Pedmarlin Occelus wore a terracotta shirt and straw hat Saturday evening as he stood among a crowd at the intersection of Curry Ford Road and South Semoran Boulevard in Orlando.
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Occelus joined more than 50 people on the sidewalks to protest recent deaths connected to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The 32-year-old immigrated to the United States from Haiti when he was 12 and became a U.S. citizen in 2018.
The demonstration was part of a national day of action supported by the ANSWER Coalition — Act Now to Stop War and End Racism — a grassroots campaign with more than 50 protests in cities across the state and nation — including Gainesville, Pensacola and Tampa.
Occelus said he came to show solidarity with immigrant communities.
“As someone who is from a destabilized country, I do believe that until all of us are free, none of us are free,” he said. “When you are trying to have a seat at the table and you cannot find one, you find the necessary items to build yourself a chair.”
Three people have died in encounters with ICE since last week — including one in Florida.
A 28-year-old man, whose identity has not been released, died Tuesday after he reportedly ran from ICE and Homeland Security agents in St. Augustine. He crossed a highway and was struck by a semi, dying at the scene. Media reports said DHS identified him as a Mexican national.
The day before an ICE officer fatally shot Joan Sebastián Durán Guerrero in Biddeford, Maine. DHS said the officer fired “fearing for public safety” as Durán Guerrero tried to drive away. On July 7, an ICE officer shot and killed Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a 52-year-old Mexican national, as he drove a work crew to a Houston construction site, according to the Associated Press.
The AP has counted at least 10 deaths involving encounters with immigration officers since the start of President Donald Trump’s deportation campaign in his second term.
At the Orlando intersection protesters held signs that said “stop ICE terror” and chanted “the people united will never be defeated” as passing motorists honked their horns.
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Occelus said he fears for his safety as the Trump administration carries out its immigration crackdown — and he’s always had to look over his shoulder.
“I wake up, and I get out the door, I say, ‘If I make it back, yes, and if I don’t make it back, so mote it be,’ ” he said.
Caleb Pierre, 25, of Orlando, is a member of the Party for Socialism and Liberation, one of the protest’s organizers.
Pierre, a first-generation immigrant from Haiti, said he’s enraged by the deaths and sees them as a reminder that any situation could hit close to home.
“When I see people like that get murdered, I feel it. I’m like, that could be my family, that could be my friends, my neighbors,” he said. “It puts all of us at risk, even white people.”
“When you have a paramilitary force that is being weaponized against its own citizens, that is a grave problem,” he said.
Some attendees, including Occelus, gathered at the same corner hours earlier for a demonstration supporting Puerto Rican independence — organized by the grassroots group Flori Boris.
Claribel Avila, an organizer of that event, said the group was protesting the island’s repeated power failures and its residents’ lack of reliable access to clean water.
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Orlando Police officers watched both demonstrations from a distance.