Originally published in the Summer/Fall 2025 edition of the Virginia Defender, issue 77, printed December 11. Reproduced here for accessibility and archival purposes. To find other stories in the Summer/Fall 2025 issue or to download the full PDF, see this post. For other issues dating back to 2012, see the Full Issues page.

Staff Report

RICHMOND, VA, Aug. 11 — A multiracial crowd of more than 150 people gathered today in front of Richmond City Hall to demand that city and state officials take a stronger stand against ICE operations in the city.

The press conference and rally, hostedby the Virginia Defenders for Freedom, Justice & Equality and endorsed by a range of immigrant advocacy organizations, announced a list of demands that included prosecuting masked people who abduct residents without identifying themselves as law enforcement.

Endorsing organizations included Free Them All VA; New Virginia Majority; Virginia Immigrants for Life, Liberation, Autonomy & Solidarity (VILLAS); Virginia Muslim Civic League; Virginia Coalition for Human Rights; and the Rev. Rodney Hunter, Pastor, Wesley Memorial United Methodist Church.

Defender Fern Diaz-Castro opened the press conference with welcoming remarks and an explanation of the purpose of the event. Then Ana Edwards, chair ofthe Defenders’ Sacred Ground Historical Reclamation Project, read a statement from 21-year-old Ricardo Martinez-Cantarero, who was abducted on July 30 as he left his home in Southwood Apartments on the city’s South Side to go to his job at a nearby construction site.

Masked, plainclothed ICE agents in unmarked vehicles boxed in Ricardo’s car, smashed his driver-side window, dragged him out of his vehicle and took him away. Within three days he had been deported back to his home country of Honduras, which he had left at the age of 16 after his life had twice been threatened.

According to his family, Ricardo, who was in this country legally, had missed an immigration appointment of which he was unaware.

Diaz-Castro then read the rally demands, which previously had been sent to Richmond Mayor Danny Avula, Richmond Police Chief Rick Edwards, Richmond Sheriff Antoinette Irving, members of the Richmond City Council and other local elected officials.

The demands were:

• Keep ICE out of Richmond by passing and enforcing laws banning any coordination between local agencies and ICE.
• Defend our communities from invasive surveillance technology and the brutal policing committed by ICE.
• Provide legal support for immigrants who have been detained and financial support for their families.
• Stop expansions of detention centers and close existing ones.

“It is simply not enough for politicians to hold a press conference condemning actions taken by ICE without tangible plans to back it up,” Diaz-Castro told the crowd. “We need to see elected officials take concrete measures to protect all community members.”

And, she added, “If elected officials won’t protect us – we will!”

The full list of demands presented at the press conference follows this story.

Other speakers at the rally were Josue Castillo of New Virginia Majority; Gustavo Espinosa with Virginia Immigrants for Life, Liberation, Autonomy, & Solidarity, or VILLAS; and the Rev. Rodney Hunter, pastor of Wesley Memorial United Methodist Church, a historically Black congregation on the city’s East Side.

Chants like “No Justice, No Peace!” repeatedly rang out during the rally, as drivers of passing vehicles, including work trucks and city buses, honked their horns in solidarity.

Security at the rally was provided bythe Virginia Defenders.

The event drew a wide range of media, including all three local television stations, Virginia Public Media, Virginia Mercury, Style Weekly, Commonwealth Times and independent photographers Brian Palmer and Jay Paul.

The event was livestreamed and can be viewed at the Instagram page for virginiadefendernews.

According to the Richmond Times-Dispatch, from Jan. 20 when Donald Trump took office through June 26, ICE arrested at least 3,300 people in Virginia. Most were people with no prior criminal record.

As reported by the Virginia Mercury, Gov. Glenn Youngkin in February “ordered state police and the Department of Corrections to cooperate with ICE on detainer requests and information sharing, a move his administration said would help ‘remove violent criminals from our communities.’”

Further, Youngkin has ordered the National Guard to assist ICE operations in the state.

The full demands the Defenders sent to local and state politicians and officials:

1. We need to pass policies banning all local collaboration with ICE.

City Council must pass legislation that makes it illegal for police or any city agency to coordinate with ICE. We have seen other communities in the state do this. In late 2024, for example, Arlington updated its 2022 Trust Policy to strengthen protections for immigrant communities, after data showed immigrants feared calling 911. Their document was flexible enough to be updated in May 2025, in response to continued change in enforcement and the impact on public safety. Richmond can and must show the same commitment to public safety for all our residents.

2. We need to ban masked and unidentified policing.

The Richmond City government must declare it illegal for people who are in plain clothes, in unmarked cars, and wearing masks to kidnap anyone, whether or not they have a warrant. It too must be illegal for law enforcement to conceal their identities by removing badges or masking faces. Richmond must also pass policies preventing arrests without judicial warrants, transfers to other jurisdictions and deportations without due process and a fair trial. Judges need to be supported in creating fair decisions that protect our community, and officers who stalk and detain without a warrant and without identifying themselves must be prosecuted.

3. We need to ensure that Richmond does not renegotiate any contract with Flock surveillance cameras.

Flock technology passively surveills public space, collecting identifying data like vehicles, travel patterns and traveler identities and “high-crime” neighborhood dynamics — without requiring a warrant, and without making data collected public. This surveillance empowers police to act without accountability and saves vulnerable information designed to abuse our communities. We demand transparency.

4. We need to ensure legal and financial support for those detained.

City officials must use their influence and relationships to secure quality, rapid legal assistance for detained community members. This requires ongoing, genuine partnerships with immigrant communities — and prioritizing the needs and demands of those most directly impacted. The Richmond city government must also provide resources for families who have lost their breadwinner due to an ICE kidnapping or deportation.

5. We need to shut down all detention centers in Virginia.

We call on City Council members, state delegates and senators and U.S. representatives and senators to visit detention centers like Farmville, speak with detained individuals, and take action to stop the expansion of detention facilities and close the current existing facilities permanently.

6. We need to accompany community members to immigration court.

Elected local and state representatives must accompany Richmond residents to immigration court hearings to protect against ICE kidnappings and ensure public accountability during proceedings. We also need our city to fight for those who live and work here, and work to free those detained. We want all of our community to always come home.

7. We need sustainable sources of funding for the groups that have always filled in the gaps between our immigrant communities and local government.

Institutions like the Sacred Heart Community Center have always stepped up to bridge the gaps of access in our community to un- and under-documented community members, offering critical services like language training and GED classes as well as access to legal clinics. These safe spaces make our whole community safer, connecting people to community by providing dignity to those unrepresented in our local government. Protect and fund sanctuary spaces.

8. If elected officials won’t protect us — we will.

If our city and state leaders fail to act, we demand that all Richmond residents step up and protect our neighbors from detention, deportation, and police violence.

We have no other choice.