The immigration enforcement seen in Chicago over the past couple of months has migrated to downstate Illinois, according to Congresswoman Nikki Budzinski and nonprofits that work with immigrants.

That was especially obvious with the detention of Ismael Ayuzo Sandoval in Macoupin County, Budzinski, D-Springfield, said.

“It was a wake-up call to a lot of our smaller communities who have been seeing what's happening — the cruelty of what ICE is doing in the city of Chicago,” said Budzinski, who hosted a roundtable discussion on the topic in Fairview Heights on Friday. “That is coming home to downstate Illinois and is creating a lot of fear.”

The Department of Homeland Security said Sandoval, a Staunton man, has been removed four times from the country and has a 2008 conviction for driv

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