It was an emotional evening at the Santa Barbara Courthouse on Monday as community members gathered to honor the lives of two men recently killed by federal immigration enforcement agents. 

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents killed Lorenzo Salgado Araujo and Joan Sebastian Duran Guerrero in Texas and Maine, respectively, in the past week in separate shootings involving vehicles.

The two deaths have sparked public outcry across the country, including in Santa Barbara. 

About a dozen people placed flowers and candles on a set of steps at the courthouse during a vigil on Monday honoring the two men.

Local historian and activist Michael Montenegro told Noozhawk he organized the vigil for the community to grieve together while also using it as a call to action.

 “I know a lot of people are hurting; I am personally hurting,” he said.

Community members spoke through a megaphone, some in tears, demanding justice for the two men and denouncing ICE. 

“It really does hurt me that Lorenzo and his family had to suffer,” Diana Ruiz said. “Enough is enough.” 

ICE agents fatally shot Salgado Araujo, 52, in Texas about a week ago as he drove his construction crew to a job site, the Associated Press News reported. 

A father of three, Salgado Araujo’s family described him as a hard worker, having started his own business building houses in Houston, according to AP News. 

After the shooting, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said in a statement that ICE agents were trying to stop a vehicle as part of a targeted enforcement operation. 

The driver, Salgado Araujo, “attempted to evade arrest.” 

“(He) refused to follow multiple verbal commands, and weaponized his vehicle in an attempt to run over an ICE law enforcement officer, resulting in our officer firing his weapon in self-defense,” officials said.

Salgado Araujo’s son, Ronaldo Salgado, told AP News that his father might have been afraid of the unmarked vehicles. 

Less than a week after Salgado Araujo’s death, federal immigration enforcement agents fatally shot Guerrero on Monday, identified to The Guardian by an ICE spokesperson. 

He was a 26-year-old Colombian native and a father to a young daughter, according to the Portland Press Herald. 

A Maine immigrant rights group told the publication that Guerrero had a Social Security number and was authorized to work in the country. 

DHS released a statement Monday afternoon that said ICE was conducting targeted surveillance at an address for a person with a final order of removal. 

ICE attempted to stop a vehicle leaving the residence. 

“The vehicle attempted to flee the scene and, fearing for public safety, an officer discharged his weapon,” DHS officials said.

However, AP News reported that U.S. Sen. Angus King had been informed by ICE that the agent opened fire after the man tried to use his vehicle as a weapon. 

The federal agents involved in both the shootings were not wearing body cameras, AP News also reported. 

In Santa Barbara, some speakers who spoke during the vigil on Monday said that they had hoped the local community would be more outraged by the recent deaths. 

“I have a lot of frustration, not with the head of the country, but with the people in general; there are so few of us protesting,” Maria Dolores López told Noozhawk in Spanish.  

She led the crowd in chanting the men’s names, their voices echoing off the courthouse walls.

San Marcos High School student Camila Tlahuitzo, a student leader with Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlán (MECha), asked through tears where her classmates were.

Tlahuitzo helped organize a walkout in February that drew a large crowd of students out of their second period classes in protest of ICE. 

“The day that we are here to honor these people, and they don’t show up, and that is not fair,” she said. 

Other speakers couldn’t help but put their family members in Salgado Araujo’s and Guerrero’s places. 

“I can’t stop thinking about how it could have been my dad,” Myra Gomez Labrada said.