PARIS, Ill. – In his dreams, Jose Fiscal Belli is still living an all-American life with his all-American family.
Each day, he comes home to his wife, a hazel-eyed, small-town preacher’s daughter. Together, they raise four children and run the Main Street Cafe, where they serve country fried chicken and eggs to a feisty bunch of regulars. He also co-owns a Mexican restaurant just across the state line in Clinton, Indiana.
Everyone knows Jose in Paris, Illinois, located about 165 miles south of Chicago. He coaches Little League. Police officers ask for his help as a volunteer Spanish translator. He is known to donate whole meals to the local soup kitchen. When 8-year old Crosby Allen needed a new bat but didn’t have the money, Jose gave him one.
He fits right into the mostly white town of roughly 8,000 people where a laundromat offers free laundry day for those who can’t afford it and a local group builds wheelchair ramps for disabled residents.
But Jose, 32, is not in Paris anymore. Instead of living the American Dream, he wakes up to a nightmare in ICE custody. He was picked up earlier this summer after Indiana State Police stopped him outside a government building in Indianapolis where he had parked in the wrong spot. The officers turned him over to federal immigration agents, and he is being detained at the Oldham County Jail in La Grange, Kentucky, where he faces deportation.
Now, a town that voted overwhelmingly for President Donald Trump is contending with Jose’s absence. The Prairie Press, a local newspaper, ran a front-page photo of Jose and a story declaring: “This is one of ours.”
Children threatened to quit baseball. Golfers organized a tournament fundraiser for his legal defense. People donated thousands of dollars for a GoFundMe. Even a few Republican leaders wrote letters supporting his release.
Jose’s arrest has inspired hard conversations throughout the community, at the ball field, the diner, and even within his family as Paris confronts the pain brought to town by a president they support.
Indeed, the situation playing out in Paris mirrors scenes across the country, where voters are wrestling with their support of Trump’s immigration enforcement efforts — until it ensnares someone they know, from Biddeford, Maine, to Staunton, Illinois, where beloved restaurateur Ismael Ayuzo Sandoval was deported on Christmas Eve.
In Paris, Mayor Craig Smith sat in his office, just a short walk from Jose’s restaurant. The Democrat mayor of a Republican town said his community has been “ripped apart” by U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement.
“Everybody I talk to wants him home. I mean, that’s it. Whether they were for the border control, immigration, most of the people that I talk to in my group don’t like what ICE is doing,” Smith said. “They’ve lost their way.”
“It came home, I think, to this community when it happened to Jose,” Smith added.
A family man
Jose’s American journey began in 2009, when he was 16 years old and brought across the border by his father, court records show.
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They lived in Minnesota for a time but came down to Indiana searching for work. Jose met Courtney in 2019, when she was working as an emergency medical provider in Clinton and would come into Taco Tequila’s, the restaurant where he’s a partner.
He had a child, Rafael, from a previous relationship. She had two boys, Tennessee and Silas. They would talk about their kids and school.
“That turned into a friendship and moved on from there,” Courtney told the Tribune.
The couple went on their first date in 2019, which she recalls as dinner and a movie. He was a soccer fan but she later took him to Chicago for a Cubs game, introducing him to baseball and hooking him on America’s pastime. They married in 2021. They had a son, Legend, who is now 4 years old. Her children love and respect Jose. He loves them, too.
Their extended family is unorthodox but close-knit. Courtney and Jose maintain a positive relationship with her ex, Andrew Dick. In fact, the two men coached their sons in Little League together. When ICE took Jose on July 21, Andrew and Silas wrote letters to the judge seeking mercy.
“I could not have asked for a better man to step in and become a part of my children’s life,” Andrew wrote. “He is a good husband to the mother of my children, which to me, it is super important for my children to grow up seeing their mother being treated with respect.”
In his own letter, 14-year old Silas reflected on the politics and the pain.
“After watching my stepfather being detained for a silly parking violation, I am ashamed of what my country has become. I supported this administration because I believed it would make America stronger, but seeing what has happened to my family has left me heartbroken and deeply disappointed,” Silas wrote. “I never imagined I would feel this way about the country | wanted to serve. I understand that immigration laws exist for a reason, but I hope you also remember these are real families and real people.”
Sometimes, Courtney said, people ask why he didn’t try to seek legal status “the right way.” They tried. They were in the process of getting papers by marriage when they discovered that he had had a deportation order against him from his time in Minnesota, which the family said he did not know about.
“We’ve done everything we were told we needed to do by an immigration attorney,” Courtney said. “We had some of the normal interviews waived because we’d been able to prove through our paperwork and documentation that we had a real, legitimate marriage.”
