About:

This is an art project started in order to memorialize the people who have been killed by ICE. The goal is to provide an outlet to help to humanize the names that are reported in the news and to help the public engage with this information in a productive way. All too often, when the news reports on these events people’s humanity gets lost along the way, it is my hope that memorializing them with portraiture I can help to make the public more aware of their humanity.

Sharing this Artwork:

Because I feel that it is important to spread the word as much as possible I am making these drawings available to the public, the only thing that I ask is that you don’t sell them. The photos on this website are currently in JPEG format and you are welcome to copy or save them as needed. In addition to being able to use the images in their current form, you may also request custom files. All drawings are created as vector art and can be scaled to whichever size you need, I can also easily remove the backgrounds if you would like. If you would like print files in a specific size please reach out and let me know what you need and I will work to get them to you ASAP.

I am also a scenic artist with nearly a decade’s experience in set building and public art, and would love to make public large scale physical version of this project a reality. If there is anyone who would also like to see this happen, and has the resources to do so please contact me and let me know.

Who is Pictured:

I have done my best to find photos of everyone, and for the most part, anyone who isn’t drawn was excluded because I could not find a publicly available photo to refer to, or because I have simply not completed their portrait yet. However, there are a few rare occurrences where the subject has committed a crime that makes me hesitant to memorialize them in this manner. I will be including them in the list, and writing a brief bio because I feel that it is important to include them because they are still human beings, and because I feel that you can’t have an honest discourse about what is happening in our country when we exclude information that may make us uncomfortable.

Bios:

As of writing this, it is my full intention to write a brief bio about every person included in this project (this may change if things escalate to a point where I can’t keep up). I will be including information about them as a person, the events leading up to their death and any other details that I feel are relevant. I will also be including a description of their arrest records in these bios. I want to state that this is not in an effort to demonize them, but to make people aware of what that person’s history actually is. Rhetoric about how all immigrants are violent criminals, and that we are safer without them is commonly used to justify the actions of ICE. But, after reading up on the backgrounds of many of these people, I can tell you that the vast majority of them are nonviolent, and many do not even have a criminal record, aside from illegal entry. It is my hope that detailing this information in one place where it can be easily accessed will help to clarify the discourse surrounding this topic.

Sources:

I am currently getting the majority of my information on statistics directly from the ICE Detainee Death Reporting page as well as local and national news outlets. When I first started this project I found this article by Maanvi Singh, Coral Murphy Marcos, and Charlotte Simmonds very helpful in putting together the initial list. I will be linking to sources used in my bios at the bottom of each page.