Alexandria Burris | IndyStar

Kelly Wilkinson, kelly.wilkinson@indystar.com

CRAWFORDSVILLE — A few weeks ago, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers visited Little Mexico, a beloved Crawfordsville restaurant. They were targeting a specific felon in the country illegally.

The agents arrested their target: a 42-year-old man from Mexico who had a 2017 felony conviction for sexual and domestic battery in Montgomery County.

But what happened next has created more than a bit of buzz in this largely conservative community of about 16,000, located roughly 50 miles northwest of Indianapolis.

ICE officers ended up arresting six other Little Mexico employees that day, all for being in the country illegally. And while some applaud a general effort to crack down on people who are in the country illegally, others here are sharing concern or are somewhat conflicted.

"It's a struggle for our community because it hits home," said Mayor Todd Barton. "It's very real. It's easy to read about and listen to things about immigration in the US, but this is right here. It's literally on our Main Street."

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Barton said some people in the community have reached out to him, concerned ICE was conducting raids and raising questions about how the workers were being treated. One question is why, if ICE was targeting a particular individual, did it question the others. Some people here also are concerned because the Bravo family, the owners of this East Main Street restaurant — and the people who employed those arrested — are as popular as the food.

"My husband and I had our first date here, 7, no, 10 years ago. We had a rehearsal dinner here before we got married," said Maggie Myers, a longtime customer. "We really like the family who runs it. We like the Bravos a lot. We just had our first son about 9 months ago, and she (Irma Bravo) brought us presents back from Mexico. It was really great."

Confusion over what happened

With its yellow facade, green arches and bright orange suns in its large glass windows, Little Mexico stands out among the other storefronts of East Main Street. A large sign displaying the restaurant's name in green, white and red letters — the colors of Mexico's flag — hangs over the sidewalk.

It's not the only Mexican restaurant in Crawfordsville, but it is the most popular in general. It can be hard to get a table there on a Friday night, residents said.

Irma and Ignacio Bravo opened the restaurant in 1993, about two years after they moved to Crawfordsville from Chicago. The Bravos declined to be interviewed for this story.

Some residents, like the Rev. Joel Weir, question what they say is ICE's secrecy about the arrests and the agency's presence in the community.

"I know our police chief, I know our mayor, and not even they were aware about this," said Weir, an orthodox priest who's worked with other clergy helping immigrants facing deportation.

ICE's official story of what happened at the restaurant that day leaves more questions than answers. Spokeswoman Nicole Alberico said deportation officers were partaking in a targeted enforcement action in search of the convicted felon. "ICE officers arrested their intended target, along with six others who are also illegally present in the United States," she said via email.

Among the seven detained, ICE officers encountered the 42-year-old man and a previously deported woman from Mexico, Alberico said. The woman had been arrested in 2010 by U.S. Border Patrol agents, deported and subsequently returned. The identities of the others is unknown. As of last week, the man was in ICE custody pending the disposition of his case and the woman was pending her second removal to Mexico. All seven remain in ICE custody.

Kelly Wilkinson/IndyStar

Alberico said that was all the information she could release due to privacy restrictions. She would not discuss what led officers to question the immigration status of others beside the person being targeted.

"During ICE enforcement operations, ICE officers frequently encounter other aliens illegally present in the United States," she said. "These aliens are evaluated on a case-by-case basis, and, when appropriate, they are arrested by ICE officers."

However, an ICE official said it’s a common practice among immigration officers to identify all persons present during any encounter as a matter of public safety.

The policy ensures that officers correctly identify individuals in violation of U.S. laws or have outstanding criminal arrest warrants.

In a separate email, Alberico said ICE offices routinely notify local jurisdictions of imminent enforcement activity or other ICE presences in their respective areas. Courtesy notice of an outside agency’s presence is a common practice among law enforcement agencies, she added, that helps prevent miscommunication and ensures that officers from different agencies are working safely in the same areas. Alberico said local law enforcement in Crawfordsville was notified and onsite during the arrests.

But rumors and misinformation swirled in Crawfordsville. Barton confirmed that he hadn't been notified, and the sheriff's office which typical houses undocumented immigrants for ICE did not receive the individuals. A spokesman for the facility said he didn't find out about the arrest until after they happened.

"The feds don't communicate to the locals," Barton said. "We don't know when they're coming or if they're coming so we were unaware of this until, basically, they were here and this was already underway."

