Raleigh protesters condemn ICE activity and detention centers

Ronni Butts, The News & Observer (Raleigh) on Jul 22, 2026

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RALEIGH, N.C. — About 100 protesters gathered in downtown Raleigh on Wednesday to protest immigration agents’ activity around the country, and to memorialize immigrants and U.S. citizens who have died during their operations or in their custody.

The protest comes about a week after two immigrants, Lorenzo Salgado Araujo and Joan Sebastián Guerrero, were shot and killed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Texas and Maine, respectively, less than a week apart.

The protest was organized by various advocacy groups, who enlisted the support of religious leaders across North Carolina. More than 350 leaders of churches, synagogues and advocacy organizations signed on to a statement of concern that calls for “opposition to the inhumane and immoral treatment of our immigrant neighbors.”

“It feels like Germany in the ‘30s. It feels like the 1800s here in North Carolina,” Karen Ziegler, who founded an advocacy group called Democracy Out Loud, told The News & Observer. “It feels like there are people trying to drag us back to a time when some people are seen as less human than other people, and this brutality, this murder, this trafficking that we’re seeing ... we say no to it.”

After the crowd sang about justice and freedom and speakers from various religious faiths shared their support for immigrants and energized the crowd, the event transitioned into a solemn vigil. Speakers read the names of more than 60 people who have died during immigration operations or in custody during the Trump administration.

After every name, the crowd shouted “presente,” the Spanish word for “present,” which Marilyn Lacunza, founder of Fuerza Triad NC, said symbolizes each individual’s presence despite their death.

“Why must a family bear this grief at all?” the Rev. Caleb Wolf, pastor of United Church of Chapel Hill, told the crowd in reference to the death of Salgado Araujo. “Moral conflict tells us something is wrong, but conflict cannot be what ultimately compels us. As a follower of Jesus Christ ... I am compelled by love, by human dignity, by mutual care ...”

Protesters also spoke about their opposition to opening ICE detention centers in North Carolina. Many advocates speculate that Rivers Correctional Institution, a shuttered privately owned federal prison in Hertford County, is preparing to reopen as an ICE detention center.

Caroline Stephenson, an activist who has led the effort to protest ICE detention centers in the state, called the institution’s conversion “imminent.”

An August 2025 Washington Post report showed that Rivers Correctional Institution was among several facilities being considered by ICE to convert into detention centers, according to internal ICE documents. The additional facilities would aid the Trump administration in its plan to increase ICE detentions and deportations.

Hertford County Commissioner Leroy Douglas told The N&O that the county board is not aware of any plans by The GEO Group, which owns the facility, to reopen the facility as an ICE detention center. The GEO Group did not previously respond to The N&O’s request to comment on the speculation.

State Rep. Maria Cervania, a Democrat from Morrisville and a member of the North Carolina House Progressive Caucus, was the only lawmaker present at the event. Lawmakers do not meet again in Raleigh until next week.

“This has been really important to me even prior to being an elected official. This is my community,” Cervania told The N&O. “I’m a child of immigrants. So this is my foundation.”

Earlier this year, the Republican-controlled legislature overrode Gov. Josh Stein’s veto on Senate Bill 153, a bill that would require state agencies to cooperate with ICE, including the N.C. departments of Adult Correction and Public Safety, the State Highway Patrol and State Bureau of Investigation.

“It’s not my choice to ever provide funding of a law like that,” Cervania said.

Cervania said that she is concerned about not only Rivers Correctional Institution, but also about ICE expanding its administrative offices in the state.

Liz Evans said that at first, she didn’t quite know what the protest would be about, but she wanted to get out of the house and sing with her “grannies.” She is a member of the Raging Grannies, an international group of senior women who advocate for social justice through singing.

“I was delighted that it was about ICE and how horrendous it is. It’s important that we stand up to that,” Evans said. “For people to go through what they’ve gone through to even get here, and then to have them grabbed and deported or separated from their family is just disgusting, as far as I’m concerned. It’s cruel and inhumane.”

Craig Amick, a protester from Johnston County, said that he’s not sure what ICE activity will look like in North Carolina since Gov. Stein is a Democrat. But what he’s been seeing across the country is “completely wrong,” he said.

“We can’t vote again until November, so this is better than sitting (at) home watching the news and being horrified,” Amick said.

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