2025 Events:
Past Events
Call to Action: Connecticut will hold vigil in response to the ICE murder of Renee Nicole Good and all attacks on immigrants
450 Main St, Hartford - 6PM - Thursday January 8
Endorsed by: CT Civil Liberties Defense Committee, ACLU CT, Indivisible CT, CT 50501, National Day Laborer Organizing Network, Hartford Deportation Defense, CT Students for a Dream, Danbury Unites for Immigrants, Teamsters 1150 Pride Caucus, Jewish Voices for Peace, Stamford Norwalk United with Immigrants, CT Democratic Socialists of America, Muslim Justice Center, Hartford Jewish Organizing Collective, Party for Socialism and Liberation, Working Families Power, Workers' Voice CT
Advocates and community members are mobilizing for a vigil and speak out on the sidewalk in front ICE’s field office at 450 Main Street, Hartford. Speakers will include labor leaders, clergy, migrant community organizers, and CT victims of ICE’s violence. Along with people all over the country, we will not be silent or hide in the face of ICE’s horrendous attacks.
In Hartford, activists, workers, and students are standing together to demand “Stop ICE terror from Connecticut to Minneapolis!”
Only three days after US bombs rained down on Venezuela, ICE agents occupying Minneapolis murdered Renee Nicole Good, a mother, activist, and community member, in cold blood. A viral video a day earlier showed an off-duty ICE agent with a Nazi neck tattoo walking through the city. According to eyewitness Emily Heller, Renee was told to “move” and as she did so an agent shot her “three or four times” in the face. Her only crime was exercising her constitutionally protected right to record law enforcement operations. In 2025, at least 32 migrants died in ICE’s squalid, inhumane “detention centers.” Immigration officers have fired on at least nine people since September of last year.
Department of Homeland Security and other pro-mass deportation figureheads are quickly trying to defend Renee’s murder. In October, CBP agents shot and arrested Marimar Martinez, claiming that she attempted to drive them off the road and they were acting “in self-defense.” Those charges were quietly dropped as ICE was exposed in yet another lie brutalizing an innocent person, attacking basic civil liberties, and slandering their victims in the press. There is clear video of Renee’s murder, which has the character of a mafia assassination by armed thugs.
Connecticut has suffered from these same attacks and attempts to intimidate activists. Dozens of parents, children, and workers have been violently kidnapped throughout the state. ICE agents stormed the State Superior Court in Stamford, flagrantly violating the state’s TRUST Act, where they destroyed city property and deployed tear gas in an enclosed space. To protect these violent kidnappings, dozens of ICE agents in military gear swarmed Danbury in August where they harassed, threatened, and physically brutalized community members who opposed their ongoing abduction campaign.
In response to the horrific killing, which rips away the mother of Renee’s young child, Connecticut activists held a statewide organizing call at 6PM Wednesday (1/7) to democratically and collectively plan a vigil and speak out honoring the life of Renee Good. That emergency planning meeting, which was shared by word of mouth and in organizing circles, quickly reached the 100 person limit imposed by Zoom. Workers, students, clergy, retirees, and organizers from all over the state committed to a vigil and speak out that will highlight the diverse support for immigrant and civil rights and opposition to ICE terror.
"We gather not only to mourn, but to refuse the normalization of violence. When our communities are treated as expendable, the people must stand together and demand justice" Tabitha Sookdeo - CT Students for a Dream Executive Director
Connecticut holds vigil in response to the ICE murder of Renee Nicole Good and all attacks on immigrants
Almost 500 people gather for a peaceful protest to denounce ICE’s brutality and demand “Stop ICE terror from Connecticut to Minneapolis!”
On a cold evening Thursday, January 8th, almost 500 people from across the state gathered for a vigil and speak-out on the sidewalk in front of ICE’s field office at 450 Main Street, Hartford. Participants came to mourn the life of Renee Good and call for an end to ICE terror in Connecticut and across the United States.
Speakers included clergy, immigrant community organizers, CT victims of ICE’s violence, and labor leaders like Ed Hawthorne, President of the CT AFL-CIO. Speakers voiced one call to action - to come together to organize to stop ICE’s violence in our community. The vigil was organized by more than 16 organizations, including the ACLU of Connecticut, Indivisible Connecticut, Danbury Unites for Immigrants, National Day Laborer Organizing Network, CT 50501 and the CT Civil Liberties Defense Committee. It joined actions the same day in New Haven, New London and across the United States.
In the same evening, there was a separate, unconnected event that unfolded at the back of the federal building where pepper spray was used against demonstrators and where an ICE vehicle rammed into a pedestrian. We denounce this use of state violence against demonstrators.
We have begun to see news reports that have mistakenly depicted these two different events as one. We ask that news media and elected officials cease this misrepresentation of the the January 8th vigil. There was no attack on the vigil on Main street. Every person at the vigil remained safe throughout the evening, and there was no violence at the event. The events elsewhere took place without the involvement of the vigil organizers and participants.
The hundreds who came out in Hartford and the many thousands who mobilized across the United States to oppose ICE terror has encouraged us and given us new confidence that the movements to defend the rights of everyone - without exception - are only just beginning.
Video of speeches given at Thursday’s vigil for Renee Good and all victims of ICE
When we Fight, We Win!
When we Fight, We Win!
