![\"Day](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/IMG_3649-scaled.jpg\")
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDay of the Dead vigil organized by the Tampa Immigrants Rights Committee at Centennial Park, Nov. 1. Photo by Daria Mironova\/WMNF News.<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDay of the Dead vigil organized by the Tampa Immigrants Rights Committee at Centennial Park, Nov. 1. Photo by Daria Mironova\/WMNF News.<\/p>\n
Seventeen people gathered at Centennial Park in Ybor City on Sunday, Nov. 1, for a D\u00eda de los Muertos vigil honoring people who organizers say lost their lives because of ICE violence.<\/p>\n
The Tampa Immigrants Rights Committee organized the gathering, combining the Day of the Dead tradition of remembrance with calls to end local law enforcement\u2019s cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.<\/p>\n
Participants chanted \u201cStand up, fight back\u201d and \u201cThe people united will never be defeated.\u201d They urged people to attend Tampa city meetings and contact city officials to advocate for immigrants\u2019 rights.<\/p>\n
Remembering people and their families<\/p>\n
Erain Boxtha told WMNF that organizers wanted to keep the people being remembered from disappearing in a fast-moving news cycle.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo D\u00eda de los Muertos remembers the dead,\u201d Boxtha said. \u201cIt kind of goes back to a tradition of honoring them and making sure that they are not forgotten.\u201d<\/p>\n
Boxtha said the gathering also recognized the relationships each person left behind.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese are not just stand-alone individuals. They have families. They have friends,\u201d Boxtha said.<\/p>\n
He wanted attendees to consider how closely those stories might resemble their own families\u2019 experiences. The people represented at the vigil, he said, could remind someone of an uncle or cousin.<\/p>\n
A message for local authorities<\/p>\n
Yunqing Zheng, who goes by Yoon, said the committee chose Centennial Park partly because of its connection to Tampa\u2019s immigrant history. Zheng pointed to a statue in the park commemorating immigrants who helped build Ybor City.<\/p>\n
The event also offered a place to share concerns about local agencies\u2019 involvement in federal immigration enforcement.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople are not happy that local law enforcement, such as the Hillsborough County Sheriff\u2019s Office, are collaborating with ICE, collaborating with DHS in the ways that they are,\u201d Zheng told WMNF.<\/p>\n
With Election Day approaching, Zheng said people deserve representatives willing to advocate for their constituents.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think what we can see broadly across the country is people want representatives who are willing to put up a fight against whoever to protect their people,\u201d Zheng said.<\/p>\n
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/IMG_3664-300x164.jpg\")
The Tampa Immigrants Rights Committee information desk. Photo by Daria Mironova\/WMNF News.
\nA daughter speaks about her father<\/p>\n
For attendee Lizett Chavez, the vigil held personal meaning. She told WMNF her father, Adelaido Chavez Mariano, had returned to his family after an August 2 traffic stop led to his arrest and eventual transfer to immigration detention.<\/p>\n
Chavez said her father is back with his grandchildren but still faces a November 5 hearing in Tallahassee.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re going to be right behind my father to show him that he\u2019s not alone,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Chavez described her father as someone who helped neighbors, including motorists whose cars had broken down. She said the support her family received motivated her to speak up for others.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need people to go out to defend them,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Detention data<\/p>\n
According to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, ICE held 65,765 people as of July 11, 2026. Of those detained, about 70% had no criminal convictions.<\/p>\n
Florida ranks fifth among states in average daily ICE detainees during fiscal year 2026, with 3,934 people.<\/p>\n
The vigil participants said community support and public pressure can help families affected by immigration detention make their voices heard.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Day of the Dead vigil organized by the Tampa Immigrants Rights Committee at Centennial Park, Nov. 1. Photo…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":445497,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[14115,1841,56978,30415,135,137,136,4325],"class_list":["post-445496","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-287g","tag-immigration","tag-immigration-protests","tag-news-and-public-affairs","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news","tag-vigil"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445496","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=445496"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445496\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/445497"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=445496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=445496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=445496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}