Bloomington community members gathered at 8:30 p.m. Saturday at the Monroe County Courthouse for a candlelight vigil supporting immigrants deported without hearings in the past few months. The event was hosted by 50501, a national grassroots initiative dedicated to organizing peaceful protests against alleged human rights violations in the U.S.
The vigil came in response to reported “disappearances," a term advocates use to describe deportations carried out by ICE covertly and without due process. Disappeared migrants are often sent to “third countries,” countries that are neither the country of origin nor of residence, and detained without legal recourse.
Reports of the number of immigrants deported in this manner vary greatly; 50501 cited an independent database tracking more than 4,000 disappearances, but the IDS was unable to verify this number.
At least 238 Venezuelan and Salvadoran immigrants were sent to Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo, a prison in El Salvador, on March 14.
“Everybody, whether you are a US citizen or not, you have a right to due process in this country,” event organizer Gretchen Clearwater said. “These people are not even getting the chance to defend themselves, to say who they are and what they’re doing, and why they’re being taken away. This is a breaking of the law of the land.”
Bloomington resident Valda Hillery stands outside the Monroe County Courthouse May 31 with a sign bearing two constitutional amendments. Community members gathered outside the courthouse to show support for migrants deported without hearings.
Roughly 75 attendees held lit candles as dusk turned to dark while representatives from several local organizations gave speeches condemning the Trump administration’s wave of deportations.
Erin Aquino, Bloomington resettlement director at Exodus Refugee Immigration, addressed the administration’s defunding of nonprofit immigrant and refugee resources.
“Our office opened in 2022, and we’ve welcomed about 500 immigrants of humanitarian concern here in Bloomington since that time. As of January 20, Trump has completely shut down that program,” Aquino said
Aquino said fear in immigrant communities is on the rise due to increased ICE presence across the US and in Bloomington. She encouraged listeners to know their rights, including that they were not obligated to comply with police and ICE investigations without a warrant, and to support local nonprofits providing resources to people seeking asylum in the US.
“People call us and they have to ask, am I free to go to school? Can I go to work?” Aquino said. “Refugees and many immigrants have legal status here, and it shouldn't be something that they’re worried about – but they’re worried, because ICE has detained and deported people who have had legal status.”
In March, President Donald Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act, a 1798 wartime statute, to authorize the deportation of Venezuelan nationals alleged to be members of newly designated Foreign Terrorist Organization Tren de Aragua without immigration hearings. The administration asserted that this FTO had infiltrated the Venezuelan government, leading to his designation of the gang as an invading entity requiring wartime recourse.
The Trump administration has since faced legal challenges to deportations under the statute, with the U.S. Supreme Court deciding in a 7-2 vote detainees were not given enough time to challenge their deportation.
The U.S. National Intelligence Council also found in a recently declassified report that Tren de Aragua was not supported by Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro or other senior government officials, casting doubt on the administration’s classification of the group as an invader.
The vigil continued in speech and song, with United Universalist Church of Bloomington song leader Angela Gabriel leading the group in a recitation of a Brooklyn Peace Poets protest tune: “My condor, my eagle, no human is illegal.”
The crowd dispersed around 10 p.m., most taking their candles with them.
“A lot of people don’t want to look at the news because it’s too depressing, they don’t want to see it,” Clearwater said. “But you have to. I think it’s our duty. It’s our democracy, and we’re losing it if we don’t stay really attuned to what’s going on.”
