WEST VALLEY CITY, Utah — Several businesses across the West Valley area have placed “No entry for I.C.E.” signs in their front doors after months of detentions across Utah and the country.
The idea to hand out the signs came from local advocacy organizations Salt Lake Indivisible and Comunidades Unidas. Sarah Buck with Salt Lake Indivisible said her group looked at other states that had started implementing the signs and wanted to do the same in Utah.
Included in the signs is a QR code that leads users to a website that explains specific guidance on how to deal with ICE in Utah.
“What’s happening is ICE is coming in with warrants from Homeland Security, and those are not valid. Those do not require you to allow them into your private workplace or into your home,” said Buck. "It needs to be a federal warrant, and so we have the examples of both, so business owners and individuals can educate themselves on that."
Buck said Salt Lake Indivisible has printed out hundreds of signs and started handing them out to businesses. Although not all the signs are currently on display, she said nearly every business they walked into accepted the signs.
Salt Lake Indivisible is also hosting training sessions in the Salt Lake area. In those sessions, attendees are taught “whistle training,” when people carry around a whistle to alert others when ICE is in the area. The sessions also help community members understand their rights if they ever encounter ICE agents.
After seeing ICE detentions over the past several months in Utah, people outside the Citizenship and Immigration Services office in Salt Lake City, like Black Mowen, shared their reactions with us as well.
"I think putting people in these facilities and keeping there, it just sounds really sketchy,” said Mowen.
Local resident Christian Fleshier said he’s “sickened” when he sees videos on social media of some ICE arrests.
"I'm here picking up forms for my friend who are in the process of getting asylum, which is legal, but they're worried they're going to get picked up,” Christian Fleshier said.
Buck said arrests across the country are unnecessary, disruptive, and inhumane, and is hopeful that local lawmakers will step up and help address the issues.