Trump’s election brought a change in the government’s deportation policies and, for Courtney, who had cast her vote for former Vice President Kamala Harris, a wave of worry. Her worst fears came true July 21 when Jose was arrested and detained.
A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security said, “On July 21, ICE arrested Jose (Fiscal Belli), an illegal alien from Mexico. (Fiscal Belli) claims he entered the United States illegally on September 26, 2010, near Nogales, Arizona. He was issued a final order of removal from an immigration judge on January 11, 2011, after failing to show up to his hearing. He will remain in ICE custody until removed from the United States.”
Their problems deepened when an immigration judge declined to grant him bond, despite the fact that he has no criminal record.
Katie Rosenberger, the family’s immigration lawyer, criticized the government’s handling of his case and said it illustrates how much things have changed under Trump. In previous administrations, Jose would be allowed to fight his case from home.
“This is a really good example of how strict and draconian the immigration system has become,” Rosenberger said. “It highlights how extreme the system has gotten.”
The arrest came at a particularly challenging time for the family. Courtney is in school to become a nurse practitioner, which added even more pressure to a home-and-work-life balance.
The couple bought the Main Street Cafe last December in a bid to have longer-term stability. The hope was that Main Street, which is a breakfast and lunch spot, would allow Jose to spend more time at home.
Now the family lives with the anxiety that he could be deported and removed from the family.
Still, she said she’s grateful for the community support they’ve received, which has been mostly positive.
“He has earned so much of their respect, and I think that has played a huge role in this because they have had to take a step back and evaluate that this is wrong and it really does not matter who says that it’s OK and that it’s right,” Courtney said. “It’s not right.”
Diner talks
By the time the Main Street Cafe opens at 5:30 in the morning, there are often people waiting to be let inside.
On a recent morning, retired car mechanic Billy Henson walked into the diner and asked about Jose as he picked up his breakfast to go. Courtney said the questions from customers come every single day.
At first, Henson said, he was skeptical about the new owner.
“When he first bought the restaurant I asked him, ‘Are you going to start changing things?’” Henson recalled.
Jose responded that he would leave the diner more or less as is. He’s been true to his word, and Henson said he appreciates some of the changes Jose made, like implementing all-day breakfast and opening on Mondays.
Turning to politics, Henson said he’s a proud “Donald Trump fan.” The president, Henson said, is “good for our country,” even though he “doesn’t think sometimes before he says things.”
Referring to the war in Iran, Henson said, “He flew off the handle and got us into this little scuffle that’s the reason why gas is $4 a gallon.”
On immigration, Henson said, “I am in favor of deporting some of these illegal immigrants. The ones who are constantly killing, they need to go.”
But, he added, that he thinks “the ICE thing went a tad bit too far, just my opinion.”
“I like Jose,” Henson said. “I hope he gets stuff worked out.”
Edgar County Commissioner Daniel Bruner, a Republican, was more blunt.
“This here is a bunch of crap,” Bruner said. “I mean, the guy’s trying to make a living, been here, what, 15 years? He has two businesses. He has four kids. Has a great wife. He only screwed up one time and now he’s paying for it. Shouldn’t be that way.”
Butch Graham comes into the cafe every morning for breakfast with friends. Often, he’s the only Democrat at the table. For Graham, Jose’s arrest is “senseless” and “a tragedy.”
“Particularly if you’re a family man and you’re paying taxes, I got no problem with anybody being in the United States if you’re paying taxes. And he was working towards citizenship,” Graham said. “This is something that should never have happened.”
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Many of the people he’s talked to recognize that, he said, but not all.
“Amazingly, about 70% of them think it’s wrong. They don’t know why, but it just feels wrong to them because he has a family and he pays taxes. But amazingly, there’s 30% that said, ‘Well, he got exactly what he deserves,’” Graham said. “I won’t tell you what I tell them.”
A family reckons
Courtney’s parents are lifelong Republicans. Chris White, 61, is a pastor at the Paris Church of God. Crystal White, 56, is a nurse practitioner.
Like others in town, they’ve been impressed by Jose. When the church needed work, Chris said, Jose rolled up his sleeves and installed recessed lighting. He is a devoted member of the community and a beloved member of the family.
Crystal has tried to send messages to Trump, Vice President JD Vance and first lady Melania Trump about the situation. She hasn’t gotten a response.
“I will probably never call myself a Republican again,” Crystal White said. “That doesn’t mean I’m a Democrat. I think I’m probably an independent.”
She has negative feelings about voting for Trump.
“I have a lot of guilt about it because I guess he told us what he was going to do, but I really didn’t believe that it would be carried out in the way that it’s being carried out,” Crystal said.
