LETTER: Appreciation for vigil honoring recent ICE victims
August 6, 2026To the Community:
As a member of the greater Waterbury community, I want to thank Camel’s Hump Indivisible for creating the July 29 Vigil for the Lives Lost to ICE, prompted by the most recent deaths of two men: Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston, Texas, on July 7, and Johan Sebastián Duran Guerrero in Biddeford, Maine, on July 13. Both were shot and killed by federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents while on their way to work.
The vigil at the Waterbury Congregational Church provided a space to reflect together on our collective humanity and the loss of the lives of real people with real families. We felt the devastating loss to the families of these men, and all the people lost to ICE violence.
As one speaker said: “We are under threat. The human side is under threat. And while we will not resort to violence, we also will not ignore this threat to our humanity. We will not let our humanity be devalued by bigotry and ignorance. We will not let our humanity slowly disappear because we have presumed that the loss of a life in Maine or in Texas is not our business. It is our business.
Lorenzo’s family called him ‘the whole world.’ How right they were. When we lose any one of us, we lose part of the whole world. That is what it means to stand on the human side. There are no other sides. So we stand.”
With readings, poems, songs and reflections, the vigil was respectful of all, profound and moving.
As another participant later said, “We stand for humanity. We stand because lost lives and devastated families deserve to be recognized. We stand to make courage visible, speaking with neighbors and friends, and refusing to look away. We stand to show politicians who use fear and bigotry to divide us that they are weak, not strong. And we stand to demonstrate our commitment to something better: communities where liberty and justice for all are real, every life has value, and each of us has a meaningful voice.”
I’m thankful that I live in a community that values our humanity, and that groups like Camel’s Hump Indivisible can create such events.
Judi Daly
Moretown