IRIMBO, Michoacan, Mexico: Family and friends gathered in a small Mexican town on Friday to mourn and demand justice for a 38-year-old father of two who was killed by an immigration agent during an arrest attempt in a Chicago suburb earlier this month.
Silverio Villegas Gonzalez left Irimbo, in Mexico’s Michoacan state, for the United States 18 years ago. He returned on Thursday in a coffin after he was shot dead by a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent on September 12.
On Friday afternoon, a somber procession followed his coffin to a funeral mass.
“We are in a lot of pain,” Villegas’ older brother Jorge Villegas told Reuters through tears.
“At least my brother is here now. We can finally give him a Christian burial.”
Villegas’ killing, just after dropping off his two children at a nearby elementary school and daycare, has inflamed tensions over US President Donald Trump’s aggressive immigration crackdown and highlighted the increasingly violent tactics of immigration agents.
“He was a good father. He didn’t deserve what happened to him,” brother Jorge said.
The US Department of Homeland Security said an agent fired his weapon at Villegas in self-defense after the man drove his vehicle toward agents. Bodycam footage and documents reviewed by Reuters showed a more complex version of events.
Both Illinois Governor JB Pritzker and Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum have called for further investigations into the ICE agents’ tactics.
“I truly hope that justice will be served. The way he was killed, the way things happened, cannot go unpunished,” Jorge said.
Blanca Avila, who went to school with Villegas, said she remembers him as a humble man and a good classmate, and that his death has stirred fears for her siblings living in the US
“They go out to work with the fear that immigration will arrive and do something to them, just like what happened to our classmate,” Avila said.
“We are humble and very hardworking people, just like Silverio was.”
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A Mexican town mourns father slain by ICE in Chicago
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A Mexican town mourns father slain by ICE in Chicago
- A 38-year-old father of two was killed by a US immigration agent during an arrest attempt in a Chicago suburb earlier this month
Australian bushfires raze homes in two states; firefighter dies
- Sixteen homes lost on Central Coast region in New South Wales
- Tasmania 700-hectare blaze destroys 19 homes at Dolphin Sands
SYDNEY/WELLINGTON: An Australian firefighter was killed overnight after he was struck by a tree while trying to control a bushfire that had destroyed homes and burnt large swathes of bushland north of Sydney, authorities said on Monday.
Emergency crews rushed to bushland near the rural town of Bulahdelah, 200 kilometers north of Sydney, after reports that a tree had fallen on a man. The 59-year-old suffered a cardiac arrest and died at the scene, officials said.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the “terrible news is a somber reminder” of the dangers faced by emergency services personnel as they work to protect homes and families.
“We honor that bravery, every day,” Albanese said in a statement.
A fast-moving fire over the weekend destroyed 16 homes in New South Wales state’s Central Coast region, home to about 350,000 people and a commuter region just north of Sydney.
Resident Rouchelle Doust, from the hard-hit town of Koolewong, said she and her husband tried to save their home as flames advanced.
“He’s up there in his bare feet trying to put it out, and he’s trying and trying, and I’m screaming at him to come down,” Doust told the Australian Broadcasting Corp.
“Everything’s in it: his grandmother’s stuff, his mother’s stuff, all my stuff — everything, it’s all gone, the whole lot.”
Conditions eased overnight, allowing officials to downgrade fire danger alerts, though the weather bureau warned some inland towns in the state could hit more than 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) on Tuesday, raising fire dangers.
More than 50 bushfires were burning across New South Wales as of Monday.
On the island state of Tasmania, a 700-hectare blaze at Dolphin Sands, about 150km northeast of the state capital of Hobart, destroyed 19 homes and damaged 40. The fire has been contained, but residents have been warned not to return as conditions remain dangerous, officials said.
Authorities have warned of a high-risk bushfire season during Australia’s summer months from December to February, with increased chances of extreme heat across large parts of the country following several relatively quiet years.
New Zealand national park fire
In neighboring New Zealand, five helicopters and multiple crews were working to put out a fire near the country’s oldest national park, a month after a wildfire burnt through 2,589 hectares of alpine bush there.
Police said they had closed a road near the state highway and advised motorists to avoid the area and expect delays, after the blaze near Tongariro National Park, a popular hiking spot, spread to 110 hectares by Monday afternoon.
Emergency crews rushed to bushland near the rural town of Bulahdelah, 200 kilometers north of Sydney, after reports that a tree had fallen on a man. The 59-year-old suffered a cardiac arrest and died at the scene, officials said.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the “terrible news is a somber reminder” of the dangers faced by emergency services personnel as they work to protect homes and families.
“We honor that bravery, every day,” Albanese said in a statement.
A fast-moving fire over the weekend destroyed 16 homes in New South Wales state’s Central Coast region, home to about 350,000 people and a commuter region just north of Sydney.
Resident Rouchelle Doust, from the hard-hit town of Koolewong, said she and her husband tried to save their home as flames advanced.
“He’s up there in his bare feet trying to put it out, and he’s trying and trying, and I’m screaming at him to come down,” Doust told the Australian Broadcasting Corp.
“Everything’s in it: his grandmother’s stuff, his mother’s stuff, all my stuff — everything, it’s all gone, the whole lot.”
Conditions eased overnight, allowing officials to downgrade fire danger alerts, though the weather bureau warned some inland towns in the state could hit more than 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) on Tuesday, raising fire dangers.
More than 50 bushfires were burning across New South Wales as of Monday.
On the island state of Tasmania, a 700-hectare blaze at Dolphin Sands, about 150km northeast of the state capital of Hobart, destroyed 19 homes and damaged 40. The fire has been contained, but residents have been warned not to return as conditions remain dangerous, officials said.
Authorities have warned of a high-risk bushfire season during Australia’s summer months from December to February, with increased chances of extreme heat across large parts of the country following several relatively quiet years.
New Zealand national park fire
In neighboring New Zealand, five helicopters and multiple crews were working to put out a fire near the country’s oldest national park, a month after a wildfire burnt through 2,589 hectares of alpine bush there.
Police said they had closed a road near the state highway and advised motorists to avoid the area and expect delays, after the blaze near Tongariro National Park, a popular hiking spot, spread to 110 hectares by Monday afternoon.
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