‘They are literally targeting people.’ ICE comes to southern Illinois

CARLYLE, Ill. — When Jose Jeronimo Guardian showed up at a Spanish language traffic court this week, he didn’t expect to be detained and face expulsion from a country he’d lived in for more than two decades.

Guardian, 48, was scheduled to appear Monday in a courtroom where a county-provided translator would aid communication with about a dozen Spanish-speaking defendants who face charges from traffic infractions like his — two charges of driving under the influence of alcohol — to serious felony charges.

Guardian never made it into the courtroom.

Instead, an agent who said he was from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement questioned him in a lobby of the Clinton County Courthouse, handcuffed him, then loaded him into the back of an unmarked car and drove him to a Missouri detention center where he would await deportation.

Detentions at state and county courthouses would be banned under legislation passed early Friday morning. The state legislature approved a bill barring immigration arrests in and around county courthouses, and nearby parking lots and sidewalks. House Bill 1312, which would also allow Illinois residents to sue for civil rights violations, still must be signed by Gov. JB Pritzker.

Though instances of ICE detentions in Illinois have been centered on Chicago since President Donald Trump began “Operation Midway Blitz” in September, Gov. JB Pritzker said Tuesday there has been an uptick recently in ICE activity in central and southern Illinois.

“They are literally targeting people who are brown and Black, whether you are undocumented or not, and they are tackling people, detaining people for hours, zip-tying people who are U.S. citizens. So, they’re indiscriminately grabbing people who don’t look like the ICE agents, typically, and holding them or mistreating them,” Pritzker said.

Clinton County, where Guardian was detained, is a rural area 45 miles east of St. Louis. It is overwhelmingly white with just 4% of the population reporting they are Latino, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

ICE says he was deported three times

Guardian was detained in a lobby outside the Clinton County Circuit Clerk’s Office as he headed up the stairs to the courtroom when he was approached by four men who said they were ICE agents. They asked his name, then put handcuffs on him. One of the men identified himself as immigration agent said Guardian has been deported three times before — an allegation his daughter refuted.

As a reporter captured Guardian’s detention on video, one of the men asked a court bailiff to get the reporter to stop recording. The bailiff declined, saying video recording was allowed in public areas outside of the courtroom.

The purported federal agents walked out of the courthouse with Guardian, tailed by his daughter, Isabel, who was holding her baby. Guardian was placed in the back of one of the cars. Isabel Guardian asked for her father’s phone, then asked where they were taking him.

One of the men responded that her father was facing deportation and would be taken to St. Louis.

As they were leaving, the four ignored requests from a reporter for them to identify themselves, then got into their unmarked cars parked nearby and left.

“This is the first instance we have heard of an apprehension taking place at a Spanish- language docket. The targeting of a Spanish-language docket in a broad way would be troubling, as it might suggest that ICE officials — as we saw in Los Angeles and heard directly from their leadership in Chicago — are targeting people for the language they speak,” said Ed Yohnka, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union.

Guardian, 48, came to the U.S. from Mexico 25 years ago, according to his daughter. He worked in the orchards and fields around Clinton County as a picker and a rancher.

Guardian began drinking after recent stressors — a move, financial troubles and a family member’s health issues, his daughter said. He was arrested in July for drinking and driving and went to in-patient treatment but was discharged after a couple of days, she said. He was arrested again a week later, again for drinking and driving.

After the second arrest, Isabel Guardian said her father, who is undocumented, gave up drinking and wanted to address the DUI charges, understanding that convictions on those charges could jeopardize his ability to get a Green Card.

His public defender advised Guardian to turn himself in to ICE, Isabel Guardian said, but her father wanted to deal with his traffic cases so that if he was deported, he could return to his family someday. That’s why he showed up to court on Monday, his daughter said.

“He said he was willing to cooperate,” Isabel Guardian said. “He wasn’t fighting them.”

All of Guardian’s children have legal status, his daughter said, and his wife just received her Green Card, but Guardian remained undocumented. He was beginning the process of being documented after the rest of the family because it was expensive, Isabel Guardian said.

ICE activity seen elsewhere in Illinois

In the Metro East, Fairmont City is a village that for decades has been heavily populated by Latino immigrants — citizens, those with legal status and undocumented. ICE has been active in the area. Earlier this year, Marleen Suarez, a Fairmont City attorney, began offering free conditional guardianships for parents who are undocumented.

Suarez, who also practices criminal law, said she had three defendants scheduled to appear at Clinton County’s Spanish-speaking docket, but had rescheduled them due to a scheduling conflict on Monday morning. She said she was shocked but not surprised that ICE was targeting downstate courthouses.

“I am going to advise my clients to be much more conscientious from now on,” Suarez said. “I will work with the staff and judiciary there to ensure the safety of my clients so we can adjudicate their cases. It’s disheartening because our courthouses should be a refuge for those seeking justice.”

Yohnka, the ACLU spokesperson, said it’s not just traffic dockets drawing ICE. After reports of apprehensions at Chicago’s domestic violence courts, victims were failing to appear and complaints were being dropped, Yohnka said.

In Cook County, a judge issued an order two weeks ago barring the civil arrest of any “party, witness, or potential witness” while going to court proceedings. It includes arrests made inside courthouses and surrounding parking lots, sidewalks and entryways.

“The fair administration of justice requires that courts remain open and accessible, and that litigants and witnesses may appear without fear of civil arrest,” the order states.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has defended the practice of making arrests at courthouses, calling it “common sense.”

The newly passed legislation would address immigration arrests at courthouses around the state.

In Macoupin County, Ismael Sandoval Ayuzo, owner of Caldera Bar and Grill on Main Street in Staunton located about 35 miles northeast of St. Louis, was detained by ICE this week. A message on the restaurant’s front door and on their social media stated that the eatery would be closed on Wednesday.

The day before, Ayuzo, a husband and father of two who has lived in the U.S. for two decades, was delivering a computer cord to his children’s school in Staunton when he was stopped and detained, his brother said. Now, his family worry he will face deportation to Mexico.

“His home is here. His daughters are here,” said Ismael Ayuzo’s brother, Rafael Ayuzo.

Ayuzo’s detention launched an outcry in his hometown, planning a community event: “We stand with Ismael.” Chelsa Pruden, co-founder of Macoupin County Indivisible and event organizer, said the restaurateur was very involved with the community and the school, including hosting a recent fundraiser for the high school band.

“This community loves him. We are a small town and this has rocked us,” Pruden said. “I don’t think that anyone thought that ICE would come here.”

Isabel Guardian said she talked to her father on Tuesday. He was in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, awaiting deportation. His DUI cases were postponed to November but remain pending.

In Springfield, Democratic House members held a press conference at the Statehouse on Tuesday, suggesting legislative fixes such as safe zones around childcare centers, hospitals and courthouses.

“We are a nation built on liberty and due process, not fear and disappearance. No one should be taken from their family, from their home, from our courthouse, from the store or their job without cause or compassion, said Rep. Nicolle Grasse, D-Arlington Heights. “Our community deserves real safety, the kind that comes from justice, not intimidation.”

This story was written by Beth Hundsdorfer with Capitol News Illinois and Janelle O’Dea with Illinois Answers Project.

Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.