Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
The only “ICE” protesters Sunday along Detroit Street in Warsaw want to see is the ice that appears when water cools to below freezing.
The protest was one of two scheduled for Sunday by the Northern Indiana Chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America. The other anti-ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) demonstration was scheduled to take place in South Bend.
Leading the chants in Warsaw was one of the organizers who said they go by Poe and is from the Warsaw area.
“We’re out here demanding that we defund and abolish ICE, especially after all of the most recent murders that they’ve committed, especially in Minneapolis,” Poe said. “Not that ICE hasn’t been hurting people before this, but it’s getting out of hand where they can do it in broad daylight and publicly execute people with no consequences.”
Alex Pretti was killed in a shooting involving federal agents on Jan. 24. About two weeks before his death, Renee Good was shot and killed in her vehicle by an ICE agent. Both were American citizens opposed to President Donald Trump administration’s actions on immigration. Protests have since grown across the United States in response to the immigration policies and shootings.
Poe bluntly said ICE does not need to exist. “We need it defunded and abolished completely because immigrant rights are human rights. We don’t believe that people should be criminalized based on where they were born, especially considering we’re all immigrants of some kind, shape or form,” Poe said.
The Northern Indiana Chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America covers St. Joseph, Elkhart, Kosciusko and Marshall counties. Poe said they are just now starting to grow their Kosciusko County group, “so that’s why we’re here today, to try and get people mobilized here. South Bend has been mobilized for quite a while, but we’re trying to get the other counties working and going, too.”
Poe said there could be more protests down the road, but it isn’t just a “Trump thing. This is a human rights thing, and Trump is not the only one violating those. Our goal as a community is that we want to see networking, we want to see mutual aid, we want to see people taking care of each other, we want to see the community thriving and growing. And so the protests are just a start to that to get to know each other, to come together in solidarity with a single-minded goal and hopefully begin seeing mutual aid stem from that.”
While Poe can see more protests, the hope is there will be a lot more moving forward than protests as well.
At about 3:30 p.m., the number of protesters was about 36. Poe said that was a good number.
“For Warsaw, yes, I am (happy), especially since we didn’t put this together until mid-week this week, so the fact that we got over 35 people out here on a 21-degree weather day with a few days’ notice, I’m pretty pleased. Here in Warsaw, that’s pretty good,” Poe stated.
If someone wants to get involved with the Northern Indiana Chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, Poe said they should check out the chapter’s Facebook page and reach out to them there.
“We definitely want people to be aware, to educate themselves on what’s going on, to get connected, to grow their community and stay safe and take care of each other. That’s what we’re here for,” Poe said.
Lizbet Tepo Velazquez, of Warsaw, said she was taking part in the demonstration because “there’s so much injustice going on in the world and ICE is just targeting our people based on their skin color, the way they speak and they’re not even going for the actual criminals and it’s scary to think that one day my hard-working family is going to get stopped by a police officer, by ICE and they’re going to get ripped away from me. It’s really scary.”
Sonia Ward, Angola, was staying in Columbia City with some friends and knew about the Warsaw protest a couple days ago so she decided to redo her sign and come over.
She estimated in about the past year, she’s taken part in seven or eight protests. While the Warsaw protest doesn’t stand out among the others, Ward stated, “It’s just important to do any time we get the chance to do it, I think.”
Ransom Beery, Bourbon, said what brought him out Sunday was “constantly seeing ICE just go buckwild and no one doing anything about it, so like, come on. Come on.”
He said the best solution would be for ICE to be dissolved. Something new would have to be created that’s more streamlined in its approach because “obviously, this has proven that they have too much free rein of what they choose to do. I think it needs abolished, make something that is strictly dealing with the criminal element and has a better accountability to it.”
Brent Beery, Etna Green, said the human rights abuses taking place against citizens and non-citizens are what brought him out Sunday.
“Basically, the abuses that we’re seeing perpetrated by Trump’s - basically army - that he’s commandeered ICE to do his bidding,” he said.
Having taking part in several other protests, he said Sunday’s was more focused on ICE and some of the abuses that are taking place by ICE.
Brian Smith, chairman of Indiana’s 2nd Congressional District Democrats, said he was at the protest for Pretti, Good and “the others that have been murdered by ICE.” He said he was there because they deserve justice and ICE needs to immediately leave Minneapolis and “quit the terror in our cities.”
The protests are “absolutely” making headway, he stated.
“It’s not overnight, but the public backlash that we’re seeing in Minneapolis of thousands of people taking to the streets every night in the frigid cold has forced the administration to fire (U.S. Border Chief Gregory) Bovino, but that’s not enough, but it is progress,” Smith stated.
