Hundreds gathered in Staunton on Sunday to show support for a community member who is currently in Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention.
ICE took Ismael Ayuzo Sandoval into custody on Wednesday morning after he dropped his children off at school. He is being held in the Ste. Genevieve County Detention Center in Missouri.
Rally attendees decried the action, saying Ayuzo Sandoval has been an integral part of their city for 20 years.
“He is a bright, shining, bubbly personality and really just shows up for everybody; he knows everyone,” said Marcella Cloud. “Every single person in this community has a story about him welcoming them in and caring for them.”
Ayuzo Sandoval is a prominent Staunton resident of Staunton, according to friends and neighbors, where he owns the Caldera Bar and Grill, a Mexican restaurant. His children attend school in Staunton, and he is known for sponsoring charity events and youth sports teams.
“He was really well respected and well liked, which is why we have the turnout that we have here today,” said Kelley Hatlee, co-founder of Macoupin County Indivisible, which organized the rally. “He's just a pillar of the community. He is definitely not the worst of the worst that Donald Trump said he was going to target.”
Many rally attendees described how Ayuzo Sandoval created a warm, welcoming atmosphere at multiple restaurants over the years, often leading to lasting friendships.
“He's a business owner, he's a father of a loving family, and he's a part of the community,” said family friend Kurt Geschwend. “He's family.”
Staunton is a small city 35 miles northeast of St. Louis. Businesses, a park and an art center line its Main Street, where people marched Sunday.
“We have a lot of people that probably vote against each other and don't always align on a lot of things, and they have really shown up and come together in a huge way,” Cloud said.
Others didn’t know Ayuzo Sandoval personally but were moved to action after hearing what happened.
“His story just touched us,” said Robert Wessell, the mayor of Coffeen. “It's not fair, and it's not justice. No due process. If we let them get by with this against folks like him, then they'll come after somebody else next. It's just an ongoing cascade of lawlessness on behalf of the government.”
At the Sunday rally, people wore buttons that said, “I stand with Ismael” and held signs with similar sentiments. Many also denounced ICE and the Trump administration, with signs saying “stop ICE abductions” and “no human being is illegal.”
“I think for me, that's the key to it,” said Tracy Hutton, who owns Mississippi Culture, a Staunton brewery. “It gets politicized a lot, but I really do think this is something that kind of crosses political lines. It is about community and supporting one another.”
Ayuzo Sandoval is originally from Mexico. His lawyer, Marleen Menendez Suarez, said she isn’t sure why Ayuzo Sandoval was targeted at this time.
“That's one of the big mysteries,” Suarez said. “How are they deciding who they are going to pick up? Who are they going to decide to detain? How are they doing this?”
Suarez said he appears to be in the immigration system with a removal order from 2013, but she doesn’t know if that is still current. She has not yet met with him and has not seen a warrant, though she said one may exist.
ICE did not immediately respond to a request for comment from St. Louis Public Radio.
According to KSDK, an ICE spokesperson cited a misdemeanor DUI from 2008 and multiple illegal border crossings as reasons for his detention. The spokesperson also told KSDK that Ayuzo Sandoval is “a 41-year-old criminal illegal alien from Mexico who is a convicted drunk driver and serial immigration offender.”
Suarez strongly disagrees with ICE’s description of Ayuzo Sandoval as a criminal. She said he followed all court orders in his DUI case.
“At the end, he did not receive any type of criminal conviction,” Suarez said. “For them to characterize him as a criminal is really misleading the public.”
Suarez said she needs to get more information about Ayuzo Sandoval’s records, which will determine the next steps.
Retired pastor Benjamin Fiore, who baptized Ayuzo Sandoval’s daughter, said Ismael reminds him of his grandfather who immigrated from Italy. Fiore hopes that in the end, Ayuzo Sandoval will be given a path to citizenship.
“Everybody who meets him and experiences his joyousness, his welcoming spirit, they all have felt it,” Fiore said. “We're poorer, this community is poorer, because of him being taken away.”
