ICE Strikes in East Urbana: Roofing Crew Disappeared with Barely a Trace

Posted on 08/19/2025 by Brian Dolinar

The June 17 incident (top), and the van (bottom) that the workers were kidnaped from by ICE

This article appeared on the author’s Substack on June 24, 2025. It has been lightly edited for style.

At least eight men were taken by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in East Urbana in the early morning hours of Tuesday, June 17. My sources in the Latino community have not been able to track down any of them. Likely young men with no families, they appear to have barely left any trace behind. There’s just a photo of a maroon van with long ladders on top. A contractor confirmed they were roofers who had been whisked away by ICE. Another source said they were being driven toward Springfield, which is the direction others have been taken by ICE.

There was a social media post made by a community member with photos of the maroon van surrounded by unmarked ICE vehicles. Red and blue lights are flashing. It happened around 7 a.m. The news spread like wildfire in the immigrant community. The post got more than 500 shares on Facebook. Continue reading →

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Should Urbana Get License Plate Readers?

Posted on 08/19/2025 by Chris Evans

Champaign has had LPRs in place since 2022; here is one at the intersection of Kirby and Prospect Avenues. Photo by Alen Romero

Objection! Question is irrelevant. We ask the wrong question, and we are being given the wrong answer. We still haven’t answered the question the Champaign County jail consultant, the late Dr. Alan Kolmonoff, posed to us back in 2013: “What do we want to use a jail for?”

What data proves that the more spent on jails, police, prosecutors, arrests, and surveillance equipment leads to crime prevention and an overall drop in incidents of crime simply because we’ve built a bigger mousetrap? It’s been stunning that in the 50 years of a racialized drug war, the School of Social Work, the College of Law, the Political Science Department, the Police Training Institute, the College of Education, and the College of Psychology at the University of Illinois have all been nearly silent and lent little wisdom to solving our local problems.

We must stop our unrealistic expectations of law enforcement. As much as we wish it so, law enforcement simply cannot prevent crime, even with automated License Plate Readers (LPRs).

Continue reading →

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The Sangamon River Anthology of Champaign County Poetry

Posted on 08/19/2025 by Will Reger

This summer Reger completed editing and publishing the Sangamon River Anthology of Champaign County Poetry. Here he shares the foreword from that volume to introduce the project and offer a glimpse into the collection’s themes.

Poetry in Champaign County has long been characterized by Urbana’s Red Herring Poetry group, which for nearly 40 years has organized and published local poetry through its journal, The Matrix. Since those halcyon days, we have not seen such focused efforts from poets setting a standard for literary efforts in our area.

It has long been an objective of mine to bring local poets together and forge some semblance of unity among them. In our community, poetry groups abound, but I have not witnessed much individual crossover and mingling of muses. This anthology is an effort to do just that by publishing the poetry of several members of groups together in a single volume that purports to be a representation of the very best work done by a wide variety of current local poets, ranging in age from 18 to 80.

Continue reading →

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America, I’m Writing You a Poem

Posted on 08/19/2025 by Will Reger

America, I’m writing you a poem:

All words I learned at your side,In these days of your decline, reaching
Up to regain yourself, to get back
To a state of reason and equanimity.
Though your path is nearly severed,
And the man with the knife is still
Loose in your head.

You need me:

Continue reading →

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August Issue Back Cover

Posted on 08/18/2025 by Public i

LOCAL PROTESTS

Demonstrators march by the courthouse in Urbana June 18 (a few days before the US bombing of Iran), protesting the US-backed Israeli bombing and potential US escalation. Photo by Janice Jayes

Gaza protest in downtown Urbana on July 21

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Summer Issue Front Cover

Posted on 06/30/2025 by Public i

BELDEN FIELDS (1937–2024): SCHOLAR, ORGANIZER, ACTIVIST, SOCIALIST

Belden in his campus office, 1988

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Belden Fields: Organizer for Justice

Posted on 06/30/2025 by Jim Barrett

Belden preparing for a PACA solidarity demonstration, 1991

Anyone who knew Belden Fields understands that he was an institution in Champaign-Urbana, someone who injected a message of social justice into our daily lives. Everyone will have their own way of remembering him. He was very smart, very funny, and very friendly toward all. But he was also a serious socialist and union member active in just about any movement that promised greater fairness and equality. I came to know him well on a personal level through this labor and socialist activism.

