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Vilma Aparicio-Deras speaks at a vigil on Monday, December 22 in Hartford. Aparicio-Deras was detained by ICE at a Newington carwash in August and later released. Credit: Laura Tillman / CT Mirror

Hundreds of people gathered at a vigil in Bushnell Park on Monday night to draw attention to the scores of Connecticut residents who have been detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents over the past two years.

The vigil comes after an extraordinary year of ICE presence in Connecticut and around the country as agents, often wearing masks, have detained residents everywhere from their places of work to courthouses. According to the organizers of Monday’s event, more than 900 people have been detained by ICE in Connecticut since 2023.

Holding candles and signs and wearing butterfly wings to symbolize free migration, attendees walked from the ice skating rink in the park to a roundabout where they placed pairs of empty shoes. As they walked, they sang the protest anthem “We Shall Not be Moved.“

“I decided to come out tonight because I feel for those who have been kidnapped,” said Saira Valencia, a Hartford resident. Valencia said that she has concerns for the safety of her own family members who have green cards but are not naturalized citizens. “Even though we may seem OK, we’re not always OK. The government, the state — they have every power to change everything for us.”

Speaking at the vigil, Vilma Aparicio-Deras, who was detained by ICE at a Newington car wash in August, told the crowd about her experience. Aparicio-Deras, who is from Guatemala, said that she was detained just days after having surgery for kidney stones. While in detention, she didn’t receive medical care and her condition worsened.

“Since I left detention, I’ve had a lot of limitations,” on what she can do, Aparicio-Deras told the crowd.

At the event, Leticia Cotto read the anonymous testimony of a person whose mother was detained by ICE. It read, in part, “I have PTSD from the trauma to my family by the constant churn of deportation. This has been catastrophic for all of us, with consequences. We’re not ever going to not think about this.”

In November, during a special legislative session, lawmakers voted to limit the actions ICE agents can take in courthouses, barring them from making arrests without a judicial warrant, or wearing masks there “unless medically necessary.” Lawmakers also approved legislation to prevent personal information, like residents’ locations and schedules, from being shared. While the new law protects residents’ data held by Connecticut agencies, it doesn’t have the power to stop federal agencies from sharing data with ICE.

Monday’s vigil was the latest effort by Hartford Deportation Defense, Jewish Voice for Peace and others to draw attention to the issue of ICE detentions. That effort can prove challenging, since many residents affected are concerned about government retribution for speaking to the media.

Len Virula, one of the speakers and organizers of the Monday night vigil, said she was glad to see Aparicio-Deras stand up in front of the crowd and tell her story. While organizers had asked others to speak, they had declined. Virula was also “shocked” at the large turnout on such a cold night. Seeing the crowd gathered in Hartford, “I feel like my heart grew bigger,” Virula said.

Laura Tillman is CT Mirror’s Human Services Reporter. She shares responsibility for covering housing, child protection, mental health and addiction, developmental disabilities, and other vulnerable populations. Laura began her career in journalism at the Brownsville Herald in 2007, covering the U.S.–Mexico border, and worked as a statehouse reporter for the Associated Press in Mississippi. She was most recently a producer of the national security podcast “In the Room with Peter Bergen” and is the author of two nonfiction books: The Long Shadow of Small Ghosts (2016) and The Migrant Chef: The Life and Times of Lalo Garcia (2023), which was just awarded the 2024 James Beard Award for literary writing. Her freelance work has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, New York Times and The Los Angeles Times. Laura holds a degree in International Studies from Vassar College and an MFA in nonfiction writing from Goucher College.