Houston’s faith community gathered July 25 for a solemn procession and prayer vigil in solidarity with immigrants across the nation and the family of Mr. Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, who was killed by ICE in the Magnolia Park neighborhood of Houston in June.
Organized by the Migration with Dignity Coalition, “Houston United in Prayer,” which drew dozens of clergy and hundreds of faithful citizens to march and pray, was quickly put together to coincide with a national day of action and call to conscience to demand reforms to ICE practices and uplift the fear and suffering of immigrants in this era of indiscriminate mass deportations. Hundreds of similar events were hosted around the country, a campaign promoted by the National Day Labors Organizing Network and other immigrant-rights groups.
The procession began at Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church in Magnolia Park, where following a vigil Mass, participants processed together to the community altar where Lorenzo Salgado Araujo was shot by ICE Agents in the streets of his east Houston neighborhood on July 7th. The group prayed a social justice stations of the cross, sang hymns and recited the Divine Mercy Chaplet. Clergy locked arms as they approached the altar, where more prayers, songs and remarks were delivered.
Ronaldo Salgado, Lorenzo Salgado’s eldest son, led the procession carrying a large wooden cross.
The Houston-based Migration with Dignity Coalition, which organized the prayers, is a new faith-based grassroots movement founded by an Episcopal priest and her husband in October that is dedicated to upholding the human dignity and ending the dehumanization of immigrants through public prayer and advocacy. For the event, the Coalition brought together leaders from Episcopalian, Roman Catholic, Baptist, Lutheran, Methodist, Evangelical, Unitarian Universalists, and other faith traditions.
Responding to a last minute invitation, both Archbishop of Galveston-Houston Joe Vasquez and Auxiliary Bishop Italo Dell’Oro co-celebrated the Spanish vigil mass at Immaculate Heart of Mary and blessed the procession before it marched into the July heat.
Houston Catholic Worker, Vol. XLVI, No. 4, October-December 2026.
