Dozens rally in Mount Pleasant day after ICE arrested 32, mourning families torn apart and demanding answers from local police

MOUNT PLEASANT, Ia. — Maria Gonzalez de Lopez’s husband was supposed to celebrate his birthday with the couple's three elementary-aged children Thursday.

Instead, he was in jail, one of the 32 undocumented immigrants rounded up a day earlier when U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers raided a precast concrete facility near Mount Pleasant.

Like many in this eastern Iowa town, Gonzalez de Lopez spent Thursday dealing with the aftermath of Wednesday's raid.

“You don’t know what’s going to happen, but you try to be strong for your kids," Gonzalez de Lopez said.

Across the country, work-site immigration arrests are up since President Donald Trump took office in January 2017, with ICE agents going after both undocumented workers and those who employ them.

RELATED: Here's how many ICE arrests there have been in Iowa under the Trump administration.

In the fiscal year ending in September 2017, workplace raids resulted in 311 arrests and netted $97.6 million in civil forfeitures from businesses, according to data provided to the USA Today Network.

Over the last seven months, immigration officials have started 2,234 audits of employers and arrested 1,143 workers, the data shows.

“This raid is devastating for the people who were detained, their families and the entire community,” said Erica Johnson, immigrant rights program director for the American Friends Service Committee in Iowa.

More: The Postville raid, 10 years later

People in the town are scared, said David Suarez, a manager of bilingual community development at Community 1st Credit Union. Rumors that ICE is showing up at other locations in town are spreading like wildfire, he said.

“Something changed after the raid," he said. "You can feel it.”

'They are separating families'

Carolina Avila stood atop a wooden box at a rally for families affected by the ICE raid outside the Henry County Courthouse on Thursday night.

Six of her cousins were arrested during the raid, she told the crowd of roughly 100 residents.

“They are separating families,” Avila said into a megaphone. “These deportations need to stop.”

Avila, who is a citizen, said she had to use her voice to speak for those who are too afraid to be seen publicly.

Brandon Nelson, 29, joined the rally after his shift at Midwest Precast Concrete, the facility raided by ICE officers the day before. He wore the work shirt of a friend who was arrested.

Nelson was on the road with another worker when ICE agents showed up.

With 32 workers out following the roundup, Thursday's workload was intense for those left behind, he said.

“It’s very nerve-wracking, just wondering where your job is going to be, are we going to have enough people to continue, will we recover?” Nelson said.

Some of the plant’s owners attended community meetings and the rally Thursday, but they declined to talk to a reporter.

“Some of those guys were my friends. I’m going to miss them,” Nelson said.

Town 'a little bit torn' over the raid

Sam Riepe, who owns the Vintage Raven antique store on the Mount Pleasant town square, said the town is "a little bit torn" over the raid.

Henry County is extremely conservative, Riepe said, and Democrats are "very quiet in this town."

Riepe and his wife, Jennifer, said they plan to post pro-immigrant messages outside their shop to make clear that it's a "safe place" for immigrants.

"We might lose business because of it," Jennifer Riepe said, "but it's the right thing to do."

Within hours of the raid, the American Friends Service Committee and a local organization called Iowa Welcomes Immigrant Neighbors connected dozens of affected immigrant families with attorneys at the First Presbyterian Church.

Men, women and children gathered around long tables munching on pizza. Neighbors carried in cases of bottled water. “No media,” read a homemade sign on the outer doors of a regularly scheduled meeting for a church group.

“I’m very sure many kids are waiting for their dad back home tonight,” said Ronald Carillo, fighting back tears.

Carillo has lived in Mount Pleasant for 18 years. He coaches soccer at the elementary and middle schools and he's an assistant coach for Iowa Wesleyan University’s men’s team.

When he heard the news of the raid, Carillo started calling people he knew, including a former player on his middle school team whose dad, he found out, had been arrested.

"We cried together for a while," Carillo said.

"But then I started thinking, 'I need to be strong and demonstrate to this young man I am the person who can help him,'" he said.

It's 'part of my job,' police chief says

Roughly 50 people peppered Police Chief Ron Archer with questions about the ICE raid Thursday afternoon during a community forum at First Presbyterian Church.

Archer said local law enforcement officers provided support for the raid after his office was contacted by U.S. Homeland Security.

It’s “part of my job” to work with state and federal authorities, Archer told the crowd. “This wasn’t our decision.”

The police chief said ICE officials gave him a copy of a warrant signed by a judge, but he declined to provide a copy to the Des Moines Register, instead directing a reporter to ICE officials.

The 32 men were being held at the Hardin County and Linn County jails, organizers at rallies in Mount Pleasant and Des Moines said. That detail could not be confirmed with authorities.

Archer tried to dispell rumors that police were going door to door, pulling people from homes and searching for family members of detainees.

“What should people do when they want to contact you but they’re scared of their loved one being taken?” asked Oscar Lopez, whose stepfather was arrested during the raid.

"I would encourage people to call us," Archer said. "If something turns up or we determine there’s a crime, like if someone is using someone else’s identity, we would follow up on that," he said.

Gonzalez de Lopez told the police chief that undocumented immigrants in the eastern Iowa town of 8,500 are too scared to call the police for fear of being arrested.

"Do you think people should live in fear like that?” she said.

PREVIOUS COVERAGE:

32 arrested by ICE agents on immigration violations in eastern Iowa

'I think I saw my dad get arrested': Mount Pleasant teenager recounts immigration raid

From March 2017: Family "hoping we are going to be OK" amid dad's deportation

Hallmarks of Postville

Residents of Mount Pleasant are comparing Wednesday's raid by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials that resulted in the arrest of 32 undocumented workers to another Iowa immigration raid 10 years ago.

This Saturday marks the 10th anniversary of the Agriprocessors Inc. meat processing plant in Postville that resulted in the arrest of 400 undocumented workers. At the time, it was the largest raid of its kind.

The Postville raid drew national attention with images of officers swarming the facility shown on TV screens and the front pages of newspapers.

“The lesson was: This is a mistake. This is not a way to enforce immigration law,” said Bram Elias, an immigration law professor with the University of Iowa legal clinic.

Barack Obama took office eight months after the Postville raid. His administration shifted course on immigration enforcement, concentrating less on work-site raids, said John Sandweg, a former ICE director under Obama.

“The MS-13 guys, they’re not showing up to work at 7-Eleven,” Sandweg said. “They’re not working in a meat-packing plant. When you’re talking about people showing up for an hourly rate job, that’s not where you find the bad guys.”

Since President Trump has taken office, work-site immigration raids have increased.

In January, federal agents raided 98 7-Eleven convenience stores in 17 states, initiating I-9 audits against the employers, but also arresting 21 undocumented workers during the sweep. In March, agents raided a tent rental business in St. Lucie County, Florida, serving a criminal search warrant on the owners, but also arresting 30 undocumented workers.

And in April, federal agents raided a slaughterhouse in Bean Station, Tennessee, accusing the owners of dodging $2.5 million in payroll taxes by paying its workers in cash, but also arresting nearly 100 undocumented workers.

— USA Today reporter Alan Gomez contributed to this article.