Any Roanoke resident with a smartphone and a curiosity about news saw ample footage of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents swarming larger historically Democratic cities throughout 2025. Citizens made videos of ICE agents on their streets.
Throughout the year, in contrast, Roanoke’s streets remained seemingly quiet.
But in the places smartphones don’t reach and record — the cells and beds of the Roanoke jail — more than three times the number of ICE detainees were checked in last year than were the previous year, in a city that has historically been welcoming to immigrants…