Around 175 Tuscaloosa residents gathered on Monday for a candlelight vigil for those killed and targeted by immigration authorities, including the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol.
The vigil was put on by Indivisible West Alabama and hosted by the Canterbury Episcopal Church, sparked by the recent deaths by Border Patrol and ICE agents.
The vigil specifically honored Alex Pretti, a 37-year old man who was fatally shot by Border Patrol agents last Saturday in Minneapolis. Renee Good, a 37-year-old Minnesota woman, was shot and killed in her vehicle by an ICE agent on Jan. 9. Both were U.S. citizens.
There were at least thirty-two deaths in ICE detention facilities in 2025 and six deaths in 2026, with allegations that ICE has unjustly killed them through shootings, medical negligence, and poor living conditions.
“We are seeing more instances of this kind of violence against our communities, regardless of their immigration status, regardless of the color of skin,” said Heather Love, media liaison for Indivisible West Alabama.
According to the Department of Homeland Security, the Trump administration deported over 605,000 undocumented people between Jan. 20 through Dec. 10, 2025. DHS also said that an additional 1.9 million have also since self-deported back to their counties of origin since Jan. 2025.
“The events that have been going on across our country, whether they’re in Minnesota or in our own home state of Alabama, have been tragic.”
ICE detained 44 children in Alabama between Oct. 2024 to Sept. 2025, more than double the 20 Alabama children the organization detained from Oct. 2023 to Sept. 2024, according to the Deportation Data Project.
Marc Burnette, rector and chaplain of Canterbury Episcopal Chapel, addressed the many emotions expressed by those in the community.
“It is sacred to gather and to lament,” Burnette said. “It’s something that the human community has always done, and God shares in our grief.”
Jennifer Waters, a Tuscaloosa resident originally from White Bear Lake, Minnesota, said that while she initially “had no intention of speaking” at the vigil, gave a personal perspective of how people from her home state have been affected by the deaths of Good and Pretti.
“There is really a disconnect between what people are understanding living here versus what my friends there are experiencing,” Waters said. “There’s no way to bridge that gap without individual stories.”
Addison Lusco, a senior majoring in creative media and member of the board of the nonprofit Southern Center for Equity and Immigrant Refuge, said her work within these communities gives her a personal perspective.
“The vigil encouraged me to continue working within that nonprofit space to be there for immigrant communities,” Lusco said. “Not just teaching them skills and giving them access to the resources for them to become citizens, but also thinking about what they’re going through on a daily basis as well.”
There was a unified focus on action beyond the vigil, compelling attendees to speak up and act.
“Let us get up in arms together and march over to the federal courthouse again. And then let us get up together in arms and march all the way to Washington, DC,” Burnette said. “This is not a time to shrink back.”
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