CORRECTION: The Ivy Tech professor who was taken into Department of Homeland Security (DHS) custody, according to Joseph Souza, is a man who was initially arrested by local law enforcement "for a non-incident/crime," then ICE identified him for potential deportation soon after.
Editor's Note: After a 1.5-mile walk through over a foot of snow to reach Muncie City Hall, The CI's Vivian Bostick accepted a ride and feet warmers from community members for safety. The assistance was accepted due to hazardous conditions and the risk of cold-related injury, the effects of which persisted for several hours after Bostick returned to the office.
MUNCIE, Ind. - On January 30, at least a couple dozen Muncie community members showed up outside City Hall to protest Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
The protest, which lasted just over an hour, was organized by the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL) as part of a national shutdown campaign. The campaign, according to NationalShutdown.org, encouraged people to not go to work or school, and not to shop.
Cooper Archer, a PSL organizer and Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP Muncie, formerly Ball State Students for Justice in Palestine), said the campaign was launched by students.
"It was students in Minneapolis who called this strike, and it is us coming out here to show solidarity to join them, and I thank you all for doing that, for braving this cold weather," Archer said. "Because, as we have seen, over hundreds of thousands of people in the City of Minneapolis have taken the streets."
In These Times reported that, during one march on January 23, "[o]rganizers estimated the crowd was at least 50,000, with some guessing higher, around 100,000," in temperatures that were "-9 degrees when the march began, temperatures that can quickly cause frostbite to exposed skin."
"What they've done is they've spontaneously created overnight one of the largest general strikes this country has seen in 80 years," Archer continued. "As we know, it has been those movements, the mass movements of the people, that be the workers withholding their labor, taking the streets, that is what makes change. Change comes from below, not from above. Change comes from the people, because only the people know what they need and what they want, not those making billions behind corporate desks, or sitting in the halls of Congress passing legislation that effects us everyday, but not in a good way."
Archer mentioned the ICE-involved killings of Renee Nicole Good, a poet and writer, according to the BBC, and Alex Pretti, an ICU nurse at a US Department of Veteran Affairs hospital, according to the Hindustan Times.
"They just let [Pretti] lay there, and they didn't feel any guilt," Archer stated. "They took pride. They knew what they signed up for, and they took pride in doing what they did."
"[Good and Pretti] have given the ultimate sacrifice have led the way for us, and it is up to us to join them and to continue to fight, every day, every night, every day you have a day off, no matter what," Archer added.
Alex Bordenkecher, a PSL and SJP Muncie organizer and student at Ball State University, stated the City of Muncie is restricting public comment.
"People now have to doxx their address and only speak for two minutes, if they want to participate in their local politics," Bordenkecher asserted.
The Muncie City Council is moving to tighten rules on public participation, according to an op-ed by Muncie Post-Democrat owner Daisy Dale. The reported changes include shortening public comment from three minutes to two, requiring speakers to announce their home addresses, and requiring participants to sign up before the meeting begins.
Furthermore, Dale states that ordinances up for introduction will no longer include a public comment period, and that the Council intends to restrict language or attitudes deemed to "cause dissension."
"And the heart of this community, Ball State, is no exception," Bordenkecher continued. "Two months ago, at this point, 12 students went into Ball State to leave a letter with President [Geoffrey] Mearns, wondering why our tuition is funding genocide, and why he has promised to comply with ICE when they inevitably come on to Ball State's campus. They've already been in Muncie several times in January alone. Last year, I've known they've taken people. They've taken people since then."
SJP Muncie has posted that the University is invested with CommonFund, Mercer and Carlyle Group through the Ball State University Foundation, and utilizes Cisco software, such as two-factor authentication app Duo Mobile. The CI has not verified these investments.
"We were there during business hours, we were being nice and polite, it was literally 12 people standing in a lobby, we weren't blocking any doors or anything," Bordenkecher asserted. "They tried to get us to leave, but we declined. They finally let us leave our letters, and we left at 5 o'clock. The next week, we all found that we were charged with several conduct policy violations. And, since then two months later, last week, we were all found guilty, obviously, and Cooper, who spoke before me, was suspended."
Bordenkecher, in an op-ed to The CI, wrote that Director of the Office of Student Conduct, Kaleigh Richardson, emailed the 12 students on the evening of December 1, 2025, charging them with "'Disorderly Conduct,' 'Obstruction or Disruption,' and vaguely tacked onto the end, 'Other Policy Violations,' all for simply trying to leave letters to their president expressing opposition to their tuition funding a genocide."
