Mountain View vigil honors 2 men killed in separate ICE shootings

By CBS Bay Area

About 150 people gathered in downtown Mountain View Saturday evening as part of a nationwide day of action honoring two men shot and killed by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers earlier this month.

The vigil at Castro Street and El Camino Real featured live music from the Raging Grannies, a longtime Peninsula activist group known for using protest songs to promote social justice causes. Organizers described the gathering as both a protest against federal immigration enforcement and a space to grieve.

The gathering honored Lorenzo Salgado Araujo of Houston and Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero of Maine, who were killed during separate ICE enforcement operations six days apart.

“It is more of a vigil because we need to grieve, right? We need to acknowledge these people,” organizer Mariya Ganzo said. She helps lead Blue Turn Indivisible, a Mountain View-area advocacy group.

Ruth Robertson of the Raging Grannies said music has long been a way for the group to carry its activism beyond demonstrations.

“We’ve heard that people go home and sing these songs standing in their kitchen, and even little kids recite them, and so that is a way of spreading the word, and we love to do it that way,” Robertson said.

Demonstrators held signs, sang protest songs and called for greater accountability over federal immigration enforcement.

ICE did not immediately respond to CBS News Bay Area’s request for comment Saturday.

Federal authorities have defended the officers’ actions in both shootings. ICE said Salgado Araujo tried to run over an officer during the July 7 operation in Houston before an agent opened fire. In Maine, the Department of Homeland Security said an officer fired on July 13 as Durán Guerrero tried to drive away because the officer feared for public safety. Both shootings remain under investigation.

Robertson said immigrants are living with fear as enforcement actions continue across the country.

“People are being targeted here, and are afraid. They’re afraid to go out of their houses, they’re afraid to go to work,” she said.

For attendee Sheryl Stark, showing up was itself a meaningful act of civic participation.

“Call your senator, call your representative, things like that,” Stark said. “But I think the most important thing and the least thing you can do, is to show up.”

Robertson said Saturday’s demonstration also reflected decades of activism by members of the Raging Grannies, some of whom first protested during the Vietnam War era.

“We were high school and college students at the time. So this is not new to us, although the situation was different, we are always on the side of justice,” Robertson said.

Organizers said they plan to continue holding similar vigils and protests across the Bay Area in the coming weeks.