Advocacy organizations warn ‘we are all Kilmar'; pledge to fight for immigrant rights

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15 hours ago

Lydia Walther-Rodriguez, Chief of Organizing and Leadership Development for CASA Maryland, speaks during a press conference before Kilmar Abrego Garcia's arraignment and detention hearing in Nashville, Tenn. on June 13, 2025. (Photo: Cassandra Stephenson/Tennessee Lookout)
Chants of 'Todos somos Kilmar' — 'we are all Kilmar' — punctuated a gathering of immigrant, labor, faith and civil rights organizations who gathered at a downtown Nashville church Friday ahead of Kilmar Abrego Garcia's arraignment.
Abrego Garcia, a 29-year-old Salvadoran native living in Maryland, was detained after a traffic stop in March and then deported to a Salvadoran prison under accusations of being a member of the MS-13 criminal gang.
His deportation — which a Trump administration attorney admitted was done in error — has become a lightning rod for public opposition to the administration's immigration policies.
'Let's be clear: We are fighting because they are continuing to call this an administrative error, but there's nothing administrative about destroying a family, and this is not an error,' Lydia Walther-Rodriguez, a leader with immigrant advocacy group CASA Maryland, said.
'This is an intentional attack to Black and brown communities. Not just in Maryland, but all throughout this country, they are continuing to fight to erase us, and we must continue to stand up and resist,' she said.
Abrego Garcia came to the United States illegally as a teenager. A 2019 immigration court order barred the government from sending him back to El Salvador, where he said he feared persecution.
The El Salvador government returned Abrego Garcia to the United States in June to face human smuggling charges issued in a grand jury indictment in late May. The charges stem from a 2022 incident when the Tennessee Highway Patrol pulled over Abrego Garcia's SUV — which had nine Hispanic men inside — for speeding.
He pleaded not guilty at his arraignment at a Nashville federal courthouse Friday.
The group of organizations that met on the steps of the First Lutheran Church also included the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition (TIRRC), SEIU Local 205, Central Labor Council of Nashville and Middle Tennessee and The Equity Alliance.
Vonda McDaniel, president of the Central Labor Council of Nashville and Middle Tennessee, demanded fair treatment for Abrego Garcia, saying his case will not 'disappear in the shadows of a courtroom.' She also questioned the legitimacy of the charges against him, which were filed after his deportation.
'This is a clear attempt to criminalize Kilmar retroactively in order to justify what they did to him illegally, and to intimidate other immigrants (and) workers who might dare to fight back when their rights are violated … Today, we stand before you to demand justice, not vengeance,' McDaniel said.
TIRRC Executive Director Lisa Sherman Luna spoke of the Tennessee legislature's recent actions, including a law that created an immigration enforcement division that is exempt from public records and created criminal penalties for local elected officials who 'adopt sanctuary policies.' Another law created a new crime for harboring or hiding immigrants without legal immigration status 'for the purpose … of private financial gain.'
'What happened to Kilmar Garcia is a chilling example of what could happen to any one of us, because it's exactly what happens when those in power put themselves above the law, when court orders are ignored, when people are disappeared, when due process is erased,' she said. 'Right now, immigrants are being used as pawns in a broader assault on our democracy.'
Sherman Luna said Nashville specifically has been under 'full-scale assault' since ICE detained around 200 people, most of whom had no criminal records, from the city's most diverse neighborhoods in May.
U.S. 'border czar' Tom Homan, U.S. Rep. Andy Ogles, Tennessee House Speaker Cameron Sexton and Trump administration officials have since denounced Nashville Mayor Freddie O'Connell for condemning the immigration detention sweep.
'There will be repercussions' Homeland Security official targets Nashville mayor over immigration
After the detainments, O'Connell revised a 2019 executive order that requires some city employees to report interactions with federal immigration officials to the mayor's office, shortening the original 3-day timeframe to 24 hours. The mayor's office posted records of these reports, which inadvertently included the names of three federal immigration officials and one official's first name, according to O'Connell's administration. The posts were later removed.
Tennessee GOP leaders have accused O'Connell of endangering immigration officials and interfering with immigration enforcement.
O'Connell now faces an investigation by a U.S. Congressional committee, and Tennessee Republican state lawmakers have proposed legislation that would make it a felony for public officials to release immigration officers' names. The bill would also remove state and local officials from office.
'They criminalized the ability of local elected officials to protect immigrant residents, and now they're trying to make it a crime to even release the names of ICE officers, people with immense power operating without any public oversight,' Sherman Luna said. 'This is what governments do when they know they're acting outside of the law, when they're trampling on our rights (and) they want to do it with total impunity.'
District 17 Metro Nashville Council member Terry Vo, who chairs the Immigrant Caucus, said the state legislature 'has already stripped Tennessee cities of the right to take care of our people, from banning sanctuary policies to restricting (minimum wage increases) and to blocking worker protections.'
Cities in Tennessee and throughout the nation, she said, cannot 'comply in advance.'
'Let's not forget the freedoms we enjoy now were not gifted to us,' Vo said. 'They were fought for. They were sacrificed for.'
Tequila Johnson, co-founder and vice president of The Equity Alliance, said it's the same system that 'locks up Black bodies' and 'is deporting immigrant families.'
'We owe it to our ancestors … to the people who died, who fought for these rights, to continue fighting,' Johnson said. 'Because just because hate isn't knocking at your door right now, doesn't mean it's not on your street.'
Anita Wadhwani contributed.
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