Bordenkecher alleged, on November 19, 2025 when students went to deliver letters, a student "became so dizzy he was unable to stand and collapsed in the lobby of the Admin Building."
"The administrators did nothing as other students got him food and water. Several minutes later, after the student already had others looking after him, [Ro-Anne Royer] Engle finally asked if he wanted them to call EMS, which he declined. At 5 o’clock, the Admin Building began to close and students were told to exit, and they complied. The next day, the same student was struck by another bout of dizziness and weakness and had to be taken to Ball Memorial Hospital," Bordenkecher wrote.
The CI filed an APRA request with the University for security camera footage, an incident report, redacted conduct reports, and official communications at the time of the incident.
The Office of General Counsel (OGC) stated the University "does not maintain security footage" for the Admin Building lobby and outside Mearns' office. Redacted conduct reports were denied under Indiana Code 5-14-3-4(a)(3) and the Federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). Official communications were denied for being "[n]on-specific, vague, and/or overly broad."
OGC sent a redacted incident report to The CI.
According to the report, Engle, Vice President for Student Affairs, received a notice from John Foster, Assistant Vice President for Public Safety and Chief of Police, at approximately 4:35 pm. Engle informed Tiffany Peters, Assistant Vice President, of something.
Engle and Peters went downstairs from the second floor together, both observing something. Engle informed the group they were "disrupting University business," citing the "time, place, and manner" section of the Noncommercial Expressive Activities Policy.
The report claims "[a]n individual trying to access the President's office for business would not have been able to walk through the lobby to the office[,]" a 9-year-old son of a staff member was escorted by Peters out of the building, and an employee had difficulty locking the south doors at 5:00 pm.
While the report claims something happened around 4:51 pm, it was redacted in its entirety. That redaction, which OGC justified under IC 5-14-3-4(a)(3) and FERPA, is about the length of a page.
Sighing, Bordenkecher stated, "There is no First Amendment at Ball State."
Bordenkecher claims Ball State "has a reputation," citing the firing of Suzanne Swierc for her friends-only Facebook post regarding Charlie Kirk, and Jessie Appleby of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expressions (FIRE)'s letter to Mearns on January 29, 2026, requesting "a substantive response to this letter no later than February 12, confirming Ball State will drop the charges against the students, lift any imposed sanctions, and revise its policies to clearly communicate to students precisely what is prohibited conduct."
In the letter, Appleby identified seven of the 12 students as Cooper Archer, Sam Allen, Scarlet Overfelt, Micah Peck, Alex Bordenkecher, Lilly Bass, and Paige Otto.
"I was given a year of conduct probation for standing in a lobby," Bordenkecher asserted.
Joseph Souza, organizer with the Muncie Liberation Studio and former Ball State student, stated ICE arrested an Ivy Tech professor in Muncie.
"Most of you may have not heard this story, but they've kidnapped a professor here of Muncie, a professor not from Ball State, but who works at Ivy Tech here who I've had the pleasure of speaking with," Souza asserted. "They've took him for over 20 days away from his children and family. No due process, no phone calls back home, only the cold of the prison [expletive] cell. Someone teaching your kids how to do [expletive] math!"
In a follow-up text to The CI, Souza said the professor was arrested by local police "for a non-incident/crime" before ICE identified him for potential deportation.
"It was at that point he was taken into basically [Department of Homeland Security (DHS)] custody and they intended to deport him but he was released after about a month," Souza sent. "This is how ICE has mostly operated to our understanding, identifying potential targets after they’ve been caught up with local police."
"Does it have to show up on the news for us to be angry, when we know there are worse atrocities we will never hear?," Souza asked. "We have to fight back before ICE is in our streets. We have to organize, we have to be disciplined, and, I'll say it again, we have to organize."
Faith, a new member of the PSL, stated the things ICE is doing is "nothing new."
"It happened under Trump, it happened under Obama, and it happened under Biden, too," Faith asserted. "It's not gonna change, regardless of who's president, which is why it's our job to change it for us!"
Faith says comparing the actions of ICE to those of Nazi Germany is "a misnomer."
"Yes, while it looks similar to things that were happening with the Gestapo, saying that it was like the Gestapo, or saying that it's like the Nazis, makes it sound a little un-American, like it isn't like us to be doing this, like this isn't happening here, and it's just suddenly popped out of nowhere," Faith continued. "Did it pop out of [expletive] nowhere?"
Protesters shouted "No!" in response.
One Ball State professor attended the protest. At least a dozen cars drove past and honked in support. No counter-protesters or police were present.
