Utah News Dispatch
Protesters call for feds to stop arresting immigrants at green card appointments
Protesters gather outside a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services field office in Salt Lake City on Monday, Dec. 8, 2025. (McKenzie Romero/Utah News Dispatch)
Chanting “Immigrants are welcome here!” about 40 people gathered Monday outside the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services office in Salt Lake City, protesting the arrests of Utahns who went there for appointments like a green card interview and left in the custody of immigration agents.
The protesters held homemade signs saying “seeking safety is not a crime” and “no more racist deportations” in a show of support for anyone due at the office Monday, remaining positioned outside from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m., the facility’s operating hours. Drivers passing by honked in support, while people inside the building at times waved from the windows.
Immigration attorneys expect more people to be detained at the office and elsewhere in Utah this month and next as the Trump administration steps up enforcement. They’ve criticized the arrests, saying they force immigrants into the shadows, undermine the legal immigration process and unnecessarily separate families.
That was the case for one man who went to the office last week for a green card interview with his wife and child, said attorney Adam Crayk. The young father was arrested, with immigration agents saying he overstayed a visa and citing a mark on his juvenile record that had since been expunged, Crayk said.
Prior to this year’s immigration crackdown, an old case in juvenile court didn’t tend to land someone on the radar of immigration enforcers, Crayk said. While another of his clients who was detained at the Citizenship and Immigration Services office had a prior criminal conviction, he said last week, a third did not.
The federal agency did not comment on criticism of the detentions, but told Utah News Dispatch in a statement Monday that people may be apprehended at its offices if they “are identified as having outstanding warrants; being subject to court-issued removal orders; or having committed fraud, crimes, or other violations of immigration law while in the United States.”
In an announcement last month, the agency said it was working with multiple agencies “to enforce immigration law and protect public safety.” Its referrals to law enforcers resulted in the apprehension of almost 2,000 people at its facilities around the country since Jan. 20, the date of Trump’s inauguration, the announcement said.
At the protest Monday, Charlie Padilla, of Layton, led the crowd in a chant of “DHS, let’s be clear, immigrants are welcome here!” He told Utah News Dispatch that those applying for green cards and other authorization at the office don’t represent the “worst of the worst” that Trump had said immigration operations would target.
“It’s unacceptable,” Padilla said.
Protester Carmen Cancino held a sign saying “First things first: Love thy neighbor!”
Standing outside the office with her daughters, ages 2 and 14, Cancino said she understands why immigration agents may arrest people convicted of crimes, but not those without a criminal record.
She said she knew of someone who was scheduled to go to the office a few weeks ago.
“She didn’t come to her appointment, because she was scared that they were going to take her,” Cancino said.
Protest organizer Liz Maryon, with the Salt Lake Community Bail Fund, kept track as people came and went from appointments inside, and urged protesters to cheer in support for those who left without issue. Maryon said after the protest concluded that no one appeared to be arrested Monday.
