‘It feels hopeless’: Bloomington grapples with aftermath of ICE arrest surge

Editor’s note: Some quotes in this story were translated from Spanish into English.   

Joanna Hanner, an IU freshman, was watching TV in her dorm when she got a call from her boyfriend’s mother.  

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement had detained Manuel Alejandro Nadal-Ortiz, her boyfriend of over a year and a half, and she didn’t know what to do.  

At 9:45 a.m. Sept. 1, ICE detained Nadal-Ortiz and his friend César Cepeda Gomez in the parking lot of the Walmart on the west side of Bloomington. Both Gomez and Nadal-Ortiz are delivery drivers for Walmart and have pending asylum cases from Venezuela according to their families.  

The arrests came amid a surge in ICE sightings in Indianapolis and Bloomington.  

According to the ICE Detainee Locator System, both men were moved to the North Lake Processing Center in Michigan, where they were still being held as of Thursday. Hanner has been able to communicate with Nadal-Ortiz through paid video calls and texts, but she said the quality isn’t great. Each text message costs 35 cents, and each minute on a video call is 21 cents, Hanner said.  

Hanner said Nadal-Ortiz was given a navy-blue uniform to wear and has been allowed to watch movies and go outside to play soccer with other detainees. He complained about the quality of food and said the portion sizes have gotten smaller since his arrival.  

“He just looks overly sad, depressed and the color on his face isn't good,” Hanner said. 

Hanner and Nadal-Ortiz's family are raising money for an immigration lawyer on a GoFundMe page. Hanner hopes she can visit the detention center soon and bring him his favorite food — carne guisada.  

In the meantime, she’s trying to stay positive.  

“I don't want to get all depressing because it's not so good for him because he's stuck on the inside, and he can't really do anything either,” Hanner said.   

The fear of the ICE activity has traveled beyond Nadal-Ortiz and his family.  

María, a Bloomington resident and member of local Spanish-language congregation Iglesia Hispana, said her and her family didn’t leave their house for a week after the Sept. 1 detainments. She and her family have pending asylum cases, she said. The Indiana Daily Student is not sharing María's last name because she is fearful of ICE targeting her and her family. 

“It feels hopeless,” María said. “As if we were some delinquents, afraid as if we were bad people, but we’re not bad people. We’re not doing anything wrong; we’re only being useful to society.”   

María's family always keeps enough food and water in their home to last at least 15 days, in case ICE starts detaining people in the area. The only place María said she feels safe is in her home.  

“We still don’t feel calm going out,” she said. “We’re going to go out with fear, and we’re going to return with fear.”  

La Bonita Restaurant and Market closed for several days after the Sept. 1 detainments, along with the Reyes Tacos food truck, according to reports from the Bloomingtonian. Both have since reopened. La Bodega Latin Market clarified on social media that the “staff is safe and doing well” in response to online rumors. 

During the past week, Iglesia Hispana provided families with supplies such as groceries, diapers and baby food, María said.  

“The church took it upon itself to deliver everything they needed to their homes,” María said. 

Exodus Refugee, a nonprofit with a Bloomington office supporting refugees, also spoke out about the detentions.  

"ICE enforcement in Bloomington and any other Hoosier community is unnecessary and unwelcome,” Exodus Refugee CEO Cole Varga wrote in an email to the IDS. “Kidnapping immigrants who are being scapegoated for America's decline is racist and it is wrong.”  

ICE activity has increased across the state beyond Bloomington, prompting U.S. Rep. André Carson, who represents most of Indianapolis and Marion County, to send a letter demanding information about ICE activity in Indianapolis. 

Lucas González, communications coordinator for the City of Bloomington, wrote in an email to the IDS that ICE does not inform the Bloomington Police Department about their operations or the names of those detained.  

“We remain committed to doing everything within the bounds of our authority to support, care for, and ensure the safety of our community,” González said.  

BPD Capt. Ryan Pedigo confirmed that BPD did not assist in any detainments and had no knowledge of ICE operations in Bloomington.  

Still, María is determined to keep living and working in the city she loves.  

“I’m content here in this country,” she said. “I would like to stay here for a lot more time.”