Close to two dozen people turned out Thursday in front of the federal courthouse in downtown Lexington for a national day of action in protest of the Trump administration’s many recent illegal detentions and deportations.
Across the country, people — some of whom have legal status, others who are working their way through the proper immigration process — are being detained, disappeared, and deported without warning and without due process.
The Not Above The Law Coalition (which includes Public Citizen, Stand Up America, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, Common Cause, and about 150 other members) called for this national day of action, asking people to assemble in front of courthouses and post photos to social media to help raise awareness of these detentions and deportations being conducted without due process, and the lives being destroyed because of them.
Despite a heat index of 99 degrees, the group gathered in Lexington’s Courthouse Plaza and heard the stories of people like Andry Hernandez Romero, who came to the United States in 2024 seeking asylum from persecution in Venezuela related to his sexual orientation and political beliefs. Andry was complying with all laws and regulations in seeking asylum. He trusted the system. Yet he was detained and sent to CECOT for having crown tattoos that honored a religious festival in his hometown, tattoos that were inaccurately interpreted as proving Andry had gang affiliations.
This was a common theme in the stories of the disappeared: young men, mostly from Venezuela, overwhelmingly without a criminal record of any kind, detained for having tattoos falsely described as signifying gang affiliation, and sent to CECOT without any due process.
One young man, 33-year-old Wladimir Vera Villamizar, had his entire right lung removed just weeks before his deportation, after damage from tuberculosis years earlier. Instead of the months of hospital-supervised medical care he should be receiving after such a serious surgery, he's been given a likely death sentence by being sent to CECOT, where conditions are poor and infections circulate easily. His family does not even know if he is still alive.
Following the gathering on Courthouse Plaza, the group of protesters took their signs to the intersection of Limestone and Short for an additional hour, where they were greeted enthusiastically by supportive honking from passing cars.
Thursday’s action is part of a national moral call to action for people of faith and conscience to ask sheriffs not to cooperate with ICE in these disappearances. In addition, signatures are being collected nationwide for a petition, and a letter calling on the National Sheriff's Association to stop enabling these abusive ICE arrests and detentions.
More information can be found at:
https://theimmigrationhub.shorthandstories.com/disappeared-in-america/
https://www.the-disappeared.com
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Submitted by Ellen Gordon
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