The crowd on a cold night at a prayer vigil for immigrants focuses on Mount Vernon Supervisor Dan Storck who gave impromptu remarks of support.
Immigrant ICE Vigil
918 words 12-15-2025
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Prominent faith leaders and neighbors joined Latino community organizers for a candlelight vigil last week to highlight the impact of increased ICE activity in the Richmond Highway Corridor.
The increased activity began on Saturday, Nov. 22 when ICE agents fanned out from a staging area at the Gerald Hyland Government Center parking lot into residential areas where they knocked doors looking for immigrants, according to Tenants and Workers United (TWU) Community organizer Marianela Reynado Funes.
The vigil honored three men from Hyla Valley who were detained that day. It was held in the parking at 8410 Richmond Highway, where one of the men was taken while he was selling coconuts and tropical fruits.
About 80 people attended the vigil which featured a statement from Denis Reyes of Hyla Valley, recently released from ICE, and an appearance by Mount Vernon Supervisor Dan Storck, who said community members have a right to be treated respectfully and humanely and offered assistance with county resources.
The vigil was sponsored by Tenants and Workers United, which has organized residents of the area’s five mobile home parks and several apartment buildings around issues like rising rents and poor conditions for about six years.
“We are standing here tonight, in compassion, solidarity and resolve. We’re here to raise awareness about our neighbors, local individuals and families, who have been separated, are suffering, and are living in fear,” said Lindsey Hiller, a leader of a rapid response group of neighbors recruited and trained by Tenants and Workers United.
“The terrifying ICE detentions we’ve all witnessed in the media are happening right here in our own community,” she said.
Speaker Denis Reyes, said he was taken by ICE in mid-October and held in two detention centers where he saw men crying because they were separated from their families and uncertain about their future.
“I was crying,” he admitted. He said he was traumatized but never lost hope and thanked the rapid response team for taking care of his family while he was detained.
Although their families asked that their names be withheld, the men taken on Nov. 22 were identified as a coconut and tropical fruit vendor taken from the rally site, a man taken from the parking lot of Walmart while shopping, and a construction worker taken from his home at Lafayette Apartments. They were pictured on a poster.
Funes said the coconut vendor is at Farmville Detention Center where he is held in a large cell with 100 people sleeping in three-level beds. She said his brother reported that he and 30 percent of his cellmates are sick and that he has been unable to obtain an important prescription medicine.
Stateline reported recently that immigration arrests in Virginia are five times higher than last year. The independent research organization Trac reports that 75 percent of those detained had no criminal record.
Over the past several months, Tenants and Workers United recruited and trained a response group of about 25 volunteers to report and record ICE activity in the area, Funes said. “But this group has gone beyond that to bringing food and supplies to the families of those taken and now they are bringing 200 holiday meals to people in the community.” she said.
In addressing the rally, Supervisor Storck said, “It is my pleasure and honor to be here in solidarity with all for you. When power acts illegally, it is our responsibility to fight back and make sure people are treated respectfully and humanely — always.” He offered the services of his staff member Diego Rodriguez Cabrera to help with access to food, shelter and county services (see sidebar) and stressed that Fairfax County Police have “taken an oath to protect all of you.” Fairfax County policy prohibits county police from cooperating with immigration enforcement.
The vigil’s opening prayer was delivered by Rev. David Yocis, pastor of Epiphany Lutheran Church of Mount Vernon and co-facilitator for Ventures in Community, a 50-year-old association of faith communities and nonprofits who work with lower-income neighbors in the corridor.
He prayed for those taken, their families, those who live in fear, the larger community (“give courage to all who are moved to speak and to act”) and even the ICE agents (“teach them to respect the humanity of each and every person”).
Rev. Tom Ferguson, pastor of Good Shepherd Catholic Church, which has a large Hispanic ministry, said, “To all of us here this evening, this is my message of hope that we must share with those who live in fear: our common humanity is an invitation to see the face of God in every person created in His image.”
Rev. Keary Kincannon, now of Aldersgate Methodist Church, recalled protests and vigils of eight years ago after overnight guests at the Rising Hope Mission Church hypothermia shelter were arrested by waiting ICE agents when they left at 7 a.m. This was during the first Trump administration when Rev. Kincannon was pastor of Rising Hope.
At the vigil he prayed, “Make us truth-tellers, O God, for you promise that the truth will set us free. When lies, intimidation, and injustice threaten to dominate, keep us grounded in your truth—truth that liberates, heals, and brings life. Let perfect love cast out all fear—from our neighbors, from our communities, and from our own hearts.”
Funes concluded the vigil by calling on citizens in attendance to “Be a good neighbor and support this community.” She urged them to sign up for training and join the rapid response team by calling TWU at (703) 684-5697.
