On a frigid winter weekend, students, community members and local activists gathered in downtown Binghamton to protest U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and remember the lives of individuals who were shot and killed last month by ICE officials.

On Saturday, protesters gathered on 15 Henry St. carrying signs reading “END ICE NOW” during a protest organized by the 50501 Movement, a grassroots organization countering “the anti-democratic and illegal actions of the Trump administration.”

A vigil was held at the United Presbyterian Church of Binghamton on Sunday, organized by Indivisible Binghamton, a local group dedicated to “peacefully ensuring that the values and rights enshrined in our nation’s Constitution are respected and upheld by our elected officials.” Other local activist groups in attendance included Justice and Unity for the Southern Tier, Concerned Residents of Greater Binghamton, the Broome-Tioga NAACP and Citizen Action of New York.

This weekend’s events were held a little more than a week after Alex Pretti, a U.S. citizen who worked as an intensive care unit nurse, was killed on Jan. 24 in Minneapolis by a federal immigration official. Video footage showed agents pepper-spraying Pretti and then knocking him to the ground. One agent appeared to remove a gun from Pretti’s jacket before he was fatally shot by two officers.

“Welcome to the resistance,” said Barbara Mullen, co-chair of Indivisible Binghamton, as she began the vigil on Feb 1.

Following an introduction, speakers thanked Rev. Kimberly Chastain for allowing them to use the United Presbyterian Church of Binghamton as a warm space for the community gathering. Michael Segura, an award-winning singer and current resident artist of the Tri-Cities Opera, then performed a brief rendition of “My Country, ‘Tis of Thee.”

Mullen then highlighted the deaths of all individuals who either died in ICE custody or were fatally killed by immigration agents in 2026, including Silverio Villegas-González, Keith Porter, Luis Gustavo Nunez Caceres, Parady La, Geraldo Lunas Campos, Luis Beltrán Yanez-Cruz, Victor Manuel Diaz, Heber Sanchez Domínguez, Renée Good and Alex Pretti. Photos of each person, along with lit candles, were placed at the front of the church.

“I want to be sure that we don’t miss the fact that for most people in this room, the only names you know and will have heard of the 10 people who have died this year at the hands of ICE are Renée and Alex,” said Rev. Chastain. “And it’s not a coincidence, people — they are white people. As it happens, George Floyd was murdered only a couple of blocks from where Renée Good was shot.”

“The level of xenophobia and the level of anti-Black and brown racism in our country is another thing that’s not going to go away if we ignore it, right?” she continued. “We have to begin to acknowledge and confess.”

Rev. Douglas Taylor of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Binghamton was in Minneapolis two weeks ago and spoke about his experiences on the ground. While there, he participated in training for nonviolent direct action and participated in a protest against Delta Air Lines, which he said was the parent company of the airline primarily responsible for transporting ICE detainees from Minnesota to detention centers nationwide.

Taylor opened by singing a brief song written by Joshua Blaine, a community song leader and organizer, with audience members singing, “No one is getting left behind this time, we get there together or never get there at all.”

“I have a colleague who said, ‘You can pretend to care, but you can’t pretend to show up,’” Taylor said. “The other thing that gives me hope is that fascism is weak. It is a weak ideology that is dependent on control, on constant control, and it really deeply relies on our fear for it to be working. And let me tell you what I’m seeing — panic cracks. They will not win, I know this.”

Rabbi Leiah Moser of Temple Concord, a reform Jewish synagogue, spoke a prayer in Hebrew before sharing how heartbreaking it is to collectively witness and be impacted by the “forcible arrest, expulsion and persecution of those deemed not to belong.”

Rev. Dr. Damond Wilson, president of the Broome-Tioga NAACP and pastor of the Trinity AME Zion Church, referenced the Beatitudes and gave an impassioned speech, saying these deaths were preventable.

“As the president of the NAACP and as the pastor of the oldest Black church in Binghamton and Broome County, I’ve committed myself to speaking up when I see racism,” said Wilson. “I committed myself to speaking up when someone is being unjustly targeted, especially for the color of their skin, because if no one will do it, we will continue to have these vigils.”

Following Wilson’s speech, a moment of silence was held to recognize not only those who have been killed, but also those who were removed and deported. Segura then sang John Lennon’s “Imagine,” accompanied by a local pianist.

In the second half of the vigil, leaders who spoke included Broome County Legislator Mary Kaminsky; Andrew Pragacz ‘14, president of JUST; and Adam Flint, coordinator of Concerned Residents of Greater Binghamton.

Several speakers voiced opposition to Broome County Sheriff Fred Akshar and were displeased over increased funding allocated to his office [https://www.bupipedream.com/news/residents-voice-concern-over-increased-funding-for-the-broome-county-sheriffs-office/172231/].

“We can do something very concrete here,” Pragacz said. “We can fight our local sheriff, alright? And we can take those jail beds away from him. That’s exactly what our organization has been trying to do for the last decade, as we’ve been calling for not just getting people out of jail, but shutting down the beds.”

Last March, Akshar’s office signed an agreement with ICE, which allows state and local law enforcement “to serve and execute administrative warrants on aliens in their agency’s jail.” [https://www.bupipedream.com/news/ice-will-train-some-corrections-staff-in-executing-civil-immigration-warrants/164491/] As of Dec. 22, 53 ICE detainees were in custody.

Akshar has previously indicated the jail has housed detainees on behalf of federal agencies “for decades” and that nothing has changed in its policy.

One of the jail’s detainees, Guan Heng, is a Chinese national who was detained by ICE in August. Guan had previously claimed asylum after allegedly reporting human rights violations against Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities in China. His mother was also in attendance and briefly delivered a statement expressing gratitude for all the help she has received from the community.

An immigration judge granted Heng’s asylum request last week because he had a “well founded fear” of political persecution if deported to China.

Flint and Christina Zawerucha — a conversation pairs coordinator and lecturer at Binghamton University’s English Language Institute — from Concerned Residents of Greater Binghamton said that they will share stories like Guan’s as part of their upcoming “Humans of ICE” interview project, inspired by “Humans of New York,” and encouraged students and community members to get involved.

Community organizers then led a march to the Broome County Courthouse. Protesters chanted “No hate, no fear, immigrants are welcome here” and “ICE out” while demonstrating.

This protest followed another one hosted by various organizations on Saturday. Rallygoers repeatedly chanted the names of Pretti and Good, who was fatally shot on Jan. 7 in Minneapolis. Good was behind the wheel of a Honda Pilot before agents opened fire. As confirmed by ABC News, video footage showed Good attempting to turn the car to the right — away from the ICE agent — a little more than one second before she was shot.

Among the attendees on Saturday was Daniel Norton, a Binghamton lawyer running for New York’s 123rd assembly district. In an interview with Pipe Dream, Norton voiced support for state legislation that would prohibit local law enforcement from helping to enforce federal immigration law.

“Growth doesn’t happen in comfort, accountability doesn’t happen in comfort and liberation does not happen in comfort,” said Salka Valerio, an organizer for Citizen Action of New York, at Sunday’s vigil. “We did not get here because people stayed safe and stayed silent. We got here because ordinary people made extraordinary choices to organize, to resist, to demand better, even when it cost them something.”

“So let this vigil be more than a moment of grief,” she continued. Let it be a turning point, let it push us past comfort and into action, because honoring those we lost means fighting for the living.”