On Saturday afternoon hundreds attended a vigil at Mill Creek Park in Kansas City to honor individuals impacted by the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement actions.
This vigil came after former Kansas City resident Renee Good was shot by an ICE officer in Minneapolis earlier in the week.
Those gathered demanded that agents leave major cities and their immigrant communities alone. Some held signs protesting ICE actions, while others in the crowd displayed the obituaries of people who died in ICE custody.
Meanwhile, other cities around the nation held ICE Out For Good events to protest the ICE presence in cities in response to the Renee Good shooting.
In Kansas City, Miah Dogan stood with a Haitian flag wrapped around their body.
“It’s horrible we’re seeing that type of stuff more commonly now in every facet of our lives and as somebody from this community, an activist, I think everybody out here feels the weight of that,” they said.
Coming from a Haitian immigrant family, Dogan said they have felt the impact of ICE actions on their community. Their family members now have to look over their shoulders and think twice before going out in public.
“There is some fear amongst my family,” said Dogan. “There is fear amongst everybody, but you have to have those conversations about being safe, about knowing your rights and what you do in certain situations. It's a stressful situation just being an immigrant and in an immigrant family.”
Ashley Lindeman is with the social justice organization Boots on the Ground which protects communities from ICE actions. Like Good, Lindeman is a mother concerned for the safety of her immigrant neighbors. She said Good was an innocent person who died unnecessarily.
“Renee Good was not doing anything wrong, anything illegal, anything inciting and who died just for existing in a dangerous space of ICE,” said Lindeman.
According to Lindeman, the work of standing up to ICE officers is putting people in danger.
“We’ve seen a real escalation of violence towards people that we’re not used to seeing assaulted,” said Lindeman. “I’ve seen videos of nuns in their habits, of ministers in their collars on their knees holding their rosary praying in front of the Broadview Facility in Chicago, a minister on the ground getting pepper sprayed in his face.”
Unlike cities with a large ICE presence—like Minneapolis and Chicago—Lindeman said agents in Kansas City are small in numbers but still cast a shadow.
“We have had periods of times increased ICE action. I would say they are very much operating quietly in the shadows with the largest incident to date when there were dual raids on the El Toro Loco restaurant,” Lindeman said.
In late July 2025, coordinated raids by Homeland Security and ICE agents took place at locations of El Toro Loco Mexican Bar and Grill in Kansas City and Lenexa. Twelve workers were detained by ICE, with several eventually released.
Poet Huascar Medina, a second generation immigrant of Panamanian descent, said the term immigrant has been villainized in the United States. He’s on a personal mission to change that narrative.
“It is part of my creative purpose to enter communities and show that immigrants have worth, that immigrants are good, and immigrants add to this country and we have things to say about this country,” Medina said.
During the vigil, marchers made their way through the Country Club Plaza along 47th Street as traffic officers watched the intersections. There was little resistance from drivers and passersby.
Medina said the event was not designed to provoke or enrage, “but looking for unity and community, solidarity and collective survival.”
