‘They are literally targeting people.’ ICE comes to southern Illinois
[November 01, 2025]
By Beth Hundsdorfer and Illinois Answers Project
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 who identified himself
as an 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.”
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Guardian’s daughter, Isabel Guardian, seen here holding her baby
while the arrest unfolded, said her father is undocumented but was
attempting to first resolve another court case unrelated to his
immigration status before applying for a Green Card. (Illinois
Answers Project photo by Janelle O’Dea)
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 worries 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. |
