Experiencing ICE enforcement in Columbus, Ohio
It all started the evening of Dec. 17, at the end-of-term/Christmas party for the ESL program. Sarah, the onsite director of the program, mentioned to me that she had heard that ICE had been active that afternoon at La Michoacana, a local grocery store owned by some of our parishioners. I quickly texted someone who works there to ask about it, and it was confirmed that ICE had been there that afternoon and detained a few people in the parking lot. Some of the ESL students texted to let people know that they weren’t coming to the party.
The next morning, the rumor was that about 200 ICE agents from outside of Columbus were now in Columbus to conduct some enhanced enforcement. By the end of the afternoon, this had been confirmed in the media. There wasn’t much reliable information beyond that.
As has been the case in other cities, these agents use unmarked vehicles. The only identifier they wear is on their tactical vests identifying them as ICE or police. As in other cities, they are often wearing balaclavas (masks) to hide their identity.
The way in which they are executing these arrests feels a little more like a police state than the ideal that is the USA. The result is fear in the hearts of so many, even among people who have a valid status. Across the country, there have been multiple stories of people with valid status being detained and some even being deported.
The weekend before Christmas saw attendance at Mass drop drastically. Attendance at our Spanish Masses was about 26% of usual. Average weekend attendance across three masses is usually around 1,050 people. Only 276 were brave enough to leave their homes that weekend.
Just before Christmas, our Bishop issued a statement of solidarity with our immigrant parishioners and gave a dispensation from Mass to all those who were fearful. The dispensation covered the whole of the Christmas season, to the Baptism of the Lord, Jan. 11.
On Christmas Eve, ICE activity seemed to slow down. The number of sightings around town had slowed to a trickle. This was consistent with one rumor we had heard since the beginning that this was going to be a one-week push. Was this a temporary lull or had their plan been for a short, intense operation? As I write this, we don’t yet know. The fear is that ICE activity will pick up again now that New Year has come and gone.
We currently have 12 names on our prayer wall of people who have been detained, four of them are known parishioners. Others are friends or extended family of parishioners. A local parish has reached out to us and offered some financial support to our parishioners who are either not working out of fear, or who have lost their breadwinner to detention.
A beautiful moment was on Christmas Eve, when over 30 people from a variety of community groups showed up in our parking lot for each of our Christmas Masses to simply keep an eye out for ICE. Fortunately, they just got to stand around. It was a lovely moment of embrace by the wider community.
We expect that once things have been quiet for a while that things will slowly return to normal. The impact of even this brief moment of ICE activity is further reaching than you’d imagine. Some people simply stay at home unless they absolutely have to. A neighbor who works for Instacart shared with me that on Dec. 17, the first day of the enhanced enforcement effort, she made a grocery delivery, which included the instruction that the groceries be delivered to the back door. The person was fearful of even opening their front door.
A young adult parishioner, born here and therefore a citizen, mentioned to me that she hasn’t been working since this all began. She’s a waitress at a local restaurant, and business at the restaurant has been so slow that there are no shifts available.
As I write this today, Jan. 2, it looks like the enhanced enforcement has ended, at least here in Columbus. That likely means that the work has moved somewhere else. If this quiet continues, things will slowly return to normal around Columbus. While normal is safe and stable, it is insufficient. There are believed to be between 11 and 14 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S. We have baked them into the cake of our economy and our society. We need to find a way forward that will allow them to move out of the shadows and live free of fear.
Fr. Steve Dos Santos, C.PP.S.