As the sun set on October 29, immigrant activists set up a Day of the Dead altar outside the Otay Mesa Detention Center in San Diego. Usually, these altars honor departed relatives. This one was for the 21 migrants who have died in ICE custody this year.
Each of their names were written on a placard above a flickering candle and a painted monarch butterfly, the symbol of migration. The vigil was organized by Friends of Friendship Park, along with the American Friends Service Committee, Detention Resistance, and Free Them All San Diego.
Roughly thirty people from across San Diego came to take part, helping piece together the altar as security guards looked on from the detention center’s edge. At the center of it all was Nanzi Muro—activist, artist, artivist—a volunteer with Friends of Friendship Park, the coalition fighting to keep the westernmost reach of the border open to the public…