FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Thursday, January 8, 2026

Media Contact

Ivonne Rodriguez, ivonne@anabelforcongress.com

CHICAGO — Tonight, Anabel Mendoza, a lifelong Chicagoan, immigrant rights organizer, and the youngest candidate for Illinois’ 7th Congressional District, led community members, advocates, and faith leaders in a powerful vigil honoring lives stolen by ICE violence. In the wake of the brutal killings of Renee Good in Minneapolis and Silverio Villegas Gonzalez in Franklin Park, more than 100 people from Chicago’s South and West Sides gathered at Scoville Park to grieve, bear witness, and demand an end to ICE terror. Images and video from the vigil are available here.

Speakers—including Rev. Robin Hood, Kelly Kribs, and community members directly impacted by ICE—offered prayers, testimony, and urgent calls to action. They demanded real accountability from elected officials, including the impeachment of U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, and an immediate end to all collaboration between ICE and local law enforcement.

“Renee’s murder –and the actions we have collectively witnessed over the past several weeks, including the acts of war against Venezuela– are warning signs building upon one another and coming on the heels of an ongoing genocide in Gaza. These are not isolated issues,” shared Anabel Mendoza. “We want justice: Impeach Trump and Kristi Noem, hold trials against every agent who has killed our neighbors and violated due process and the Constitution.”

The vigil served as both a memorial and a warning: communities will not stay silent while ICE continues to terrorize immigrant families. Participants pledged to organize, resist, and hold every level of government accountable until no more lives are lost to detention, deportation, or state-sanctioned violence.