INDIANAPOLIS — Protesters at the Indiana Statehouse have a clear message: they’d like to see ICE out of our city and they’d like to encourage Gov. Mike Braun to reconsider his executive order on immigration.
Gov. Braun signed an executive order on Tuesday for the state to fully cooperate with the federal government's immigration policies.
Dozens of protesters took to the steps of the statehouse Thursday to demonstrate their disapproval.
Yaretzy Lopez was there for all those who are too scared to be.
That includes her own parents — Mexican immigrants, factory workers, Hoosiers.
“Somos las voces. We are the voice. De los Aquellos. Of the people. Que son silenciados. That are silenced. Por el miedo. For the fear," she said.
Lopez is an Indiana University Indianapolis student studying education and legal studies.
She says many members of her community are scared right now.
“They fear that they’re going to get stopped and go to jail and get kicked out of this country. Just the driving now, the kids have to drive now because they’re legal here, unlike their parents," Lopez said.
Act Now to Stop War and End Racism (ANSWER) Indiana was the organizer of Thursday’s protest.
Volunteer Eli Morey says ANSWER stands against local law enforcement cooperating with ICE, ICE presence in Indiana, and deportations.
“It’s inhumane to break children up from their parents. It’s traumatic. Children should be with their parents. Parents should be with their children," Morey said.
Miguel Avila sees the damage ICE arrests have on families.
Avila works with Indiana Assistance to Immigrants in Detention (AID).
The volunteer group supports ICE detainees in Indiana by bearing witness to their experiences through visits, offering information, and providing resources like food or medicine.
“In the place I live, apartment complex, they’ve been raid by ICE agents," he said. “They’re breaking families apart. We have kids coming from school, coming back to an empty home because the parents have been arrested. They’re spreading fear and terror all over the place.”
WRTV has reached out to ICE every day this week to ask about raids and arrests here in Indiana.
We’ve yet to hear back.
Gov. Braun has previously said undocumented immigrants quote “abuse American generosity, costing taxpayers at every level.”
He says the executive order is a step towards putting an end to that.
