ICE Strikes in East Urbana

Roofing crew disappeared with barely a trace

At least eight men were taken by ICE in East Urbana in the early morning hours of Tuesday, June 17. My sources in the Latino community have not been able to track down any of them. Likely young men with no families, they appear to have barely left a trace behind. There’s just a photo of a maroon van with long ladders on top. A contractor confirmed they were roofers who had been whisked away by ICE. Another source said they were being driven toward Springfield, which is the direction others have been taken by ICE.

There was a social media post made by a community member with photos of the maroon van surrounded by unmarked ICE vehicles. Red and blue lights are flashing. It happened around 7 a.m.. The news spread like wildfire in the immigrant community. The post got more than 500 shares on Facebook.

There were reports of other arrests on North Cunningham near the 74 highway in Urbana even earlier that morning. But we have been unable to get any more details.

I was in Kansas visiting my mom after hip surgery on Tuesday morning when my phone started blowing up. (Shout out to my mom who is my No. 1 fan!) I’ve been putting together a small group of trusted people who can respond to ICE sightings. I sent messages to Luigi (a pseudonym) who drove to Urbana and within 15 minutes was sending me reports. The Facebook post was near the Casey’s gas station where University Avenue meets a fork in the road. Luigi talked to a worker there who confirmed he had heard about a “sting” operation but hadn’t seen it.

Luigi talked to a worker at the Shell station on Washington Street who said she had received phone calls about ICE in the neighborhood. “If Trump wants them so bad, he should come do it himself,” she told him.

Here’s another vantage point.

This was not the first time ICE has targeted roofers who work dangerous jobs high up on the tops of houses and buildings. Back in 2018, during the first Trump administration, I wrote about one man that was a roofer who had his electronic monitor taken off at the jail, then was arrested by ICE as he was walking home with his family.

Tuesday night, a meeting was held in the community to form emergency plans and prepare temporary custody letters for children. Many people came out, but nobody knew the people who got picked up that morning. Some stayed home from work the rest of the week. Churches warned their congregations to avoid mass on the weekend for fear of ICE raids.

Before Tuesday, people in the immigrant community were getting complacent, according to my source. Since then, people have also been taking action. The Latino community has its own networks of mutual aid largely separate from the rest of the larger community in the college town of Urbana-Champaign.

I’m hopeful that a network of allies is also starting to come together to provide support for the local immigrant community. It’s past time we get it together.

The number of immigrants in detention has surpassed 55,000, the highest in recent history according to Austin Kocher who maintains a popular Substack reporting on immigration data. The figure represents a growing number of ICE arrests in the interior of the United States.

Stay tuned dear reader. I made contact with a father who was arrested in Rantoul by ICE back in April after dropping his children off at daycare. He has agreed to an interview with me. More soon.

Until then, stay safe.

Lastly, with news of Trump’s bombing of Iran, I leave you with Sun Ra’s recording of “Nuclear War.” What you gonna do, Sun Ra sings, without your ass?

If they push that button

You can kiss your ass goodbye

What you gonna do without your ass?