Divided opinions

Crawfordsville is located in Montgomery County, where 73% of voters supported President Donald Trump, who made tougher enforcement on immigration issues and border security a core pledge during his 2016 presidential campaign. It continues to be a priority of his presidency — a priority that that has drawn considerable and heated debate.

IndyStar spoke to more than a dozen Crawfordsville residents, both generally about immigration policies and also in the context of what has happened at Little Mexico. For the most part, residents were hesitant to publicly talk about the immigration arrests at Little Mexico, emphasizing their desire to stay neutral or skirting around the issue.

"We're all immigrants in one decade or century or era. We all came from somewhere else so I think that it would be good if they would try to do things as legally as possible," said Crawfordsville resident Pam McCullough, who had stopped in to eat at Little Mexico one evening last week.

McCullough said she didn't have a problem with anyone.

"My only other thing that I have an issue with," she said, " is if they're going to live here they should learn to speak our language and not make us have to learn theirs."

She also said she believes those who come to the U.S. need to make an effort to enter and remain in the country legally.

Kelly Wilkinson/IndyStar

Ethan Hollander, a Wabash College associate political science professor and chairman of the Crawfordsville Human Rights Commission, found out about the arrests on Facebook and later someone emailed the commission.

Some people had panicked, he said. "I certainly noticed when I saw a Facebook posting about this. It was described as an ICE raid, where Little Mexico was raided."

ICE has stressed that what took place was not raid but a targeted action, but the agency's secrecy about what happened and lack of communication with city officials has stirred some of the angst.

Hollander said he doesn't think anyone in Crawfordsville, which he called "politically pink" with a variety of political ideologies, would celebrate the arrests. He says much of the worry appeared to be among a particular subset of the community that's more geared toward immigration activism.

"People like Little Mexico, I think that's fair to say, and the family that runs it," he said. "If there's some hardship that they've experienced, that's going to make everybody feel bad or at least wanna make sure that if — well, I don't know — they're OK and the business is OK."

Kelly Wilkinson/IndyStar

The Human Rights Commission has planned a special meeting for 7 p.m. Thursday, May 16, at the City Building on East Pike Street to discuss the arrests. Barton is expected to attend.

The arrests illustrate the complexity of the immigration debate, Barton said. Crawfordsville, a community experiencing a tight labor market, has benefited from families like the Bravos building their business there.

"There's a personal connection for people, but the reality is that there are existing laws and if you have workers who are here illegally there's a conflict there that has to be resolved," he said. "It's a sad result, of really, of the decades of failure I think of our country to realistically address immigration. In our case, you see a small community like ours that gets caught in the middle of it."

Conflicted in Crawfordsville

Crawfordsville residents speak highly of the quality of Little Mexico's cuisine, offering menu suggestions such as the vegetarian quesadilla or the authentic molcajete.

And some also speak protectively about the Bravos.

"It's not their fault," said Marla Ward, a customer. "I suppose they were in there looking for somebody. I hate that, I do. I have worked with families that are here illegally and we don't report that. That's just something we don't do in the social system."

Ward stopped into the restaurant this past Tuesday to meet a friend who recently had a baby. She recalled how the Bravos took care of families battling cancer, hosting fundraisers and giving them free food.

Ward said she had eaten at Little Mexico on Sunday and noticed older family members waiting on tables. That was unusual to her.

"That's not typical," she said. "I've never seen those family members who were older than I am waiting tables."

Wabash College student David Thomas said he didn't know how to feel about what occurred at Little Mexico. The Bravos had been kind to him, he said, noting that Irma Bravo had given him a free cheese burrito after their first introduction.

The immigration debate hits close to home for Thomas, who said he had an undocumented fraternity brother, who worried about whether he'd be allowed to stay in the U.S. after the 2016 presidential election.

There's also Thomas' own immigration status.

The college student from Mississippi said he immigrated to the U.S. from the Philippines in 2005. He said his father initially considered having the family cross into the U.S. via the southern border but decided that wasn't in their best interests.

And because of that — the decision by his family to follow the rules, even though it took effort — he, too, is conflicted.

"I did it all legally so I knew I was protected," Thomas said. "I'm not really sure what my stance is in accordance to that (what happened to the workers at Little Mexico) because I did everything legally, and I remember how long it took for my mother to do it."