My drawings in the hands of protesters during the “Abolish ICE” action at the Hart Senate Office Building in Washington
On August 5, 2026, activists staged a protest against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement—the federal agency known as ICE—inside the Hart Senate Office Building in Washington, D.C.
During the action, organized by Women’s March, large banners reading “ICE Kills” and “Abolish ICE” were dropped from the building’s balconies. On the ground floor, protesters staged a die-in, lying on the atrium floor to symbolically represent those who have died in ICE custody or during the agency’s operations.
At the end of the action, several participants were arrested by U.S. Capitol Police officers.
In the photographs taken by Leigh Vogel for Getty Images and Women’s March, many of my drawings can be seen among the bodies on the floor, the banners and the police officers.
The Portraits in the Protesters’ Hands
This was not a single image, but a series of portraits dedicated to victims of ICE.
The protesters held them in front of their bodies like funeral banners. Each drawing bears a face and a name. In some cases, when the victim’s identity is unknown, only a black silhouette remains, accompanied by the word “Unidentified.”
Renée, Ryan, Jonah, Johan, Lorenzo, Keith, Alex, Ruben, Silverio. Different names and different stories, brought together in the same space through drawing.
These portraits were created to challenge a recurring process in political discourse and news reporting: the transformation of people who have died into numbers, lists and statistics. Drawing attempts to reverse that process. It begins with a name and restores a presence, a gaze and a body.
Seeing these works in the hands of protesters inside one of the U.S. Senate office buildings marks an important transition: the images leave the archive and the screen, become physical objects and occupy public space.
Drawing as a Form of Presence
A portrait cannot bring back a life that has been cut short, but it can prevent that life from being erased a second time.
In these photographs, the drawings do not merely illustrate the protest. They become part of it. They are carried against the body, raised in front of police officers, arranged in rows and shown to those watching the action from the balconies.
For a moment, the protester and the person portrayed share the same body. Those holding the drawings lend their arms and physical presence to the victims represented. The portraits, in turn, transform each individual gesture into collective testimony.
The images thus create a form of political presence. They symbolically bring the victims into a place where decisions are made about immigration funding, institutions and policies.
Inside the Seat of Power
The protest did not take place in a square or along a city street, but inside the Hart Senate Office Building, which houses the offices of U.S. senators.
This choice gave the action a precise meaning. Banners were dropped from the institution’s balconies, bodies occupied the atrium floor and portraits of the victims were displayed directly in the place where politicians decide whether to continue funding ICE.
The Women’s March campaign calls on the Senate to block funding for the agency and move toward its abolition. Its demand is unequivocal: “Not another dime for ICE or CBP.” Women’s March: Tell the Senate—Abolish ICE
Funding is not an abstract issue. It determines which agencies can continue operating, what resources they have and what degree of public oversight they face. This is why the protest brought the victims’ faces before Congress: to make the human consequences of institutional decisions visible.
A Counter-Archive of the Victims
These portraits belong to a broader project of visual documentation developed through Channeldraw.
Drawing the victims means building a counter-archive: an archive that begins not with official statements or images produced by the authorities, but with the faces of those affected. It seeks to preserve what the relentless flow of daily news tends to erase.
The drawn image does not claim to replace photographic documentation. It introduces another dimension: the time of observation, reconstruction and memory. Every line requires us to pause over a face and acknowledge that behind every name was a person.
In the photographs of the Washington action, this archive becomes movement again. The drawings are printed, transported, unfolded, raised and finally removed by the police along with the protesters. Memory does not remain protected in a safe place; it enters political conflict.
The Images Continue to Speak
The photographic sequence is powerful: bodies on the ground, raised arms, banners suspended in the atrium, portraits arranged throughout the space and, finally, the arrests.
Officers surround the protesters, collect the fabrics printed with the victims’ faces and escort people out of the building. Yet even amid the police, those drawings continue to speak.
This is one of the most profound possibilities of political art: to create images capable of living independently of the artist, crossing countries, movements and different contexts—images that become instruments in the hands of others.
Seeing so many of my drawings used together inside a U.S. Senate building means seeing the work of Channeldraw take on a new form. It is no longer only information and visual memory, but a tangible presence within a collective action.
The portraits of ICE’s victims entered a place of power. They were held high, displayed and photographed. For several minutes, those faces occupied a space that so often reduces them to data or excludes them from the narrative altogether.
That is precisely why I will continue to draw them.
Drawings: Gianluca Costantini / Channeldraw
Photographs: Leigh Vogel / Getty Images for Women’s March
Location: Hart Senate Office Building, Washington, D.C.
Date: August 5, 2026
Learn more about the Women’s March Abolish ICE campaign
ChannelDraw is independent and reader-supported. Your support helps us continue documenting artists, journalists and activists whose voices are threatened or censored.
Other ways to support ChannelDraw
You can also support our independent work by joining us on Patreon or Substack, or by purchasing a ChannelDraw Yearbook. Every contribution helps us keep ChannelDraw independent and continue documenting stories that need to be seen.
