Local groups, community members, first responders, and the local Catholic Diocese gathered on Sunday night at the Ozanam migrant shelter in Brownsville, five miles from the Texas-Mexico border.
The community held a Mass near the scene where eight people were struck by a motorist earlier that morning. At least ten others remained hospitalized.
The driver was in custody, and local authorities and the FBI investigated the incident as a possibly deliberate act.
Local groups in the community planned vigils on Monday, the first at 10 a.m. at Ozanam and another at Linear Park in Brownsville at 6:00 p.m..
La Unión Del Pueblo Entero (LUPE), the Rio Grande Valley-based immigrant rights advocacy, planned a vigil with border residents at 7 p.m. on the South Capitol steps in Austin.
“Our community is shocked and overcome with grief,” said RGV Welcoming Committee (RGVWC) on Sunday, a cross-border coalition of nonprofits based in the Rio Grande Valley that works to help migrants arriving in the region.
“People like those harmed today are human beings with hopes and dreams,” it added. The group called for “greater humanitarian assistance” and an end to the mischaracterization of border communities.
The group of mostly Venezuelan men who died on Sunday were waiting for a bus that would transport them from the Oznam migrant shelter to their next destination in the U.S.
Some had airline tickets, purchased by family members, to be used for a reunion that never happened.
LUPE said in a statement that the group was in mourning, and it awaited more details from the investigation over the “senseless deaths” caused “by a reckless driver.”
“We send our deepest condolences to their families,” the group added. “We are praying for at least 10 others who are injured.”
As authorities continued their investigation into a possible motive, migrants in the crowd told local media that the SUV's driver accelerated into the crowd “gesturing and insulting us.”
Domingo Garcia, president of LULAC, told TPR that incidents like the one on Sunday highlight a need for increased state and federal vigilance for the safety of migrants.
“I think it's very important that Gov. [Greg] Abbott not only talk about [sending] immigrants to Chicago or Philadelphia, but also look at protecting those that have legally been given status,” he said.
Garcia said both Abbott and the Biden administration need to pay attention to “right wing activity” as they create policies that affect migrant communities.
“I was there the day after the shooting in El Paso,” he said. “And now we have this individual who appears to be targeting migrants. This is a father, this is a mother, this is a son, this is a daughter. Look at what happened to them just because of who they are, not because they did anything wrong.”
Bishop Daniel Flores led the evening Sunday Mass at the shelter along with other local clergy who expressed “shock at the horrific loss."
“We must resist the corrosive tendency to devalue the lives of immigrants, the poor, and the vulnerable,” Flores said in a statement earlier that day. “Let us take extra steps as a local community to care for and protect one another, especially the most vulnerable.”
The Diocese works closely with the Ozanam shelter to provide humanitarian aid to families in cooperation with federal authorities who release migrants into the care of these local charities as part of the asylum process in the U.S.
Flores also said a prayer for the professionals and first responders in the closely knit network of local and federal organizations that have come to rely on each other.
“Pray for those who saw it happen,” he said on Sunday after the vigil. “They are devastated. The burden they carry is great.”
A migrant at Ozanam, unnamed and interviewed by Reuters just after the incident, expressed hope for the hospitalized survivors.
“We’re hoping they come out of this because they have a family on the other side that truly needs them,” the individual said. “I hope they make it for everything we’ve been through in fighting to get here only to arrive so tragically. But in the blink of an eye, God can call for us.”
