SAGINAW TWP, MI — Several men have reportedly been taken into the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) while installing fiber-optic cables in Saginaw Township.U.S. Rep. Kristen McDonald Rivet, D-Bay City, said her staff is aware of the incident that occurred about 11 a.m. on Saturday, July 25, on Summit Drive between North Center Road and Rolling Green Place. “Our office is tracking the ICE activity in Saginaw Township over the weekend,” McDonald Rivet said. “Our biggest priority is making sure that everyone in mid-Michigan is safe and treated fairly. We immediately reached out to the Administration to get more details, and we will remain in close touch with the community as we learn more.” McDonald Rivet’s office could not confirm specific details of the incident, but video recorded by a civilian and circulated online shows several apparent ICE agents in plainclothes and tactical vests, some of which read “Police” and “Police ICE” in yellow lettering, gloves, and baseball caps detaining several men clad in reflective vests. The ICE agents’ SUVs did not bear insignia identifying them as law enforcement.According to witnesses who reside in the neighborhood, the arrested men were part of a work crew installing fiber-optic cables, part of a project that has been underway for months. One woman described the men as hard workers, “sweating their butts off digging in the summer and freezing in the winter.”The operation lasted about 15 minutes, the witnesses estimated. They said about three of the workers took off running toward Rolling Green Place but were quickly nabbed by ICE agents.ICE agents left the arrested workers’ vehicles and equipment behind. Witnesses said an apparent work crew supervisor later arrived to remove the vehicles and items.As of Monday morning, July 27, the dig site remains open on Summit Drive, surrounded by orange cones and plastic fencing. Numerous handmade signs and flowers have been left around it, bearing slogans like, “A nation that is truly God’s would never have allowed this,” “Love your neighbors. All of them,” and “ICE nabbed humans here. Shame!”Saginaw Township police and Saginaw County Sheriff’s deputies confirmed they were not involved in the operation, nor did federal authorities alert them to it beforehand. MLive has reached out to ICE and the company that reportedly employed the crew but has not heard back.Angel Gomez, chair of the Saginaw County Democratic Party’s Latino Caucus, said a source in the state government told him in early spring that ICE would soon be in Saginaw County.“It wasn’t a matter of if, but when,” Gomez said. It’s unclear what led ICE agents to the Summit Drive construction site, Gomez said. Gomez has not learned the names, ages, or nationalities of the arrested men. They are not currently being housed in the Saginaw County Jail and Gomez’s sources have indicated to him they may have been taken to the North Lake Processing Center in Baldwin.Gomez added he found it ironic ICE made its presence in Saginaw County known the morning after Fiesta on the River, held in Saginaw’s Morley Plaza as an installment in the Friday Night Live series.Gomez attended an anti-ICE protest outside the Saginaw County Courthouse on Saturday evening, which drew 20 to 30 people, he said.“We were very well received by the Saginaw community,” he said. “I see the positivity in Saginaw: ‘Don’t come to Saginaw, ICE. We’ll fight for our Latino community.’”Gomez on Wednesday, July 22, also spoke outside the courthouse during a vigil. The event featured dozens of symbolic crosses in the courthouse lawn, bearing the names of those who have died in ICE custody or during agents’ operations. The Latino Caucus is encouraging residents to be aware of their surroundings and to report ICE sightings by calling the Saginaw Bay Rapid Response hotline at 989-272-4195.“Get out and vote, be vigilant, and try to support your neighbors,” Gomez said. “Those are the only things we can right now.”Marilee White is the founder of the Saginaw Bay Rapid Response, a group of citizens concerned about Immigration and Customs Enforcement. She said she spoke with a foreman or site manager who called the group’s tip line.Her group has not identified any of the detained workers. Her next goal is to determine the arrested men’s identities and work on getting them legal aid and making sure people have food and water and transportation to medical appointments.“It’s absolutely heartbreaking,” she said.Often ICE takes the breadwinner and the people who remain have to worry about feeding their children. It affects them, wives and grandparents, and there are ripple effects to the community, White said. “Everyone is scared, everyone is concerned.”She said there has not been a lot of ICE activity in the Saginaw area.This was “by far the biggest one and the most blatant,” she said.