The Indianapolis Liberation Center is proud to distribute the Indiana Assistance to Immigrants in Detention monthly newsletter and are excited about collaborating with and supporting the important work they lead. The updates, information, and more that follow are from Vol. 16 (September 2025).
A new look
For those of you who follow us on either Instagram or Facebook, you may have noticed recent updates to our pages – Indiana AID has a new look! For a while now, dedicated volunteers knowledgeable in website development and graphic design have been working in the background to build out a more comprehensive, professional and user-friendly website as well as to create a cohesive, high-quality new overall look for Indiana AID. One of the common refrains within our group is that Indiana AID has always felt like we’re building it while we’re flying it. A small group of people came together at the start of 2020, seeing a need to support immigrants in detention in Indiana, and they responded to it as best possible, which included a very simple logo and website at that time. There have been a couple changes since that time but now, five years later, we are grateful for our updated platforms from which to provide resources and to connect with others in the community who are passionate about supporting our immigrant neighbors in detention. We encourage you to take a look at the new website (more languages to come) and to give us a follow on Instagram/Facebook, where we share many immigration-related updates.
Upcoming events
Come see us around town and at upcoming presentations! More information and links to register will be shared on our social media accounts.
- 9/9 Coalition for Our Immigrant Neighbors (COIN) monthly meeting (virtual)
- 9/10 Indivisible Central Indiana webinar – How You Can Support Your Immigrant Communities
- 9/13 COIN’s Walk in a Refugee’s Shoes (tabling)
- 9/13 Bates-Hendricks Street Fest (tabling)
- 9/15 Panel event at MLK Center
The ever-changing face of immigration
The news cycles can feel like a whiplash for how quickly the information changes about the current state of immigration in our country. We’ve tried to compile an overview of some of the larger updates at the national, state, and local levels.
National
- A federal judge rules the “Alligator Alcatraz” detention facility in Florida be shut down
- Florida reports they will open a second detention facility, “Deportation Depot”
- The state of Nebraska has signed a contract with DHS to open the “Cornhusker Clink”
- A federal judge struck down the administration’s use of expanded expedited removals
- DHS terminates 2021 designation of Venezuela for Temporary Protected Status, impacting ~260,000
- The Trump administration will review all 55 million US visa holders for potential violations that could lead to deportation
- State:
- Indiana has unfortunately been significantly in the headlines with news about both Camp Atterbury and Miami Correctional Facility potentially being used to house immigrants in detention.
- Camp Atterbury
- Up to 1,000 beds will be dedicated to ICE detention; no current date for when it will begin to hold detainees; a protest occurred outside the facility on August 24th
- Miami Correctional Facility, aka “The Speedway Slammer”
- Up to 1,000 beds will be dedicated to ICE detention; no current date for when it will begin to hold detainees; a protest & prayer vigil occurred outside the facility on August 25th
- Camp Atterbury
- Clay County jail was recently the focus of an Indianapolis Star article, referring to the jail’s ICE detention contract as a “cash cow” for the county and providing a comprehensive overview of the numbers involved
- Clay has become a significant processing center for ICE detention in the Midwest, with many being brought through the jail on their way to another facility. Female ICE detainees are no longer held at Clay; processed then often moved to a facility in KY
- Close to 500 individuals were brought through Clay in August, with the number of daily detainees housed never falling below 250, often closer to 300
Local
- INDY RAPID RESPONSE IS LIVE – save this number in your phone: 855-589-4639
- By Indiana Undocumented Youth Alliance (IUYA) – call and provide time/location of potential ICE activity – they will send out a volunteer to confirm or debunk any reports
- Follow them on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/indyrapidresponse/
- Email photos/videos of potential sightings to indyrapidresponse@proton.me or via Instagram
- Indiana AID is beginning to provide some virtual visits to individuals in ICE detention
in Marion County, and hopes to grow this support as capacity and access grow.
Kenziu’s experience
[The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of Indiana AID]
“First of all, I want to thank this beautiful, blessed organization, Indiana AID – more than the material support, they were a moral support. I felt hope in each call with their volunteers and I felt like I was in family. My name is Kenziu Garcia, and I am Venezuelan. I am currently in Bogota, Colombia, but I arrived to the United States on September 18th, 2023. It was a unique experience in my life, one that has left scars on my mind and heart.
It was a hard trip because I made it through the jungle of the Darién Gap alone – I am a single mother and I wanted to come to this beautiful country with the hope of providing something better for my 3 children. In the jungle, I saw children suffering pain due to contamination and I saw death all around me. Thankfully, I was able to make it out of there and I traveled through five more countries. I was fearful as I got on the train known as “the Beast,” or as it’s also known, “the Train of Death.” I was also scared of the violent gangs that were throughout the countries I crossed.
On March 13th of this year, ICE took me into custody after I had already spent one month in a county jail in Columbia City, Indiana. A police officer had pulled me over and, when he saw I was undocumented, he took me to the county jail. I was there 3 days, paid bail and got out, but they told me I’d need to attend court. When I went to court, the judge said that I’d have to spend a month in jail – this didn’t seem fair to me as I am a person without any type of vices, and I’d only been working. There were more Hispanic people with me in court and they sent every one of us to do jail time. I feel like racism was a part of this because the officials were truly racist and they treated us with such contempt. After I’d spent the month in jail, they handed me over to ICE, where there, too, the officers were very racist. Sometimes in detention, anything requested, whether it was for medical attention, an article of clothing, a blanket, anything – they never attended to our requests. They made fun of us when we cried for our families. When they brought in the meals, instead of calling it “food” or “breakfast,” they called it “chow,” as though it were food for animals. This is not decent treatment; we are not criminals. The only thing we came to this country to do is to WORK and to have a better quality of life. We do work that citizens don’t do – we build houses; we clean what they don’t want to clean; we plant crops so that they lack nothing on their tables; in the restaurants, the plates come out as quickly as possible thanks to the labor of many Hispanic people who wake up daily with the hope and determination to work hard; nothing else.
Today I am happy and at peace because I am with my family and I realize that it is not worth it to risk one’s life in order to come to a country that has the same opportunities as any other; just as we have opportunities here, they are also in other places. I invite all my Hispanic brothers and sisters to not risk their lives for being here; it’s not worth it. If we can pick ourselves up here, we can do it anywhere else. MAY GOD BLESS YOUR HOMES! It’s free to dream and to be happy; do it now. Thank you for taking the time to read my story.”
Get involved!
Follow us
Website: IndianaAID.org
Facebook: Facebook.com/IndianaAID1
Instagram: Instagram.com/IndianaAID
Contact us
Email: IndianaAID.contact@gmail.com
Phone: (voicemail only): 317-721-4044
Volunteer
Currently, our greatest needs are for:
- Spanish-speaking visitation partners
- Visitation partners who speak languages other than English and Spanish
- Volunteer coordination experience
- Financial support/fundraising experience
- Social media support and data input
Donate
- Indiana AID is a volunteer group funded 100% on donations. Please consider a tax-deductible donation here!
- Shalom Mennonite Church is our fiscal sponsor-you will be taken to their site’s giving page where you will first select an amount to give and then choose the fund where you would like your money to go, “Indiana AID Fund.” None of the money donated to Indiana AID goes to the church’s budget.
- You can also donate by sending a check to the church with “Indiana AID” in the memo line.
- You can also use this QR code:
