“ICE KIDNAPPED PCHS GRAD, HONK!” was posted on the pedestrian bridge over Interstate 80 on Saturday afternoon, the latest message of the We Believe Visibility Brigade, a local group which brings protest messages to the overpass.
Dozens of Park City High students, concerned residents and family members gathered on the bridge in solidarity with Lisandro Pantaleon Pacheco during the event. The 22-year old Parkite and University of Utah student was detained by ICE officers during a sweep of the Wasatch Back on April 29.
Many in attendance have close personal ties to Pacheco, including Jaime Rosales, who enrolled at the U alongside Pacheco after graduating from PCHS.
“We all grew up with Lisandro,” she said. “He was in our elementary classes. We were all in middle school playing kickball together. We went to high school together; he was in my graduating class. He is so positive and so happy and such a bright soul and such a positive person.”
Rosales said she was in disbelief when she learned he’d been detained. Others attending on Saturday felt similarly:
“It's just, it is shocking. It's one of those things where it's a national news item. We all hear about it, but then to have it be here on our doorstep with a member of our community, a person who was just going to his first day at his new job at Bagel Den and to be apprehended or put in detention, it's just shocking,” said Andy Cier, a Park City resident who knew Pacheco through his work with the Holy Cross Ministries.
Pacheco’s beloved status in the Park City community has brought attention to his case; in addition to Saturday’s event, community members donated nearly $30,000 to an online campaign supporting his family, and nearly 70 supporters attended a Thursday press conference about his case.
Pacheco’s Attorney Adam Crayk said he was being held in a county jail in Evanston, Wyoming, and would likely be transferred to a larger ICE detention facility.
Crayk indicated there is a strong legal case for Pacheco’s release, despite his undocumented status. It remains unclear how many individuals were detained in the Wasatch Back April 29, but Crayk said he was aware of seven or eight.
Cier recognized Pacheco is not the only member of the Wasatch Back community missing.
“And unfortunately, I think some of the folks that get picked up, maybe aren't as known, haven't been as long in the community, and maybe don't have as many connections as Lisandro, and family connections and school connections.”
Some at Saturday's event carried signs for Jabier Lopez Valvuena, a longtime Park City resident and resort worker also represented by Crayk.
Salomon Vazquez Pacheco is a cousin of Lisandro Pacheco, and said the day was an opportunity to connect.
“People are so focused on individualism,” he said. “That’s why we feel we are separate. I see, on social media, a lot of bad comments and harassment towards latinos. I feel as a society we can be better people. We can be better.”
His hopeful spirit, despite a week of shock and sadness, was shared by many attendees who danced, embraced, and waved to passing traffic on the interstate below.