As churchgoers walked into Sunday evening Mass at Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Melrose Park, they saw a sea of crosses, including one of their own late parishioners.The family of Silverio Villegas González, who was shot to death by a federal immigration agent in Franklin Park last fall during the Tr ump administration's massive deportation operation in the Chicago area, belongs to the parish, according to the Archdiocese of Chicago. His name appeared on one of the crosses."Obviously, a mixture of emotions of once again facing that reality," said Father Brendan Curran, co-founder of Priests for Justice for Immigrants. "A mixture of anger, frustration but also empowerment that there's something we need to do now is the time for us to raise our voice."The names of people who had died in federal immigration custody or at the hands of federal immigration agents were etched on some crosses, while others read “never forgotten” or honored groups of people with the words “deaths of fathers at the border” or “deaths of suicide.” The project includes 103 crosses, counting all the people who have reportedly died in immigration operations since 2020.The installation is part of a larger project called the Immigrant Crosses, which travels to different Catholic parishes across the country to memorialize those who have died in immigration operations. Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church hosts an immigrant crosses traveling exhibit in suburban Melrose Park, Sunday, Oct. 18, 2026. The exhibit, organized by the Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago, honors immigrants and others who have died since 2020 while in custody or actions with ICE, CBP, and DHS. | Candace Dane Chambers/Sun-Times.Candace Dane Chambers/Sun-Times Thomas Hocker works with artisan families in El Salvador and Guatemala to sell their goods in the U.S. and funnel the profits back to the families. He spent most of Sunday outside the church selling goods like wooden crosses, woven scarves and small painted nativity scenes, and noticed people walking by the installation, taking in the names.“I get emotional because I know the origin of all this in terms of people I know and have worked with have wound up, one way or another, making their way to the United States,” he said. “The other ones who are suffering are under threat because of the attempt to throw out all immigrants. I feel the administration has a war on all immigrants as opposed to just undocumented ones.”The crosses are meant to honor those who have died and also inspire progress toward immigration reform and voter participation, according to Curran.“This side of this exhibit is a very clear indication that our system is broken, and we have to do something better than this for the future of this country,” Curran said last month at an event launching the project in Chicago. ...read more read less