This post was updated Feb. 2 at 12:15 a.m.
More than 200 people gathered at a Thursday vigil to honor people killed amid the Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign.
The event – organized in part by the Afrikan Student Union, Bruin Democrats and members of the Undergraduate Students Association Council – was scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. in Dickson Court South. The crowd grew steadily until around 7:30 p.m.
Attendees formed a circle near the center of the lawn, across from a large tree covered in small candles. Organizers gave a microphone to members of the crowd after the event’s planned speeches ended around 7:20 p.m.
“It gets to a point where you feel like this burden is so heavy on your heart, because the politics doesn’t end in the classroom,” Julissa Mendoza Davila, a third-year political science student, said. “At what point do you use that sadness and turn it into a weapon? Turn it into a tool … to fight for freedom?”
United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Customs and Border Patrol officers have arrested more than 10,000 people in Los Angeles since the Trump administration ramped up immigration enforcement activity starting in June, according to the Department of Homeland Security. Speakers at the vigil repeated the names of Alex Pretti, Renée Good and Keith Porter Jr. – all U.S. citizens shot dead by federal agents within the past two months.
An ICE agent shot Good in her car Jan. 7 in Minneapolis. Video evidence reviewed by ABC News showed Good driving away from officers and an ICE officer shooting her three times.
Two U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents shot Pretti, an ICU nurse, in Minneapolis on Jan. 24. The federal agents tackled Pretti, removed his registered firearm and shot him 10 times, a video taken by a bystander showed.
An off-duty ICE officer also shot and killed Porter, an LA resident, in Northridge on Dec. 31, after Porter fired gunshots into the air, according to The Guardian.
Tatum Caballero, a first-year political science student, said she believes it is important for students to come together, especially because California and UCLA have large Hispanic communities.
Caballero, the daughter of a Salvadorean immigrant, added that she credits her success at UCLA to support from her family. She said the impacts of increased immigration enforcement activity “hits way too close to home.”
“I see so many people here, of every ethnicity, coming together for one cause because we can all understand that what happened isn’t right,” Caballero said. “There’s something beautiful about seeing people come together over one thing, and being united no matter where we’re from.”
UCPD community service officers on bicycles and UCLA Student Affairs representatives stood at the corner of Dickson Court South throughout the event.
Thousands of students also joined a walkout on UCLA’s campus – organized by the same student groups as the vigil – against immigration enforcement Wednesday. A second walkout – led in part by Students for Socialism at UCLA and occurring simultaneously with an anti-ICE “National Shutdown” – is planned for Friday afternoon.
[Related: Over 1,000 demonstrators join on-campus walkout to protest ICE crackdowns]
A UCLA spokesperson said in a written statement that the university supports students having a respectful campus environment to express themselves.
Attendees also wrote messages responding to the question, “What does community mean to you?” on wooden signs posted with pictures of Porter, Good and Pretti. Two notes read, “Fighting for love and unity,” and “It means familia.”
The vigil ended around 8 p.m. with a moment of silence for those killed. Groups of people carrying candles walked back toward Bruin Walk around 8:05 p.m.
“UCLA can really set the tone for the nation,” Jose Lagos, a third-year Spanish and community and culture student, said in a speech. “You, by being here, are being a leader, and we can show the nation how to lead by taking action.”
