Protestors rally outside Chesterfield courthouse as ICE enters fourth day of detainments

As the Chesterfield County Courthouse opened on Wednesday morning, Lisa Thompson, alongside five other local residents, stood outside the building to protest the continued operations of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials.

Thompson, who taught English to English learners in the county for 20 years, said she has been involved with the immigrant community, and doesn’t understand why the country is “expending so much money” to remove “hard-working people.”

“It just doesn't feel like my America,” she said. 

Thompson was later joined by about 30 others to denounce the agency's presence at the courthouse. 

The protest came on Day 4 of ICE operations there. Chesterfield Sheriff Karl Leonard said Tuesday that ICE officers detained 14 individuals over the course of the three previous business days. He was not able to offer a number of detentions on Wednesday afternoon, but did confirm the presence of immigration enforcement officers.

Amanda L. Pohl, the county’s elected circuit court clerk, said her office is not working or affiliated with ICE and called their acts “an unlawful attack on our community and a flagrant disregard for rule of law and due process.” 

She said her office is exploring ways to provide services to constituents to help them avoid ICE arrests. 

Leonard previously said he does not have the authority to stop ICE agents from detaining people at the courthouse, which is a public space, but worked to move them to side areas, so as to avoid confrontations.

Outside, protestors railed against the government’s actions.

“Courthouses are sacred places in a democracy,” said Nicole Martin, president of the Chesterfield branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). “[ICE is] eroding trust in the justice system, especially among immigrant communities.”

Martin said that consequences for their presence are devastating. 

“Communities stop cooperating with law enforcement, victims go silent, criminals go unpunished, and the rule of law, something we all claim to uphold, becomes selectively applied,” she said.

Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin expressed support for the enforcement action on Tuesday.

As of Wednesday morning, ICE officials had not conducted similar actions at the Richmond courthouse.

A traffic stop, then a detainment

Clover Hill District Supervisor Jessica Schneider said a man named Salvadore Calderon was detained Wednesday morning. 

She said Calderon was in court for running a stop sign and not having a driver’s licence. After appearing in court, she said he was taken to the cashier’s office inside the courthouse, which is where ICE officers apprehended him. 

“Can you tell me that, that is a violent criminal person that should be detained?” she emotionally asked protesters. “Where are we going in this country that we are allowing this cruelty to continue?”

Christian Martinez Lemus, a research and policy analyst for CASA Virginia – a national organization that advocates for minority and immigrant communities – told protesters ICE’s operations are not a matter of legality, but rather an issue of hard working people being sent away for “political purposes.”

“ICE is going after everyone, especially hardworking immigrants who are making a positive impact in their community,” he said. “It does not matter whether you committed a crime or not.”

At least one person publicly supported the actions. During speeches at the protest, a man walked out of the courthouse and shouted to protestors, saying, “let’s go Trump” and “God bless Donald Trump.” 

Rev. Daniel Wilson of the First Congregational Christian United Church of Christ, who was speaking at the time, responded to the man, saying “shame on you.” Some other protestors in the crowd shouted back at the man.

He later returned, recording protestors and saying similar chants. Eventually, all parties departed without any major incidents. 

Miriam Airington-Fisher, a local lawyer who has worked with immigrants for the last 15 years, said that ICE officers are going into courts to detain people with traffic violations, not serious criminal convictions. 

She said courts, like schools, are supposed to be protected spaces, because arrests occurring there can be disruptive.

“If the purpose is to detain people violating immigration laws, why would you arrest people following those laws?” she asked.

Airington-Fisher said that she’s also noticed that ICE has recently made attempts to detain people that are going through an immigration process, like seeking asylum, by calling individuals into their offices, like the field office in Chesterfield, to detain them. These individuals usually don’t have any criminal record and are waiting to proceed in their process, she said. 

“ICE is not being transparent about who they’re actually detaining,” she said, adding that she had an ICE-detained client with no criminal background. “They have no credibility at this point.” 

Despite the terror ICE is causing, Airington-Fisher said that she has seen immigration cases still proceeding, and some people are being approved legally to be in the country. She recommended that immigrants in fear of ICE seek legal representation, as the Trump administrations’ actions have been challenged by the courts.  

Contact Reporter Victoria A. Ifatusin at vifatusin@richmonder.org