We Sing Their Names (With a Verse for Alex Pretti)

Lyrics by: Vicki Ryder
Gaggle: Triangle (North Carolina)
Tune: The Water is Wide
Date Written or Updated: 01/27/2026

We Grannies grieve and mourn today; 
It seems our nation’s lost its way. 
They’re sending thugs into our towns 
Where they shoot unarmed people down. 

These migrants sought a better life,
Seeking harbor from their strife.
But ICE has stripped their lives away,
And so we say their names today:

[Read names from list below]

We say their names and cry in pain,
To see it happen once again.
Now Renee Good, forever stilled.
By thugs from ICE who came to kill.

She went to witness in her town,
When goons from ICE just shot her down.
A wife and mother and unarmed;
Just thirty-seven, now she’s gone.

Now Alex Pretti joins Renee Good,
Killed in cold blood in his neighborhood;
A VA Nurse who did his best
To help and heal, now laid to rest.

So now we sing and rage and shout
And say to ICE: “Get the fuck out!”
Take your masks and take your guns
And stay away from our loved ones.

And though our hair has turned to gray,
We sing for all we’ve lost today.
In this country built on lies and shame,
We mourn those lost and sing their names.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Genry Ruiz Guillén
Maksym Chernyak
Juan Alexis Tineo-Martinez
Brayan Garzón-Rayo
Nhon Ngoc Nguyen
Marie Ange Blaise,
Abelardo Avellaneda Delgado
Jesus Molina-Veya
Johnny Noviello
Isidro Pérez
Tien Xuan Phan
Chaofeng Ge
Lorenzo Antonio Batrez Vargas

Oscar Rascon Duarte
Santos Banegas Reyes
Ismael Ayala-Uribe
Norlan Guzman-Fuentes
Miguel Ángel García Medina
Huabing Xie
Leo Cruz-Silva
Hasan Ali Moh’D Saleh
Josué Castro Rivera
Gabriel Garcia Aviles
Kai Yin Wong
Francisco Gaspar-Andrés
Pete Sumalo Montejo
Shiraz Fatehali Sachwani
Jean Wilson Brutus
Fouad Saeed Abdulkadir
Delvin Francisco Rodriguez
Nenko Stanev Gantchev