Interfaith clergy hold candlelight vigil for immigrants and victims of ICE

A coalition of Athens-area religious groups held an interfaith candlelight vigil in support of immigrants and others affected by mass detentions, deportations and other violent actions of poorly-trained Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers. The vigil took place on Sunday, February 22, 2026 in Athens, Georgia.

Watch the full video here:

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TRANSCRIPT

A coalition of Athens-area clergy held an interfaith candlelight vigil on Sunday in support of immigrants and others affected by mass deportations.

“We’re here to bear witness to the lives lost due to ICE actions, their broken-hearted loved ones, to the children and families separated, sometimes forever, to the untold fear and suffering, to the cruelty of detention and deportation en masse and without due process of law.”

Participants prayed, sang songs and silently held candles to honor the dead as the names of the deceased were read aloud.

“Renee Nicole Good. 37, was fatally shot.”

We haven’t seen the end of this yet. ICE recently purchased a huge warehouse in Social Circle that they intend to convert to an 8500-bed detention center.

“We’ve been told that this is about enforcing the law. But this stopped being about keeping America safe a long time ago. And now, and 8,500 bed detention center is being planned within reach of our own community. 8,500 spaces where people could be held for months at a time, far from families, far from anything that feels human, far from any real justice. 8,500. That number should stop us in our tracks. Because each space represents someone’s mother. Someone’s son. Someone who has worked, worshipped, volunteered, paid taxes and tried to build a life in what they desperately wanted to believe was the land of the free.”

You can watch the full video on AthensPoliticsNerd.com.