- Protesters gathered at Salt Lake City's U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services office to demonstrate amid reports of increased enforcement at the facility.
- Organizer Liz Maryon was monitoring those entering and exiting the facility and reported no apparent detentions as of midday Monday.
- Demonstrators say enforcement action at facilities where immigrants are trying to normalize their status is unnecessarily harsh.
SALT LAKE CITY — Demonstrators gathered outside the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services office in Salt Lake City on Monday as a show of support for immigrants amid talk of heightened enforcement action in the city.
"The reason we're out here today is because we want to send the message that Utah stands with immigrants," said Liz Maryon with the Salt Lake City Bail Fund, which organized the gathering.
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services building at 660 S. 200 East is where immigrants applying with the federal government to normalize their migratory status typically go for appointments and interviews with immigration officials. Last week, Jair Celis, an immigrant from Mexico married to a U.S. woman, was unexpectedly detained during a scheduled appointment at the facility with immigration officials, giving rise to jitters within the immigrant community and Monday's demonstrations.
"He's in deportation proceedings right now," said Andy Armstrong, Celis' attorney. "At USCIS, we were 30 minutes away from an interview, the end of which would have resulted in him being approved for a green card."
Celis' case isn't the only one that has immigrant advocates worried. Last week, lawyers and others who work with the community said they had received word that Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials planned to increase enforcement action this week inside the Citizenship and Immigration Services office, targeting other immigrants with appointments at the facility.
Tricia McLaughlin, spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which oversees Immigration and Customs Enforcement, wouldn't discuss possible enforcement activity at the Salt Lake City Citizenship and Immigration Services office.
"Every day, DHS enforces the laws of the nation across the country. We do not discuss future or potential operations," she said in a statement on Tuesday.
Still, worries about more enforcement action — Maryon said she's heard two people were detained last week after appointments in the facility — figured in the demonstrators' plans.
"ICE was planning on making some mass detainment today, and the fact that we called a rally — we're hoping that would deter them," Maryon said.
As people entered the Salt Lake office, Maryon would take down their contact information and an emergency contact if they were willing to provide it in the event they didn't exit, presumably due to arrest. As of midday Monday, she said everyone she saw entering had come out.
"So far, everyone's coming out within 30 minutes," she said.
One man who went to the office with his daughter, who had an appointment to provide immigration authorities with biometrics information, reported no issues on exiting.
"Everything was normal. They treated us very good. I don't have any complaints," said the man, who didn't provide his name. "I didn't see anything to make me afraid."
Armstrong said Celis had entered the United States legally on a tourist visa, but later overstayed it and "became out of status," drawing the attention of immigration authorities.
"But the law allows for individuals who have ... lawfully entered, who are out of status, to adjust their status and become residents. One of the ways to do that is by marrying an American citizen, which he did. He was fully complying with provisions allowed in the law," Armstrong said. His client was nearing the end of the process to secure legal permanent residency and a green card but is now being held at an immigrant detention facility in Arizona.
In a statement Tuesday, Immigration and Customs Enforcement said Celis had been arrested for overstaying the original visa allowing him to enter the United States. He's to stay in custody as removal proceedings unfold. Celis "is an illegal alien from Mexico who entered the United States in July 2007 and was required to leave by January 2008 and failed to do so," reads the statement.
While immigration officials provided only short responses, the demonstrators had plenty to say. As of Monday morning, around 30 of them were chanting and holding signs alternately criticizing Immigration and Customs Enforcement and showing support for immigrants. The demonstrators planned to stay until 3 p.m., when appointments with immigrants at the facility end for the day.
"It is beyond dismaying. It's horrifying how our immigrant population is being treated. We know that immigrants are the backbone of our economy of Utah," said Brigette Weier, pastor of St. Matthew Lutheran Church in Taylorsville and one of the demonstrators.
Those with business at the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services office are trying to follow the law in normalizing their status, she said. "We keep talking about following the law. That is what people are coming to their immigration hearings to do, and to be arrested and detained for weeks without due process is A) unconstitutional, and B) unmerciful," Weier said.
President Donald Trump has prioritized detention and deportation of immigrants in the country illegally, with increased enforcement action around the country. That activity has included arrests of suspects inside U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services facilities elsewhere around the country, according to news reports. Trump and his administration maintain that immigrants in the country illegally pose a public safety risk and drain public resources.
Weier, though, argues that the enforcement activity some of the immigrants face is out of proportion to any misdeeds they may have committed. "No one thinks people should be sent away for a misdemeanor. ... What's happening to these people is more illegal than their actual quote/unquote indiscretion," she said.
Chelsea Adams, another demonstrator, felt she needed to attend the protest to show support for her community.
"I have lots of friends that are of every community, the Hispanic community. I have a lot of love for humans, and I just can't keep sitting here watching what's going on with the treatment of humans anymore," she said.
Mark Etheridge said it seems like many of the people targeted by immigration authorities have no criminal records and that some are actually U.S. citizens. "They have misdemeanors or unpaid traffic tickets. You don't go to prison for that stuff," he said.
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