Eight immigrants went to work in Harrisonburg on Tuesday morning and didn’t return home that night.
Pulled over in a work van, likely on their way to or from lunch, a crew of blue-collar workers, wearing jeans covered in dirt, were handcuffed with zip ties and hauled off in unmarked SUVs to who knows where. One of the individuals photographed was young, likely a teen.
Disappeared, all eight likely not returning home for dinner that night, maybe never. All likely had no criminal records; they were simply working hard, putting in manual labor, to put food on the tables of their families.
The roundup of immigrants was done during the day in plain sight in a busy area on Route 11 that has been reduced to one lane due to the construction of a Sheetz convenience store off Interstate 81 at exit 251.
In a matter of minutes, the driver of the work van was put in an unmarked car, and Virginia State Police, FBI and Homeland Security agents were on site processing everyone else in the van, according to an eyewitness.
The agents wore bulletproof vests that read FBI, HSI, state police or police. Some of the agents had masks on their faces to hide their identities.
A number of concerned citizens stopped and videotaped what was happening. One tried to give the Hispanic workers cards with their rights in Spanish, but they were denied access to the men by the agents. The bystanders were intimidated, and law enforcement officials on site took photographs of them and their vehicles warning them to stop and leave immediately.
“It was really disheartening,” said Heather Nuckolls, of Staunton, who was part of a team conducting traffic control in the area. “It was the first time I had seen anything like that. They got everybody out of the van and transported them away. The van was just sitting there with all of their belongings and everything still in the van, and a tow truck came and got it and towed it away, and then everybody just left.”
Nuckolls grew up in Staunton and was raised by a cop, so she’s no stranger to law enforcement.
“I got choked up because most of these blue-collar guys, I feel like they just come to work, and they just want to provide for their families, and they’re not out here causing trouble or hurting anybody.
“I personally can’t imagine the fear they were feeling with the language barrier. A lot of times, English isn’t their first language. They may not have been able to understand what’s being told to them …”
“It was just, get out of the van … you’re not supposed to be here, that kind of thing.”
“Just seeing the looks on their faces, I felt really bad for them. You know, it’s just another day of work for them,” she said.
Or was.
“What shook me up the most was there were a couple FBI guys that had masks over their faces, and what ran through my mind was that they don’t even have the decency, you know, to show who they are, and just as a person, talk to them.”
Work van supposedly pulled over for following too closely
The silver work van with burgundy doors, packed full of immigrant workers, was likely an easy target for Virginia State Police, who signed an agreement to cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, in February at the direction of Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin.
A Virginia State Police spokesperson told WMRA that the Ford E350 van was stopped on I-81 for allegedly following another vehicle too closely.
Sure.
It’s not uncommon for police, at all levels, to follow a vehicle, looking for a reason to legally pull them over. It happens in cases where drug dealers are being followed, for example, and are pulled over for minor traffic infractions that lead to a search of their vehicle and subsequent arrest.
“The Ford pulled into a convenience store along the 3800 block on North Valley Pike in Rockingham County. The driver of the Ford, an adult male, was given a warning for the traffic violation,” the VSP spokesperson told WMRA.
For any questions regarding the presence of federal agents, VSP said to contact the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Enforcement.
James Covington, the northeastern U.S. regional communications director for ICE, did not respond to an inquiry from WMRA, according to its news report.
Trump promised to deport violent immigrants on the campaign trail
On the campaign trail, now-president Donald Trump promised to be tough on illegal immigrants who had committed violent crimes or were part of criminal networks operating in the U.S. He said on Day 1, he would launch the largest deportation program of criminals in the history of America.
However, his plan for mass deportations hasn’t reached the numbers that he had hoped for, and the number of illegal immigrants being deported were actually lower than the number deported under former president Joe Biden.
In the final year of Biden’s administration, approximately 57,000 people were deported from the U.S. every month. Trump deported 37,660 people during his first month in office, according to data from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
Multiple officials in charge of deportations have been fired or reassigned due to numbers that failed to meet expectations.
Numbers don’t add up
It also appears that the number of so-called criminals that the Trump administration have touted are in the U.S. have been greatly exaggerated.
In one instance, a contractor for DHS said that he had completed a report for ICE about wanted individuals in one major U.S. city several years ago. He reportedly found 45 people in a large sanctuary city that were at-large. The current head of ICE appeared to simply add a zero to his numbers and reported there were 450 dangerous criminals in this region.
If there weren’t enough criminals to deport, the administration seemed to head in a different direction – doing roundups at construction sites and restaurants or traffic stops outside of large cities including Nashville.
ICE agents have also started showing up at court proceedings and taking people away even when charges are dismissed, not just in big cities, but in Charlottesville, as one example.
ICYMI
Agents are also making arrests at mandatory check-ins at immigration offices, according to multiple news reports.
Spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said Trump “will deliver” on his campaign promises, and it seems that the administration has doubled down on efforts to get anyone who isn’t white out of the country regardless of their criminal history or lack thereof.
After witnessing the roundup in Harrisonburg, Nuckolls said her shock is likely due to naivety.
“I just assumed it was happening in bigger cities, and granted, Harrisonburg is a bigger city for our area, but these guys were just trying to work.”
The U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Harrisonburg recently relocated from 263 Neff Ave. to a larger building across the street at 282 Neff Ave.
According to a statement from ICE to WHSV, ICE’s enforcement and removal operations and Homeland Security Investigations will be jointly located in the new office location.
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Crystal Graham
