In December, a sign was posted on the window of Mitchem’s Shoe Repair and Alterations in Carytown.
“Bring them home,” it read. “Your courage melts ICE.”
For more than two decades, the Parks — whose first names are being withheld for privacy reasons — plied their trade at the small business with the iconic shoe-shaped sign. But that ended late last year when the elderly couple decided to self-deport back to South Korea.
Decades ago, a lawyer made a mistake on the Parks’ immigration paperwork. Under a new Trump era policy, the couple’s case was reopened. The Parks were informed by a judge that they had 60 days to self-deport or face the possibility of incarceration by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The Parks’ situation became a call to action for Studio Two Three, a local nonprofit arts center and print shop. T-shirts, prints and sweatshirts featuring an illustration of the Parks’ business under the word “MISSING” were sold; the effort raised $5,000 to help the couple with their relocation.
“This couple who had raised their children here, had run a business successfully for 23 years, paid taxes on their business, they were suddenly back in the court system,” says Kate Fowler, director of community partnerships and development for Studio Two Three, of the Parks. “They weren’t able to tell their longstanding customers and friends what was actually happening. A lot of people found out after they were already gone.”
The nonprofit’s fundraising effort is just one way that local artists, activists, nonprofits and businesses are protesting ICE. They aren’t alone in their criticisms of immigration enforcement. The results of an NPR/PBS News/Marist poll released Thursday found that 65% of Americans believe ICE has “gone too far.”
In Virginia, the Jan. 28 protest of a proposed immigration “processing facility” in Hanover drew hundreds of protesters and attracted international media attention. Spotted outside the meeting was a sign that has become common around Richmond in recent months: a black placard reading “Chinga La Migra” — “F—k Immigration,” when translated from Spanish. The lower right side of the “Community ICE Watch” sign features a screaming possum that’s now a symbol of Richmond’s anti-ICE protest.
Created by an artist in collaboration with other activists last summer, the sign has appeared in front yards and business windows throughout Central Virgina. More than 1,000 signs have been distributed locally by the Richmond Community Legal Fund, a nonprofit legal collaborative; the fund has a backlog of 400 sign requests it has yet to deliver on.
“The possum is kind of an unofficial mascot of Richmond,” says the sign’s designer, who asked to be credited as “a local Richmond artist” out of concerns of being targeted by the federal government. “It’s scrappy. It’s punk. It’s really angry at fascists. It’s also a very sweet animal that carries its baby on its back and tries to help its neighborhood.”
The artist has also designed illustrations for shirts, totes and whistle packets for the cause. The latter, distributed in plastic Ziploc-style bags, features a whistle and a zine-style pamphlet with information on how to use the whistle to warn about ICE’s presence, a hotline number, and photos of purported local ICE employees.
“It’s a collage of information that we’ve seen be helpful in zines from Chicago, L.A., Minneapolis — some of these other cities that have had a much greater presence of immigration in their communities,” the artist says.
Kristin Reed, a board member of the Richmond Community Legal Fund, says her organization formally launched last April to try to offset some of the costs that immigrants and protesters would incur from legal battles with the federal government. The fund assists households financially when income earners are detained, hires lawyers and contributes to bond payments. The latter usually ranges between $8,000 to $20,000 per bond post, Reed says.
The fund also holds information sessions on civil rights law, hosts legal clinics to set up standby guardianship for children in case a parent is detained, and campaigns to support immigrants.
“We have seen a lot of support from local artists,” Reed says. “The yard signs are a really high profile example of that solidarity campaign, and I know that the art featuring the angry possum has resonated with people.”
Studio Two Three, which was named Style’s 2025 Richmonder of the Year, has also been part of the effort, selling T-shirts, posters and tote bags with woodcut prints and anti-ICE slogans. One shows a man with a sun for a head stabbing a demon, reading “Shine Your Light! To Hell With I.C.E.” Ashley Hawkins, Studio Two Three’s executive director, says the prints use “the language of medieval symbolism of good triumphing over evil.”
The day before the Hanover protest, Studio Two Three opened its doors to host a community print day. Roughly 300 people came to make flags, posters, shirts and hoodies to take with them for the following day’s protest.
Though Studio Two Three’s Fowler says the nonprofit has a history of using its print shop for community causes, it only began directly addressing the local impact of ICE after the Parks left Richmond.
The studio has raised $6,000 so far for the legal fund; roughly 50 other local businesses and organizations have also donated to the fund. Additionally, Gallery5 recently raised more than $65,000 from roughly 100 local businesses and organizations through a raffle; Fowler declines to share the name of the organization that received the funds, but says they support the local immigrant community.
On Wednesday, Trump announced that roughly 700 law enforcement officers would be removed from Minneapolis, leaving some 2,000 officers and agents in place. In an interview with “NBC Nightly News” anchor Tom Llamas that aired Wednesday, Trump said his administration “could use a little bit of a softer touch” on immigration, “but you still have to be tough.”
Though the proposed Hanover ICE facility appears to have been defeated, additional facilities in Stafford and Baltimore may still be in the works; ICE continues to operate an immigrant processing facility out of the Arboretum Office Park in Chesterfield, which the agency has utilized for more than a decade and a half.