I first met Belden in the 1980s through PACA, the Peoples’ Alliance on Central America. My wife Jenny Barrett and I had been active around Central American issues when we lived in North Carolina, and Belden and many other wonderful people offered us a chance to continue this work. We were on the sidelines; Belden was at the center. From this point in the eighties, he and his life partner Jane Mohraz welcomed us into this community and enhanced our lives here. Continue reading →

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Belden’s Democratic Socialist Vision

Posted on 06/30/2025 by Pat Simpson

Belden cooking communally for a People’s Alliance for Central America (PACA) event

What are we to make of the current horrors of a globally ascendent authoritarianism, an authoritarianism bred in the toxic soil of neoliberalism and the aftermath of the wars in Iraq and Latin America that sent desperate migrants knocking on the United States’ and Western Europe’s doors? Arguably these developments support longstanding arguments that late capitalism’s trajectory is ultimately incompatible with democracy as well as with a state’s ability to provide for the material needs of all its citizenry. This is the barbarism before us, but given how this brand of barbarism also ignores the existential climate crisis, it is not just barbarous but apocalyptic in its implications.

Belden Fields was someone who believed that there was an alternative to capitalism, an alternative that he identified as democratic socialism. Belden did not always wear his socialist perspective on his sleeve, a stance that any good organizer in contemporary America is wise to adopt. Indeed, I am sure there are many in our community, including many who worked with him in the multiple social justice campaigns he engaged in, who had no idea of this aspect of his identity. Even I, who worked with Belden in two socialist-identified organizations, never had a full-blown, in-depth conversation with him in which he elaborated his views. To understand Belden’s democratic socialist perspective, one must look at his engagement with these two local organizations, as well as examining his writings on human rights in which his socialist outlook, to my mind, is embedded. Continue reading →

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Belden Fields: Human Rights Scholar

Posted on 06/30/2025 by Walter Feinberg

Review

Belden’s book Rethinking Human Rights for the New Millennium (2003), addresses a conflict among three human rights theories and provides a compelling synthesis of the three.

According to The Declaration of Independence, “All men are created equal, . . . they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights.” These 15 words provide the basis for the three competing theories of human rights, which I call the Naturalist, the Constructivist and the Marxist. Continue reading →

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A Belden Fields Memory

Posted on 06/30/2025 by Jeff Machota

It’s February 8, 1990. The U of I Board of Trustees are meeting. The Coalition Against State Sponsored Terrorism (CASST) is protesting against CIA recruitment on campus. We have members inside the meeting planning to disrupt, but not get arrested. We have members outside, in the halls of the first floor of the Illini Union. The inside protestors leave. We are marching in a circle. A cop comes up to me (“group leader” and suspect, according to the police report). He is trying to tell me no signs are allowed in the Union. I say there is no such rule. We go back and forth and I can tell I have irritated him. I signal for the rest of us to leave and we head out the door to go outside while chanting. They f***ing grab the last three people in line and arrest them. Later, they try and justify their actions by citing the “no picketing” rule, which we later argue is about impeding access to the building, which the dozen or so of us were not doing.

