Updated June 17, 2025, 4:59 p.m. ETAlonzo Tomas Mendez, a Guatemalan immigrant, was detained by ICE on May 31 for being "illegally present" in the U.S.Advocates and community members rallied for Mendez's release, highlighting his contributions to the community and lack of criminal record.BLUE ASH, OH – Newer residents of Cincinnati are living in fear of deportation and denial of due process, according to advocates for a recently detained local man. With U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement active in Cincinnati, some residents fear going to work and some of their children fear they won’t come home at the end of the day. For the family of Alonzo Tomas Mendez – arrested May 31 for being "illegally present" according to federal officials – fear is now ever-present: it kept his partner and young daughters away from a June 17 press conference about his case; it kept their names and church out of summaries of his arrest; it is limiting their daily life. Friend and advocate Walter Vasquez advised Mendez’s partner to “please try to live your life. I want you to go out.” In response, he told her: “I’m afraid. I feel like, any time, a black SUV will stop in front of my house and it’s going to pick us up,” Vasquez said.'You leave because you have no other choice'Vasquez and other advocates gathered outside the Homeland Security office in Blue Ash to call for Mendez’s release from the Butler County jail. He’s been held there since his arrest, under Butler County’s contract to house ICE detainees. Mendez, 34, was arrested after buying birthday party supplies at a Kroger store in Cincinnati's East Price Hill neighborhood. A hearing scheduled for early on June 17 did not go forward, and neither did an earlier scheduled one, his supporters said. ICE has not responded to a request for comment on his case this week. After arresting Mendez, however, the agency said he was one of four detained in the Kroger parking lot for being “illegally present in the United States.” Mendez does not have a criminal record, according to his advocates, and The Enquirer found no charges against him in Hamilton County courts. Mendez, whose home country is Guatemala, arrived in the United States three-and-half years ago. He graduated from a theology school in Guatemala and is active in a Blue Ash evangelical church that serves Cincinnati’s Latino population, according to Vasquez. A brother is a pastor in their home country. Mendez left Guatemala to escape corruption, poverty, crime and lack of opportunity, with “a dream of a better future” for his daughters, according to Vasquez. “You leave because you have no other choice,” he said. In Cincinnati, he works a cleaning job, his friend said.'Good people. Good citizens' Don Driehaus, a longtime resident and champion of West Price Hill, was among more than a dozen advocates who showed up to support Mendez. Some residents of the neighborhood have a “sense of dread” because of immigration policies of the Trump administration, Driehaus said. “These are our neighbors. Their children go to our schools. Their parents work with me," Driehaus said. "Good people, good citizens, good neighbors.” Other supporters evoked their own faith as they cited Mendez’s involvement in his church. “When families are torn apart ... I believe Jesus weeps,” said Troy Jackson, executive director of Undivided, a nonprofit focused on racial equity with offices in Hyde Park. Dave Workman, retired pastor of Vineyard Cincinnati Church in Springdale, said Christians and Americans should “not allow mothers and fathers to suddenly disappear, to be vanished away by men in black masks with no opportunity to defend themselves, according to the law. “This is not who we are as a country,” Workman said. “We are better than this.”