Flint, Mi –
On a bitterly cold Saturday night, the weather ball blinking blue, a crowd gathered inside the University of Michigan–Flint Ice Rink to honor the lives of Renee Good, Keith Porter, and to stand in solidarity with the others who have lost their lives due to ICE intervention.
The vigil, held at 7 p.m. on January 10, brought together residents from across Flint who were unwilling to let freezing temperatures keep them from showing up. Organized by FAIR Flint in partnership with the Party for Socialism and Liberation, the event transformed the rink into a space for reflection and resolve.
Multiple speakers addressed the crowd throughout the vigil, offering their thoughts on why we were there and calls to action. The speakers emphasized that the vigil was not only about mourning a life lost but about affirming that every person deserves to be seen, protected, and valued. In Flint, in Minnesota, in LA, in Venezuela, and in Palestine.
We heard from:
Regina Laurie, FAIR Coalition Member, Racial Healing Practitioner and Community Catalyzer with the Community Foundation of Greater Flint: Truth Racial Healing and Transformation
Amanda LaMielle, Organizer with the Party for Socialism and Liberation, Legal Observer with the National Lawyers Guild, and FAIR Coalition Member
Alysia Treviño, Fair Coalition member
Nayyirah Sharrif, Director of Flint Rising
Elizabeth Jordan, FAIR Coalition member
Statement by Delma Jackson, the Sankofa Project, read by Regina Laurie
Robert White, Organizer with the Party for Socialism and Liberation and FAIR Coalition Member
Lucine Jarrah, FAIR Coalition member
Due to the inclement weather, follow-up conversations with organizers were not possible at the rink. The day after the vigil, The Flint City Times spoke with Robert White, an organizer with the Party for Socialism and Liberation and a member of the FAIR Coalition, to gain a deeper understanding of the purpose behind the vigil and what organizers hoped the night would achieve.
Why were we all here tonight?
We called this vigil and rally to honor and remember two people recently murdered by ICE. Renee Good and Keith Porter. We also wanted to honor all of the people slain by ICE in the past year. While the murders of Keith Porter and Renee Good made the news, others like Silverio Villegas Gonzalez, Jaime Alanis, Santos Banegas Reyes, and so many others have escaped national media attention and public outrage. So we wanted to honor them as well.
We wanted to contextualize this ICE violence. The murders of Renee Good and Keith Porter were no fluke. They were a part of a system of state-sanctioned violence that has been taking lives and stealing people from their communities and families. It is emblematic of the racist violence carried out against our communities on a daily basis by ICE, other federal agencies, and local police forces. It is also a part of capitalism’s expansion across the world with imperialism–a system where systematic violent attacks, sanctions, and destabilization cause people to leave their homelands, their families, and their culture, and to come to the United States. And with the justified outrage at the murder of Renee and Keith, we wanted to stand with our community and say that our outrage is not directed just at ICE and TRUMP, but at the entire systems of capitalism and imperialism that this country operates under, as well as the billionaires, democrats, and republicans who operate it.
The video evidence confirms this was a cold-blooded murder, and any claim that Jonathon Ross was acting in self-defense is an outrageous lie. We demand that he and any of his accomplices be charged with murder. And we demand an end to mass deportations and ICE out of our communities.
What is the importance of a community doing something like this even when the
victims are from across the country?
Firstly, I think we need to shift our thinking to see every working person as our community. If they are down the street, across the country, or on the other side of the world.
But secondly, this is a reflection of violence that we have seen locally, and our struggles are materially and inextricably linked. Rayvon Shahid was murdered by the Michigan State Police with impunity, shot in the back as he fled in fear, like so many victims of ICE violence.
Third, we need to voice our collective outrage together, to see that we are not alone when we feel scared, angry, and sad. These are opportunities not just for a single outcry but to bring people closer together and to encourage organization within our communities to fight against all of the injustices we see daily. This can be our first step to a stronger community by bringing people into organizations like FAIR and the Party for Socialism and Liberation.
What can community members do to prevent something like this from happening here?
We have to continue to do the work when there are not major events bringing us together like this. We have to be prepared and organized. We are the only ones who can keep us safe, and we can only do that if we know one another, see each other regularly, and get organized.
We need the people of our community to join FAIR, not only to increase our efficiency, but to reach further into our community to support and defend our neighbors.
We also need to recognize that this isn’t the only struggle. We need to be organizing around racist police violence, housing issues, and any issues that our people are facing in Flint.
What is FAIR and how can we learn more?
FAIR is a coalition of organizations and community members who have come together to support the immigrant community in Flint. Its first big struggle and victory as the defeat of the 287(g) agreement signed by the Metropolitan Police Authority of Genesee County (Swartz Creek and Mundy Township).
FAIR is active on Instagram and Facebook, and we have had regular meetings in person at the Neighborhood Engagement Hub. We are working together to execute outreach sessions, media campaigns, and Know Your Rights trainings across the city. We actually have an upcoming public meeting at the Neighborhood Engagement Hub (3216 Martin Luther King Ave. Flint, MI) on
January 17th at 6:30 pm to plan our next steps!
Community members can sign up to volunteer and get involved with FAIR at this link: Flint Alliance for Immigrant Rights (FAIR) – Interest & Volunteer Form
They can also support our work by purchasing one of these incredible t-shirts.
What is something in all of this that gives you hope?
This vigil was planned in about 48 hours and brought out about 160 people. That is not a small thing for Flint. As people were willing to bear the cold and the wind on Saturday, to be in community, and stand together to say that enough is enough. Hopefully, this is the moment that drives them to get organized, to show up, and out to our next FAIR Teach-In on Saturday, Jan 17th at 6:30 at the
Neighborhood Engagement Hub located at 3216 Martin Luther King Ave. Flint, Mi
Everyone was on the same page last night; everyone recognized that this murder is part of a larger system of violence. And I think that is a big and important shift in thinking amongst the masses of people. Every day, we are developing a greater understanding of the true violent, dangerous, and exploitative nature of the capitalist system, and more of us are standing up to say we won’t take it anymore.
The Flint mobilization was one of hundreds that took place across the country on January 10. This type of mobilization transforms individual frustration into a powerful voice for change, demonstrating that ordinary people can change oppressive structures.
