McHenry rally against ICE brings out more than 600 protesters

Mariela Ryan’s brother, who was picked up at his Florida home, has been in Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention since Nov. 9.

That is one of the reasons the Crystal Lake resident joined more than 600 people in McHenry on Sunday to protest the federal agency‘s involvement in the shooting death of Renee Good on Jan. 7 in Minneapolis.

The local protest was organized by Indivisible McHenry County after the national organization Indivisible held an emergency online conference call Thursday night, encouraging its members to hold protests over the weekend, said Sue Rose, communications lead for the local group.

They picked Sunday for the potential of better weather, and a location on Route 31 in McHenry because of large parking lots near the former Kmart, Rose said

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More than 600 people came out Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, on Route 31 in McHenry for an anti-ICE protest, organized by Indivisible McHenry County. The national organization encouraged protests over the weekend in response to the death of Renee Good Wednesday in Minneapolis. (Janelle Walker)

Using a counter clicker, Rose walked the line of protesters that stretched several blocks, and said 610 people were there at about 1 p.m.

Ryan did not come with a sign to wave, but spoke about her home country of Venezuela and the political turmoil that resulted in U.S. forces taking its president, Nicolás Maduro, into custody Jan. 3.

She’s been in the U.S. for 30 years, after marrying her husband, Darrell Ryan. The two met and married in Venezuela when Darrell worked there. Mariela became a U.S. citizen in 2003.

“It is such a complex situation,” she said of country’s politics, adding that much of what she knows comes from friends and family who still live there.

In simplest terms, when Hugo Chavez won the popular election in 1999, he became a dictator, manipulating elections, padding the Venezuelan supreme court, and suppressing the media. Before his death, Chavez named Maduro as his successor, Ryan said.

“We are happy, as Venezuelans, that he is gone,” Ryan said, adding that is what her family tells her. But the years under the regime broke the country’s spirit, even as its residents protested.

Then, she mentioned that her brother has been detained by ICE.

They grew up both in the beleaguered South American country and, for a time when they were younger, in California as their father worked for an oil company with offices in both countries.

“He is married to a U.S. citizen, they have two kids,” Ryan said, adding her brother has lived in the U.S. for a dozen years, manages a restaurant in Florida and has no criminal record.

At some point after he came to the U.S. on a student visa, and later got married, there was a removal order the family did not know about, Ryan said, adding “he was able to get a REAL ID” as a legal U.S. resident.

She’s been in contact with her sister-in-law, helping to raise money for attorney fees and living expenses with one of the family’s wage-earners locked up.

The last the family heard, Ryan’s brother was in Texas, and on Saturday, was told he is hospitalized and exhibiting symptoms of a stroke. “He’s had problems with high blood pressure and he is not getting the care he needed,” she said.

Ryan didn’t want to give more details, worried that bringing attention to his case could bring negative attention from ICE officials.

While the protests did not stop Venezuela’s authoritarian regime, Ryan said she is more optimistic about the U.S.

“I believe in the institutions of this country, that we have the power here to stop it.”