‘Could Have Been Any One Of Us’: Freeport Community Holds Vigil For Renee Nicole Good

FREEPORT, NY. — As the world reacted to the news that Renee Nicole Good had been fatally shot by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent, Claudia Borecky felt she needed to act. As a volunteer with Freeport’s immigrant community, Borecky said she sees the impact of ICE’s deployment almost daily. When she saw that other communities were coming together to mourn Good this past weekend, Borecky said it was important to her to organize a vigil in Freeport to make people aware of the impact ICE activity has had on the village.

“It was a very last minute decision. We were seeing other ones were building up, and I was saying, ‘We’ve got to do something in Freeport, because it's happening in Freeport,’” Borecky said. “And people don’t think that. They think it's happening in Minneapolis, or it’s happening in California, and other places, but they don't realize that it's happening here.”

In about 24 hours, Borecky and a team of organizers from religious groups, immigrant rights and labor organizations put together the “Candlelight Vigil for the Great ‘R. Good,’” a solemn event that organizers said was meant not only to honor Good’s life, but also the lives of people who have died in ICE detention over the past year.

“We had clergy there. There was someone with a statement from the South Nassau Unitarian Universalist Church. There was a rabbi speaking from the Bend The Arc organization, we had people from the National Day Labor Organization Network, which really has to do with day laborers, someone spoke on their behalf,” Borecky said. “And we also had, at one point, a reading of all the names of everyone that's been killed by ICE or in ICE detention centers in the last year. And we rang a bell after the reading of each of those names. And you don't hear about them, because they're immigrants. You know, we hear about Renee Nicole Good because she wasn't an immigrant. She was an activist. She was an immigrant advocate.”

Also in attendance was Hazel Leon, a musician and music teacher who lives in Freeport. Leon was representing Asi’ Vamos New York, an organization she founded that she referred to as her, “in-progress nonprofit.” Leon echoed Borecky’s statement that the vigil had come together on short notice; part of how it came together so quickly, Leon said, was due to the strength of the community that has been built by south shore activists over the past year.

“Doing this work, I feel like all of the people that help the immigrant community right now, we're all connected. We're friends, and we make sure that we're supporting each other during this time,” Leon said. “I feel like it is a scary time to be able to do this work. We make sure that we keep each other safe during this time.”

That work, both women said, has taken many forms. Some days, it's as simple as showing up to a Home Depot parking lot with coffee and doughnuts for a group of day laborers. Other days might include passing out a "know your rights" card to someone they pass on the street. The goal of the work, Borecky and Leon said, is to make people feel supported.

"We make sure that people in our community know that there are people here showing support, because sometimes we've gotten reports that cars have been left behind, bikes have been left behind from laborers, even children left behind, either in their own house or even at the supermarket. It's terrifying," Leon said. "And it's happening at such a rapid pace where we, almost every day, feel like our communities are being attacked. So the only way, sometimes, is to continue to push back and make sure that we are supporting each other. If there's there's something that we can do, we will make sure that the immigrants have the support that they need from the various organizations on Long Island."

When asked why it felt so important to organize the vigil, Borecky’s answer was simple: It could have been anyone.

“I thought this an important thing to do because Renee Nicole Good could have been any one of us,” Borecky said.

For Leon, the vigil provided a chance to not only mourn the loss of Good, but show support for her Freeport neighbors at a time when they need it

“When we come together and we make sure that we are not only attending these events, but actively participating to support our neighbors, and be there for one each other, that's the only way that we're going to be able to provide progress for our communities,” Leon told Patch Thursday. “Because the immigrants are here. And they have businesses here. They provide for their families, they help out our villages, our hamlets.”