Professor Belden Fields is outraged. The next day he takes a hand-made sign that says “NO CIA recruiting on campus. They try and pull the same bulls*** on Belden, but they refuse to arrest him. This makes Belden furious. I think he went back one or two more times before they finally arrested him. Continue reading →

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Belden’s Work in the Union of Professional Employees and Campus Faculty Association

Posted on 06/30/2025 by Al Kagan

Belden with farmworker leader Cesar Chavez, 1987

I worked closely with Belden in the Union of Professional Employees (UPE) and later in the Campus Faculty Association (CFA). UPE voted to change its name to CFA in 2007. This article is an attempt to reconstruct Belden’s work in these University of Illinois labor organizations for the period when Belden and I worked together on their executive committees. Although neither ever achieved official bargaining-unit status, they nevertheless had an impact on campus policies by issuing statements, holding demonstrations, and allying with other official campus unions around various issues. UPE and CFA also had a union caucus in the University of Illinois Academic Senate, which I was pleased to chair for many years, and had a significant influence on what happened there. Belden was a cofounding member of UPE, and an active member of the Senate for a long time. He served on the Senate’s Equal Opportunity Committee, and also represented UPE on the Champaign County AFL-CIO for over two decades, during which time he was both treasurer and recording secretary. And of course UPE and the county AFL-CIO supported numerous campus and other union contract campaigns over the years, and especially the right of academic professionals and graduate students to form unions. UPE/CFA membership hovered around 200 to 250 members for the years I am covering in this article, 1998 to 2007. Hopefully others will be able to fill in more around his earlier union activities. Belden retired in 2000, and gradually reduced his involvement in campus affairs to concentrate more on issues in the larger community. Continue reading →

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Belden Rests in Solidarity

Posted on 06/30/2025 by Danielle Chynoweth

Belden speaking at a Peoples’ Alliance for Central America (PACA) dinner, 1991

When I hear the word solidarity, the first person I think of is the late Professor Belden Fields; may his spirit rest in power. On the 25th anniversary of the Urbana-Champaign Independent Media Center, we honor our dear friend Belden, board member and cofounder of and fundraiser for our IMC. He was cofounder of the Public i, the longest-running independent newspaper in our community, and backbone of its editorial collective, continuing to show up for its meetings until the end of his days. We worked most closely together as members of Champaign-Urbana Citizens for Peace and Justice (CUCPJ), a Black-led multiracial grassroots group that met at the IMC and organized for racial justice from 2004 to 2017.

Belden was a public intellectual and fierce advocate for the people who, in the words of artist and now Urbana City Councilmember Chris Evans, “came out of the ivory tower and marched with us freedom fighters in the mud.” Belden showed up for justice time and time again: at city council, the courthouse, county board, unity marches, and protests. He was an advocate, thought leader, lover of fine wine and good conversation, and dear colleague and mentor; we still mourn his passing. Continue reading →

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In Celebration of My Political Advisor-Turned-Surrogate Father: Belden Fields‬

Posted on 06/30/2025 by Carol Ammons

The author with Belden

In 2025, in my eleventh year serving Champaign-Urbana as state representative, the world seems to be coming apart at the seams. We have a madman in the White House, who is shredding the last remnants of dignity our country had on the world stage. The structural issues domestically; income inequality; the racial injustice system; the worsening climate crisis; and so much more loom large on my work in Springfield.

Times like these remind me of the beginning of my career in public service, and the man I would call upon for policy advice and the wisdom he so graciously gifted upon anyone with curiosity: the late Belden Fields. Continue reading →

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Belden’s French Connection

Posted on 06/30/2025 by Marie-Claude Smouts

Belden in Tunesia, 1972

I met Belden in 1963. We both were residents at the Cité Universitaire Internationale and attended the same seminar on the 1930s at the Paris Institute of Political Studies (Sciences Po). It was the start of a close friendship spanning more than 60 years.

