Two Mexican restaurants in Columbus, Indiana closed their doors this week after videos and reports circulated showing what appeared to be ICE agents detaining people around the city, while residents in nearby Seymour reported similar sightings and at least one family started a GoFundMe for a detained relative. Camila's Mexican Restaurant shut down after a video appeared to show ICE agents outside the building, and Tacolumbus closed for the rest of the day, citing what an employee described only as unforeseen circumstances.
According to The Republic, reports of ICE activity prompted the two Columbus restaurants to temporarily close this week. A video circulating on social media showed what appeared to be ICE agents conducting an arrest near 25th Street and Central Avenue in Columbus, though the outlet reported it could not independently verify the footage. A separate video showed what appeared to be agents performing a traffic stop on a vehicle along State Road 46 near Interstate 65, with one agent seen wearing a tactical vest marked ERO — Enforcement and Removal Operations, ICE's directorate for detaining and deporting people.
A Camila's employee said some staff were scared about ICE being outside the restaurant, per the same account. The restaurant later posted on Facebook that every employee was safe and that it planned to reopen Thursday if employees showed up for work; that update was posted at 3:15 p.m. Tacolumbus's reopening plans for Thursday remained uncertain, and the restaurant's owners provided rides and grocery pickup for people trying to avoid being seen outside.
Seymour Sees Its Own Wave of Reports
In Seymour, about 15 miles south of Columbus, police said they began hearing reports of ICE being in the city on Monday, according to Chief Greg O'Brien. Resident Stuart Mora reported hearing about ICE activity in the Seymour area for the past three days, the article notes. Social media reports also claimed a person was detained near the Aisin plant in the Seymour area, though the report states that neither The Republic nor the Tribune could confirm that detainment.
A GoFundMe was established for a Seymour woman's family member reportedly detained by ICE early Tuesday morning, per the GoFundMe report. The Seymour Police Department said it was not involved in and had not been notified of the ICE operations taking place in the city — the same disconnect described by county and city law enforcement in Columbus.
Local Police Say They Were Left Out of the Loop
Bartholomew County Sheriff's Office Lt. Dane Duke said the office had not requested assistance for ICE activity in the county and had not been officially notified of it. Columbus Police Department Lt. Skylar Berry likewise said the department was not involved in the ICE operation. That separation exists even though Indiana House Enrolled Act 1393, passed during the 2025 legislative session, requires county sheriffs and local officers to notify federal immigration authorities when someone in local custody is suspected of being in the country unlawfully — a mandate that applies to jail bookings, not to the kind of unannounced field operations described this week.
The gap reflects a broader pattern across the region. ICE's enforcement in Indiana falls under the agency's Enforcement and Removal Operations Chicago Field Office, which oversees six states including Illinois, Wisconsin, Missouri, Kentucky, and Kansas alongside Indiana. Roughly 35 miles west of Columbus, ICE agents surrounded a vehicle and detained its driver in a Walmart parking lot in Bloomington on Tuesday, according to witness reports and photos published by The Bloomingtonian.
A Sudden Uptick After a Quiet Spring
The sightings mark a sharp reversal from earlier in the year. Regional reporting from the Seymour Tribune in June found that the pace of federal immigration detentions in Bartholomew and Jackson counties had slowed during the first quarter of 2026 compared with late 2025. The Indianapolis Star reported that Indy Rapid Response documented a surge in ICE agent sightings and detentions around Indianapolis beginning August 31, suggesting the late-summer increase extends well beyond South-Central Indiana.
Federal officials confirmed heightened activity is underway statewide. A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said ICE agents uphold the nation's immigration laws in all 50 states, seven days a week, 24 hours a day. ICE also sent photos and names of five people reportedly arrested in Indiana, who the agency said hailed from Mexico, Niger, Haiti and Honduras and were reportedly convicted of kidnapping, identity theft, rape, child neglect and aggravated assault.
Interagency Highway Operations and Legal Limits
The traffic stop captured near State Road 46 and Interstate 65 fits a documented pattern of federal-state coordination on Indiana highways. Between August 25 and 27, ICE's Enforcement and Removal Operations conducted a joint operation with the Indiana State Police targeting commercial vehicles and weigh stations across the state, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation. Under the federal Castañon Nava consent decree covering the Chicago Field Office's six-state territory, ICE agents are legally required to document specific probable cause before carrying out warrantless public detentions and vehicle stops, per the National Immigrant Justice Center.
Community Response and the State's Detention Contract
The closures and sightings landed just days after residents held a rally outside Columbus City Hall as part of a statewide Weekend of Public Witness spanning 62 Indiana communities, protesting the state's agreement to house federal immigration detainees. The ICE holds have surfaced repeatedly in Indiana this year, from Marion County to Northern Indiana transport vans.
Under a two-year contract signed in August 2025 allowing up to 1,000 detainees, Indiana currently holds around 800 federal immigration detainees at Miami Correctional Facility in Bunker Hill, with the state receiving a daily federal payment of $291 per detainee. The Indiana Organizing Project has campaigned to end ICE detention at the facility, part of the grassroots organizing that has kept the contract in the spotlight locally. The Columbus Human Rights Commission has made multilingual Know Your Rights and I Speak cards available free of charge for residents seeking information.
Bartholomew County, home to Columbus, has a foreign-born population of 11.1% and a Hispanic or Latino population of about 9%, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates. In Jackson County, where Seymour sits, 16.3% of the roughly 47,400 residents identify as Hispanic or Latino and 9% were born outside the U.S., per Census Bureau and STATS Indiana estimates — demographic context that helps explain why the sighting reports rattled both communities so quickly. The Republic indicated the story may be updated as more information becomes available.
