Friends and family of the child pleading for information
Cory Davenport at The Lovejoy Desk:
Yesterday, in Morrisonville, Illinois, near Jacksonville, Jesus Alexis Cruz, 16, was one of three people detained following a traffic stop. Cruz, who was on his way to work from Collinsville, was taken by agents under the umbrella of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) alongside Hector Cruz Sanchez and Jonathan Godoy, who are each 19. Anna Bell, an Edwardsville-based activist who is close to the family, posted on social media and told me in Facebook direct messages that Jesus’s aunt and uncle, who are both documented, immediately sought to have the child released into their custody. They were denied.
Congressperson Nikki Budzinski (D), who represents this area in D.C., confirmed she was aware of the detention of three Collinsville teenagers. She told Ivy Lyons at The Telegraph that the taking of a child “raises serious concerns.” Bell said that Jesus was transferred to Texas, despite potentially being eligible for release into the family’s custody. The other two teens, who are legally adults, were taken to an ICE detention center in Ste. Genevieve, Missouri, which Budzinski herself toured earlier this week with fellow Democrat representative and AIPAC-funded primary candidate Wesley Bell, from Missouri’s contentious First Congressional district.
Anna Bell (no relation to Wesley) said that she was told the boys were pulled over due to a “license plate issue,” which she disputes, because the vehicle was a company vehicle. She believes the entire stop was due to non-white folks being profiled by rural Illinois police. Because Illinois police are not able to work directly with ICE under state rules, Anna Bell said the police took their vehicle, leaving the boys on the side of the road with their bags. It was at this point that ICE was alerted. She said the adults were sent to Ste. Genevieve, but told me that Jesus was driven by a random family to an ICE detention center for children in Texas.
Yesterday in Morrisonville, Illinois, terrorist ICE thugs kidnapped 16-year-old Jesús Alexis Cruz and 19-year-olds Héctor Cruz Sánchez and Jonathan Godoy. Cruz was sent to an ICE concentration camp in Texas, while Godoy and Sánchez were taken to an ICE detention center in St. Genevieve County, Missouri.
This is a disgrace fueled by the Trump Regime's punitive actions on immigrants, and also why ICE should be abolished!
See Also:
STLPR: Collinsville teens ‘kidnapped’ by ICE while on the way to work in central Illinois
KSDK: ICE detained 3 Collinsville teens on Tuesday, raising 'serious concerns' among family and officials
