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Faith leaders, neighbors and Latino organizers gathered for a candlelight vigil along Richmond Highway after three Hybla Valley men were detained during increased immigration enforcement activity in the area.
About 80 people attended the vigil at 8410 Richmond Highway, where one of the men was detained while selling coconuts and tropical fruit. The gathering honored him and two other local men taken into custody on Nov. 22.
Marianela Reynado Funes, a community organizer with Tenants and Workers United, said ICE agents began operating that day from a staging area in the Gerald Hyland Government Center parking lot. Agents then entered nearby residential areas and knocked on doors while searching for immigrants, she said.
The families asked that the three detained men not be named. Organizers described them as the fruit vendor, a man detained while shopping in a Walmart parking lot and a construction worker taken from his home at Lafayette Apartments.
Funes said the vendor was being held at the Farmville Detention Center in a large cell where 100 people slept in three-tier beds. According to information his brother provided, the vendor and roughly 30% of his cellmates were sick, and he had been unable to obtain an important prescription medication.
Former detainee describes separation
Denis Reyes of Hybla Valley, who was recently released from ICE custody, told the crowd that agents detained him in mid-October. He said he was held in two detention centers and saw men crying as they faced separation from their families and uncertainty about what would happen next.
“I was crying,” Reyes said. Although he described the experience as traumatic, he said he never lost hope. He also thanked a local rapid response team for helping his family while he was detained.
Lindsey Hiller, a leader of the response group organized and trained by Tenants and Workers United, said participants had assembled out of compassion, solidarity and determination.
“We’re here to raise awareness about our neighbors, local individuals and families, who have been separated, are suffering, and are living in fear,” Hiller said. She added that immigration detentions seen in national media were now occurring within the Richmond Highway community.
Recent figures reported by Stateline showed immigration arrests in Virginia at five times the previous year’s level. The independent research organization TRAC reported that 75% of detained immigrants had no criminal record.
Volunteers expand assistance to families
Tenants and Workers United has spent about six years organizing residents from five mobile home parks and several apartment complexes around concerns including rising rents and poor living conditions.
During the past several months, the organization recruited and trained about 25 volunteers to observe, document and report ICE activity, Funes said. Their work has since expanded to delivering food and supplies to affected families, including plans to provide 200 holiday meals within the community.
Mount Vernon Supervisor Dan Storck appeared at the vigil and said residents had the right to respectful and humane treatment.
“When power acts illegally, it is our responsibility to fight back and make sure people are treated respectfully and humanely — always,” Storck said.
He offered assistance from staff member Diego Rodriguez Cabrera for residents seeking food, shelter and other county services. Storck also emphasized that Fairfax County police officers had sworn to protect community members. County policy prohibits police from cooperating with immigration enforcement.
Faith leaders call for courage
The Rev. David Yocis, pastor of Epiphany Lutheran Church of Mount Vernon and co-facilitator of Ventures in Community, delivered the opening prayer. The 50-year-old association brings together faith communities and nonprofit groups serving lower-income residents along the corridor.
Yocis prayed for detained people, their families and neighbors living in fear. He asked for courage for those moved to speak and act, and called on ICE agents to recognize every person’s humanity.
The Rev. Tom Ferguson, pastor of Good Shepherd Catholic Church, urged attendees to offer hope to frightened neighbors. He said their shared humanity called them to see the face of God in every person.
The Rev. Keary Kincannon of Aldersgate Methodist Church recalled similar protests and vigils eight years earlier. During the first Trump administration, when Kincannon was pastor of Rising Hope Mission Church, ICE agents waited outside the church’s hypothermia shelter and arrested overnight guests as they departed at 7 a.m.
At the vigil, Kincannon prayed for truth, healing and freedom from fear in the face of “lies, intimidation, and injustice.”
Funes closed the gathering by urging citizens to support their immigrant neighbors, attend training and join the rapid response team. Interested residents were directed to contact Tenants and Workers United at 703-684-5697.