Fernando Lorenzo-Raymundo, center, was arrested by federal agents who carry out Trump’s immigration dragnet. These two agents have been identified as also being present for a previous arrest in March. Photo by author
This article was originally published on the author’s Substack on April 7.
ICE Arrests Resume at the Courthouse
My phone rang early on Tuesday morning last week just before 9 a.m. It was Lis Pollock, head public defender at the Champaign County courthouse, who said in an angry tone, “ICE is here, they are outside Courtroom L.”
It was April Fool’s Day, but it was no joke. I finished brushing my teeth, hopped in my car, and ten minutes later I was outside of Courtroom L, which is traffic court, where I saw four federal agents waiting.
I had sat down with Pollock earlier this year before Trump took office to talk about what we might expect with the coming administration. She told me that Sheriff Dustin Heuerman had announced he would not allow ICE agents in the courthouse. So when ICE showed up last Tuesday morning, everybody at the courthouse was surprised. “Me being one of them,” Pollock told me.
Back during the Trump administration’s first term, ICE was appearing frequently at the courthouse to arrest people. They would often arrive on the day of traffic court where many show up to pay traffic tickets, appear for DUIs, and deal with suspended licenses. It’s an easy place for ICE to find someone they are looking for.
It’s been about five years since I’ve heard that ICE was arresting people at the courthouse. After the COVID-19 pandemic shut down everything in early 2020, and Biden was elected president, I didn’t receive the phone calls I used to be getting.
Traffic court was busy on that day, April 1, with dozens of people and their attorneys in court. It was interpreter call where those who speak Spanish or Q’anjob’al (a Mayan language from Guatemala) have access to a translator.
The four agents waited outside of Courtroom L until one man, Carlos Gomez, came out of the courtroom doors. Two of the agents followed him, while the two others stayed behind. When they got outside in front of the courthouse, agents stopped Gomez and handcuffed him. A silver Nissan with dark tinted windows and Missouri plates then drove up out of nowhere. Gomez was put in the back seat, and the car drove off. I documented the arrest on my phone.
The agents went back to traffic court and I stayed outside, shaken by what I had witnessed. Sheriff Heuerman came out to talk to me. He shared that two of the men were ICE agents, and the other two were FBI. I told him it was my understanding that he was not going to allow immigration officers into the courthouse. He said it turned out he did not have the authority to deny federal agents access. He admitted he was not happy with the situation. Sheriff Heuerman has stated since he was a candidate for sheriff that he would not cooperate with ICE, unlike his predecessor Dan Walsh, who had a common practice of handing people over to immigration, as I exposed back in 2018.
I went back inside to find the four agents still waiting outside of traffic court. Then one man, later determined to be Fernando Lorenzo-Raymundo, walked out of the courtroom with his lawyer. The four agents stepped in to follow behind him. Just before exiting the front door of the courthouse, agents put Fernando in handcuffs. His attorney James Martinkus asked the men who they were. Martinkus told a reporter for the student newspaper, the Daily Illini, “I don’t think (ICE) did inform him much,” Martinkus said. “They didn’t really speak Spanish. My client only speaks very little English, so I don’t think they’d have the ability, from whom they sent, to explain any of that to him. They didn’t explain anything to me either.”
As the agents led Fernando outside, I took photos of the arrest. At the corner of Main and Race Streets, the silver Nissan showed back up and parked curbside. They placed Fernando in the back seat and the driver took off. The agents then got into their trucks parked along Main Street and drove away.
Lis Pollock said Carlos Gomez, according to her records, was from El Salvador and had no family here.
With the photos I took, and the help of a friend in the Latino community, we were able to identify Fernando and his family, who are from Guatemala. The community responded by providing care and material support to the family, who are left behind without their primary provider. We learned that Fernando was taken to an undisclosed jail in Missouri and by now is likely transferred to a large ICE detention center down south.
Fernando was involved in an unfortunate accident outside of Strides Shelter in Champaign. He was charged with the fatal hit-and-run of James McCammon, who was killed while he was trying to cross the street in his wheelchair. It was around 6 p.m. on a rainy night, Tuesday, March 4, 2025. Fernando turned himself in at the Champaign police department two hours later. Tests showed he was not impaired.
The News-Gazette, our local right-wing newspaper, reported on the incident, highlighting that Fernando was not detained for McCammon’s death. It was thinly veiled editorializing against the Pretrial Fairness Act recently implemented in Illinois which eliminated cash bail. Was the News-Gazette’s reporting responsible for ICE agents taking notice of Fernando?
Shea Belahi, a case worker at Champaign County Health Care Consumers who knew James McCammon, was deeply saddened to hear of his passing. Still, she did not like hearing the news that Fernando was picked up by ICE. “I will never be OK with ICE taking ANYONE,” Belahi told me.
ICE arrests at the courthouse are a dangerous practice that undermines the logic of law-and-order types who voted for Trump. When people are afraid to appear for their cases at the courthouse, judges may be forced to issue warrants for people’s arrest. The courthouse authorities are well aware of the issues this brings up.
Even State’s Attorney Julia Rietz complained that justice would not be served when people are not allowed to complete court proceedings. “They’re still cases. If somebody was hurt or we have a victim,” Rietz said, “we want to get justice for that victim regardless of the defendant’s immigration status.”
This story is tragic all the way around. James McCammon’s life was lost, and now Fernando is being deported for what was essentially an automobile accident on a rainy night.
As Leonard Jackson has said, “There can never be justice, on stolen land.”
Brian Dolinar has reported on criminal justice issues in Champaign-Urbana for almost 20 years.
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