Hundreds of demonstrators marched from Uptown Normal to the Illinois State University quad Thursday for the second straight day, raising concerns about the Trump administration’s early crackdown on immigrants.
ISU student Viviana Perales was one of the organizers of the protests. She said she’s been troubled by the sudden change in the federal government’s approach to immigration. That includes a blitz of operations in the Chicago area in the last two weeks aimed at fulfilling President Donald Trump’s promise to arrest and deport immigrants living in the country without legal status.
Bloomington has already seen false rumors of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement [ICE] raids.
Perales said she has family members who are undocumented.
“No little 10-year-old boy should be crying that their parents might not be there when they come back home from school,” Perales said.
The two-day local demonstration began Wednesday, The Vidette reported. Perales said it stemmed from a group chat among Latinos at ISU who felt compelled to do something.
Perales said she was proud of the turnout and the support they received.
“It’s really hard, with us as Latinos in general, going to class every day feeling like we don’t belong. Taking up that space knowing that we do belong is what made us very much want to come out to not only support ourselves … we knew we needed to come together to unite as one,” Perales said.
A young person who identified himself only as J.C. said he was there because not everyone has the power or privilege to speak out. He held a sign that read, “Blinded by hate / fueled by privilege.” He’s concerned about people’s rights — being wrongly detained or facing unreasonable search and seizure.
Despite high-profile cases that have been used by Trump and his allies, J.C. pointed out that research shows there is no correlation between undocumented people and a rise in crime.
“We aren’t the problem. We aren’t criminals. We’re coming here for a better life. People just want to come here and start families and add to the community and do good,” J.C. said.
After the march, speakers addressed the crowd in Schroeder Plaza on the ISU quad. One of them was Sonny Garcia, a community activist who works as a downstate organizer for the Muslim Civic Coalition.
He said he planned to start a new nonprofit called Latinos United for Change and Immigrant Rights, or LUCIR, to illuminate the power of the Latino community in Bloomington-Normal and beyond.
“They’re scaring the community. They’re affecting our Mexican- and immigrant-owned businesses. We need help with that. We need Spanish-speakers who can lead Know Your Rights trainings all across the community. We need volunteers. We need donations,” Garcia said.
