Champaign-Urbana residents joined a nationwide movement on Sunday to call out recent shootings by federal immigration officers.
Drivers parked outside the Lincoln Square Mall and decorated around 200 cars. The group formed a caravan as the vehicles snaked from Urbana to Champaign.
Liz Stine-Morrow is a member of Indivisible, one of the organizing groups. She said it was terrifying to watch the video of an ICE agent shooting and killing Renee Good in Minneapolis last week.
“People that normally would not get involved in politics are coming out because this is such a moment. This is just a horrible moment, and we’re going to respond. We’re not going to let this happen,” she said.
Carmen Blubaugh and her father cheered the drivers on in downtown Urbana from the sidewalk. She said she’s protesting the “casual brutality” she’s seen from ICE.
“Everyone has been discussing how this really tragic murder was inevitable based on the way they were behaving,” Blubaugh said. “It’s not professional law enforcement behavior, and I’m brokenhearted that this happened, but we all sort of knew it would eventually happen.”
Border Patrol agents also shot two people in Portland during a traffic stop last week. Both are in stable condition.
The Trump administration has said the agents were acting in self-defense after each driver drove their vehicles towards the agent. Local authorities in both cities said the administration is covering up immigration agents’ mistakes.
