Candles in the shape of a heart were placed outside Dallas City Hall Friday night as dozens of community members gathered to mourn the loss of two migrants killed in last month’s shooting outside an Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office.
Norlan Guzman Fuentes from El Salvador died in the attack early Sept. 24; Miguel Angel Garcia-Hernandez from Mexico died almost a week later from his injuries.
“We have to fight for a future for a world where these things don’t happen. A future where immigrants can live safely and can live in peace,” said Judith, a community organizer with Venceremos DFW, who only identified herself by her first name.
A third victim, Jose Andres Bordones-Molina of Venezuela, was recently released from Parkland Hospital and is in ICE custody at the Prairieland Detention Center. Large signs with Guzman Fuentes’ and Garcia Hernandez’ names served as a backdrop to the event.
People listen to a speaker at a vigil for the victims of the shooting at the ICE facility Friday, Oct. 3, 2025, in front of Dallas City Hall.
During the vigil, people placed bouquets of flowers and hand-painted umbrellas that read “keep families together.”
Several community groups and activists partnered for the vigil, including Noemi Rios, a community organizer and founder of Vecinos Unidos DFW. The vigil was to acknowledge the victims, who she said weren’t treated humanely after their injuries.
“We are here to name that but as well as to acknowledge that this isn’t isolated,” she said. “The brutality that ICE is bringing to Dallas is the same as the brutality we are seeing across the country.”
Noemi Rios, Vecinos Unidos DFW, speaks to a crowd at a vigil for the victims of the shooting at the ICE facility Friday, Oct. 3, 2025, in front of Dallas City Hall.
Activists read a statement from Guzman Fuentes’ sister, who lives in North Carolina. She wanted people to know that he had a family — ”eight siblings and a mother who loved him dearly.”
In the statement, she said she hasn’t been able to see her brother’s body and properly grieve.
“She wants people to know she was told she didn’t need to identify her brother because they took his fingerprints,” the statement read. “She’s asking for justice for her brother and all those whose families have been victims of this violence.”
Federal authorities say the suspected shooter, Joshua Jahn of Fairview, was targeting law enforcement when he opened fire on the ICE office from the roof of a nearby building, striking the three detainees.
Garcia-Hernandez was taken into ICE custody since Aug. 8. He had lived in the U.S. since he was a teen, his wife, Stephany Gauffeny, told NPR.
Eric Cedillo, attorney to the victim’s family, speaks at a vigil for the victims of the shooting at the ICE facility Friday, Oct. 3, 2025, in front of Dallas City Hall.
Eric Cedillo, a immigration attorney and civil rights advocate who represents Gauffeny, told the audience that she wanted to be there, but had given birth earlier in the day to a son named Miles Alexander Garcia.
“ A little boy unfortunately who will never know his father, because Miguel’s life was taken, f or absolutely no good reason,” Cedillo said.
Cedillo said there was a story about Miguel Angel that wasn’t being told. On the day of the shooting, Miguel Angel was sitting on the bus at the ICE field office, talking to an 18-year-old man about his wife and kids, when bullets crashed through the window.
“He turned to the boy and said, ‘I don’t think I’m going to make it. Get underneath me. Let me shield you,’” Cedillo said. “That’s the story that needs to get out. The heroism that was Miguel Garcia.”
Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch, immigration lawyer, speaks at a vigil for the victims of the shooting at the ICE facility Friday, Oct. 3, 2025, in front of Dallas City Hall.
Kate Lincoln-Golfinch, an immigration attorney and legal adviser for the League of United Latin American Citizens saidit’s important to counter the narrative about migrants without legal status and appreciate and respect them instead.
“It takes a whole lot for somebody to pick up their whole life and come to a brand new culture just because they want something better for themselves and their children,” she said. “That is something that I have a lot of admiration for and I know a lot us do. And that’s the message that we need to be talking about more than what we’re hearing on the other side.”
Stephany Gauffeny says she wants the world to know that her husband, Miguel Angel Garcia-Hernandez, is more than “just an immigrant or a detainee, or a criminal.”
The main message, Cedillo and others told mourners: remember the names of Miguel Angel Garcia-Hernandez and Norlan Guzman Fuentes.
“Everyone here, remember those names, remember those people, remember those families that we’ve lost,” Cedillo said, “because unfortunately, over the next few months, there’s going to be so many others that we’re never going to hear about.”
Priscilla Rice is KERA’s communities reporter. Got a tip? Email her at price@kera.org.
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