted for them to do.”
Liberman also read aloud a poem she wrote, titled “People Should Never Get Shot in the Street.”