Ontario immigrant rights group placing 'ICE stole someone here' signs in community
A citizens group in Ontario is spearheading a unique and artistic effort to make the community aware of incidents involving ICE agents detaining and arresting undocumented immigrants.
They're placing signs at the locations that read, "ICE stole someone here."
"The original idea behind putting up the signs was to show people where these abductions are happening," said Michael Rios, who has placed 28 signs around the city so far.
"The (immigration sweeps) typically happen early in the morning around 6 a.m. It's before they're going to work, before kids are going to school," Rios said. "They purposely do it when people can't see what's happening.
"And if you don't see it, if you don't see it in the community, people aren't aware of how impacted we are by these abductions."
Each sign also has artwork depicting a girl releasing balloons into the air.
"One of the things that's really important is that we acknowledge the people most impacted by this are children," said Andrea Galvan, who's also placed signs throughout the community.
"This image of a little girl and her balloons floating away is so painful. It's a loss of innocence, a loss of culture, a loss of their family connections," Galvan said. "And we have to do everything we can to protect these kids with everything that's happening right now."
Some of the signs have been removed. For example, they believe many of the signs they placed along Interstate 10 on-ramps and off-ramps were removed by Caltrans.
But they say they have no plans to stop placing signs around the city.
"Just (last week) there were at least 10 people taken in Ontario," Rios said. "So there's a lot more signs for us to put up."
