![Archer's Facilities Manager, Enrique Montoya, stands in the Zeller Student Center after setting up chairs. He said he's stayed at Archer for 15 years because of his team. "It's been a fun [and] very professional environment," Montoya said. "It keeps me driven to keep coming every day without hesitating to get up in the morning."](https://bestofsno.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/montoya_edited_2-1200x800.jpg)
![NEW CHALLENGE, NEW TEAM MEMBERS: Every season, VEX creates a new game that robotics team members are faced with and have to build a robot to compete in. This year’s game forces students to create a robot that is able to stack rings onto mobile goals in order to score points. The change in games each season is something that robotics teacher Audrea Moyers appreciates.
“One of the things that I like about VEX is that they have a new problem to solve every year,” she said. ¨Even though the equipment’s the same, they have to analyze the game, and they have to come up with solutions that are unique that year. They are using their knowledge from prior years, but they have to kind of redesign a problem.”
As returning teams were faced a new game, some new teams and members had to adapt to a uncommon playing field and game.
“Three of our four teams were competing for the first time this year, and they had very different experiences match to match, so I think they learned a lot,¨ she said. ¨It’s hard just watching a video online to know how it’s actually going to be in person, so they all learned a lot about what gameplay is like, how to work with an alliance partner [and] how to adapt during the day to changes.”](https://bestofsno.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/IMG_9283-1-1200x800.jpg)
Community members from around Cuyahoga County continue to organize donations, restaurant buy-ins and immigrant resources for the workers of Cilantro Taqueria and others affected by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement raid that swept across Northeastern Ohio on Jan. 26.
The raid, a consequence of the Laken Riley Act, requires that undocumented immigrants who have been accused of committing violent crimes and other serious felonies be detained and deported. The signing of the act on Inauguration Day was in line with President Donald Trump’s major day one objectives for his second term.
Outside Ohio, similar arrests and detentions occurred from New York City where Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem joined officers while serving warrants. Across the country in Arizona, armored cars and stun grenades were used to execute the arrest of an individual for previous illegal gun ownership charges, despite now being home-bound for health-related issues.
Arms and drug violations are the presumed cause for the raid at Cilantro Taqueria on Coventry, as Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and Drug Enforcement Agency officers joined ICE during the Jan. 26 raid. Unable to find the individual they were looking for, the officers instead arrested six staff members, who were then detained at the Geauga County Detention Center.
In response, Cilantro closed for the rest of Jan. 26 and all of Jan. 27. In the interim, community actors began commenting and organizing. Within hours, signs, flowers and letters of support were laid out for Cilantro Taqueria staff at their Coventry location.
Brayden Hopkin, a Cleveland Heights resident and naturalized citizen originally from Canada, found himself worried by the raids. Despite having become a citizen years ago, he “still feels scared for [his] family, I know I have brown skin, and don’t know what will happen if this happens again.” Despite his fears, he felt the need to lay a bouquet, symbolically grown in Columbia.
Outside the restaurant, words and gifts of support have been posted at Cilantro Taqueria and other common areas in Cleveland Heights and throughout Cleveland. The Party of Socialism and Liberation in Cleveland attended the latest Cleveland Heights Council meeting to pass out materials that include the rights of undocumented immigrants and how to respond to the requests of ICE officers and others who may demand proof of citizenship.
There has also been a wave of buy-ins occurring to support Cilantro Taqueria. Mayor Khalil Seren of Cleveland Heights, in collaboration with the business cooperative that operates the Coventry Village district, announced via Instagram Cilantro Day on Feb. 1 to encourage Heights residents to buy Cilantro Taqueria.
Closer to home, the Latin American Student Association of John Carroll University has scheduled their buy-in day to mirror Seren’s Cilantro Day, currently set for Feb. 12. This event will be open to all club members and students interested in supporting Cilantro Taqueria.
Chad Frozt, of Cleveland’s West Park, summed up a spectrum of perspectives when he visited Cilantro Taqueria on its first day of operation after the incident. “I don’t hate Trump, but [I] was surprised that hard-working people serving our community got detained—they are pretty friendly.” He also expressed that “I want us to be safe, and this definitely sucks, so I’ll still be coming to events to buy here.”
As locals continue to support the restaurant, the legal battle continues as well. Five of the six workers arrested at Cilantro Taqueria have been released on bonds as of Feb. 5. This comes as Margaret W. Wong and Associates have been brought in to represent the restaurant’s workers – a legal firm born in Cleveland, with 48 years of experience and 25,000 international immigration clients. Though ICE, neither in their Detroit Regional Office nor the Brooklyn Heights Field Office has responded to requests for further explanations of the arrests or the current case, it is clear that neither Homeland Security nor the Federal prosecution team plan to drop this case, and both inside and outside the courtroom, neither will many Clevelanders.
This story was originally published on The Carroll News on February 10, 2025.