During his two years in Paris, Belden was doing his PhD dissertation research on “student syndicalism” by studying the oldest and most powerful student organization in France, the Union Nationale des Etudiants Français (National Union of French Students) (UNEF). It was a huge challenge. There were almost no analyses of student power and its structures, very few articles on UNEF, and certainly no books on it. Moreover, UNEF was a composite organization with many currents, torn apart by national and international political events, especially the Algerian war. Belden meticulously traced the main events in the history of UNEF from its official creation in 1907 to the mid-’60s: its structures and leadership, characteristics of the student activists, and affiliations with other organizations. When published in 1970, his book Student Politics in France was praised by the venerable Revue Française de Sociologie in its January-March 1972 issue for “the quality of the book and the vividness of the narrative. . . . The erudition he draws on is impressive, [and] the sources of information he uses are very comprehensive.” Continue reading →

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Belden’s Public i Articles

Posted on 06/29/2025 by Public i

“Economic Human Rights in Champaign County: A Living Wage,” September 2001

“September 11—An Attack on Human Rights,” October 2001

“Universities and the ‘War on Terrorism,’” November 2001

“Administration and the Attempted Coup in Venezuela,” No. 6, 2002

“Protesters as Targets,” November 2002 Continue reading →

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Summer Issue Back Cover

Posted on 06/29/2025 by Public i

Belden (left) at the 1992 Champaign County Fourth of July parade

Community Memorial

We hope you appreciate this special issue of the Public i remembering our colleague Belden Fields. It was gratifying for us to put it together. The IMC will be hosting a memorial at some point in the near future. You can participate by sending your memories and anecdotes of your involvement with Belden to us at publiciatimc@gmail.com. They will be posted on the IMC website and we hope you can share these at the upcoming event. Furthermore we would all do well to emulate Belden’s commitment to support community media.

The date and time for the memorial are still being formulated; look for details in the Public i, on our website, and on the IMC website.

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May Issue Front Cover

Posted on 05/14/2025 by Public i

HANDS OFF! RESIST!

“Hands Off!” rally on April 5 at West Side Park, Champaign. Photo by Stuart Levy

Attendees at Rally for Democracy on March 29 at Champaign County Courthouse, Urbana. Photo by Katie Porter

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Indivisible Illinois Empowers Progressive Advocates

Posted on 05/14/2025 by Marci Adelston-Schafer

“Hands Off!” rally organized by Indivisible and others on April 5 at West Side Park, Champaign. Photo by Stuart Levy

Indivisible began at the national level after the 2016 election. A few Democratic congressional staffers decided that there needed to be a grassroots movement on the left similar to the Tea Party movement on the right. Since then, the Indivisible movement has grown by leaps and bounds. Thousands of local Indivisible groups have sprung up all around the country. And in many states a statewide umbrella group has formed, also organically from the grass roots, that is the hub for the local Indivisible groups in that state. Continue reading →

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“We’re Good, They’re Evil,” Israel Defense Forces Reservist Tells Chabad Audience—While Protesters Object to a “Murderer” on Campus

Posted on 05/14/2025 by Kimberlie Kranich

On March 5, the Chabad Center for Jewish Life at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign hosted Ari Kalker, a reservist in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), who spoke about his combat experiences in Gaza. Meanwhile, protesters across the street shouted “Up, Up with Liberation! Down, Down with Occupation!” The demonstrators held signs including “Ari Is a Murderer,” “War Criminals Not Welcome,” and “UC Jews for Ceasefire.”

Approximately 150 people, mostly students, attended the public talk. Chants from the group of around 20 demonstrators could be heard inside. Continue reading →

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Yemen, Gaza and the Obscenity of the Collateral Damage Claim

Posted on 05/14/2025 by Janice Jayes

The aftermath of US air strikes in Yemen, March 15, 2025. Vleckie Hone for Airwars

It’s telling that Americans discussing the March Signal leak detailing plans for the US air strikes on Yemen have focused more on White House emoji choices than the death tolls. This is what “over-the-horizon” warfare means for Americans now: it is not just that destruction rains down on distant peoples with no risk to American troops, but that war itself becomes abstract and even absurd as the public dwells on the national security adviser and vice president exchanging flag and fire glyphs as if they were in middle school.

The Signal leak was unprofessional, but no level of professionalism could change the fact that Operation “Rough Rider” was merely murderous political theater. At least nine children were killed alongside dozens of other civilians in the attacks of March 15–16, and more than 100 civilians have died in the hundreds of US air and sea strikes since. Continue reading →

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