'We are next': Lorain anti-ICE protest draws hundreds in wake of Minnesota killings

LORAIN — Standing behind a wall of snow along West Erie Avenue, more than 250 protesters held signs and chanted in opposition to the administration of President Donald Trump and its nationwide immigration crackdown. The protesters braved a historically cold weekend to make their voices heard at Lorain's Lakeview Beach, as they called for accountability for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, after federal agents killed two in Minneapolis amid the enforcement surge. Nurse Alex Pretti was shot and killed by Border Patrol agents after being disarmed by them on Jan. 24, and mother Renee Good was shot and killed by an ICE agent earlier in January. The faces and names of the killed Minnesotans were emblazoned on many of the signs that protesters waved at passing cars on Saturday. The protest was organized by Lorain resident Livia Goforth with the help of Stand Up Lorain County, a grassroots organization that has organized the regular "No Kings" rallies in Lorain County in opposition to Trump and his administration. Standing from the edge of the Lakeview Park fountain, Goforth and several other speakers addressed the crowd at the "ICE Out of Northeast Ohio" protest. "I believe that no one should simply live in fear just for crossing a border, or existing or trying to build a safe life for themselves and their families," Goforth said. "We are standing in Lorain, Ohio, a city shaped, strengthened and built by a Hispanic community. A city where Spanish is spoken at kitchen tables, at school drop offs, at restaurants you eat at every day, at work and in our neighborhoods. This is not some distant issue that is happening somewhere else, it is personal, because when a system targets immigrants, it doesn't just target major cities. We are next." Goforth called not just for accountability within U.S. immigration enforcement, but for the abolition of ICE itself. "A system built on pure terror, family separation and dehumanization cannot be reformed into something just," she said. "Detention centers are not justice, raids are not safety and cruelty should never be a policy." There were not any visible counter protesters at the park on Saturday, and while some cars driving by offered lewd hand gestures or insults, far more honked for the protesters. Fellow Lorain activist Brandon West spoke after Goforth, also calling for an end to family separation and mass arrests in the U.S. immigration system. West mentioned Pretti and Good as victims of this system, but also drew attention to others killed in the crackdown, like Cuban migrant Geraldo Lunas Campos, who died of asphyxia in an ICE facility in El Paso. "If someone dies during enforcement or in custody, there must be transparent reporting, independent investigation and real world consequences," West said. "... A nation that claims to value liberty should not warehouse people in facilities (that) advocates and reporters continue to describe as dangerous and degrading. Lorain is titled as the International City, and we as a city filled with all kinds of ethnicities, religions and identities should not be silent. We must let our actions show immigrants, mixed-status families, refugees and neighbors living in fear that you are not alone, and you are not a problem to be solved." Speaker Sachary Rodriguez told the crowd that as a Latina, she was angry that she felt her community was being made to live in fear. "I am angry because our children are ripped from their kids," she said. "Children go to school wondering if they will come home to the same families. Families are destroyed while the government looks away. I am angry because ICE pretends this is about law, when it is really about control, terror and hate. Let me be clear, immigrants are not criminals. They are workers, they are students, they are parents and they are neighbors." Stand Up Lorain County organizer Nicole Geibel said that the organization's regular protests have been growing in size, but the deaths of Good and Pretti had rallied further support, with at least 250 people in attendance on Saturday. Geibel said that despite the cold, the wind chill was below zero during the roughly two and a half hour protest, she felt warmed by the spirit and energy of the attendees. "This is my favorite thing, I love being at these protests," she said. "I keep doing it because I love to be with this many people that are like-minded, kind and generous. It is usually an amazing crowd that we have, and they are always peaceful. They support each other and the energy is amazing. I was cold today, but not that cold because I had all this energy around me." The people that made up the protest came from all over Lorain County, and several of them said they had never protested before President Trump's second term. One such attendee was Ken Greszler, of Henrietta Township. Greszler said he never considered himself a protester before Trump took office last year, but that he has attended eight or nine protests since and was motivated to come out in the cold by the actions of ICE in Minnesota. "We are pouring so much money into these guys, they aren't trained, they are masked with no IDs and they are breaking down people's doors," Greszler said. "…In the past, the two sides would always balance each other out. But that isn't happening now, there doesn't seem to be any (political) pushback to what Trump is doing. That's why we're out here today, to make our voices heard, and hopefully that makes a difference." Contact Owen MacMillan at (440) 329-7123 or omacmillan@chroniclet.com.