Chris largely agreed with his wife, but added that the approach to immigration “really isn’t what you voted for because you put trust in into carrying out of laws in a way that’s going to have some fairness involved, especially with regard to how people are treated and treated as human beings, having basic needs met.”
“What gets to me is the inhumane nature of what we’ve come to know as a reality that we would not have known had it not happened to our own family,” Chris said. “So many people are kind of in denial that, ‘Well, it can’t really be that bad.’ It can’t be that these folks are denied basic human rights of having food and water at appropriate times, sleep without sleep deprivation happening to them, all kind of other things, lack of medical care.’”
In August, Chris posted a call for people to pray for Jose. Besides a slew of supportive messages, one man posted: “I am praying he makes it back to Mexico safely. And may he come back the right way.”
Crystal believes they’ve lost some friends over the situation. But, she said, she recently heard a pastor talking about how America needs to move away from “left and right and start thinking about what’s good and evil.”
“I can be a lifelong Republican and still say that what’s happening to American families and the way that it’s being carried out, in my opinion, is not good,” Crystal said. “It’s evil, and I’m not going to stand with that, no matter what any politician says on either side of the aisle.”
Community response
In the immediate aftermath of Jose’s arrest, his family feared he would be quickly deported. He was taken from Indiana to Louisiana, but he has since been transferred to a Kentucky jail.
Jose’s team collected character references to submit to an immigration judge. Altogether, the dozens of pages of letters reflect a who’s who of American life: police officers, teachers, the local dentist.
Niki Zucca, president of the Central Elementary PTO, noted her school has a high rate of poverty but Jose stepped in to help.
“Through his generosity, Jose has provided more than 400 free meals to our students,” Zucca said. “He once shared with me that some of these children may have never had the opportunity to eat in a restaurant, and he wanted to give them that experience.”
The Clinton Little League board of directors praised Jose as a man who “devotes countless hours coaching, mentoring, organizing events, maintaining facilities, and supporting young athletes both on and off the field.”
“His involvement extends far beyond what is expected of a volunteer — he genuinely invests in the success and well-being of the children and families in our community,” they said.
An 8-year old baseball player credited Jose for helping him improve as an athlete, then added, “I am willing to put money on his account from my piggy bank so he can stay here.”
Clinton patrolman Jeremy Gorman and Lt. Dustin Wall wrote a joint letter calling him “a friend to law enforcement and to the people of our area, and his continued presence in our community would be a benefit to it.”
Ashley James, the Republican Vermillion County Council president, praised him for being “entrepreneurial, family oriented, generous, and committed to his community.”
“The United States was built in large part by immigrants who came here seeking a better life,” James wrote. “They worked hard, built families, started businesses, and contributed to their communities. Jose is a perfect example of that tradition.”
Smith, the mayor of Paris, challenged Republicans to put Jose’s fate to a vote.
“Don’t … tell me that they came here illegally. Tell me what they’ve done since they’ve been here. Have they married somebody? Have they had children? Do they have a business? You can go through all the checklists for Jose,” Smith said. “They’d be going like, well, he shouldn’t (be deported).”
Illinois state Rep. Adam Niemerg, a Republican who represents Paris, did not return a message seeking comment. State Sen. Chapin Rose, also a Republican, said he “has nothing to do with ICE” and doesn’t know enough about the situation.
To Smith, the county’s support for Trump and Jose is a contradiction.
“It’s kind of a unique place where 75% vote for Trump, but probably 75% really care about their fellow citizen,” Smith said. “Doesn’t quite compute sometimes.”
The complicated feelings surrounding Jose’s detainment mirrors the response in Staunton over the deportation of Ayuzo Sandoval during the 2025 holidays, which caught the attention of the governor.
“Staunton votes Republican. And what happened? Five hundred people came out and protested what ICE had done, and it’s changed Staunton,” Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker recently told the Tribune. “This idea that it’s only in immigrant neighborhoods or only in certain parts of the state or the city, or just in the urban areas, I mean, Staunton is not an urban area.”
‘I’m not a criminal’
On lucky days where ICE detainees’ phone access isn’t disrupted, Courtney talks to her husband twice. Once in the morning, and once at night. She updates him on the kids. He tells her not to worry.
On a recent Friday morning, Jose called Courtney at the diner as she spoke to a Tribune reporter.
“I didn’t do nothing other than coming to this country to find a better life for me and for my family that was in Mexico. Now I’m just trying to fight this so I can be back with my kids,” Jose told the Tribune. “I’m not a criminal, I’m not a murderer, I’m not a rapist like they say. So I don’t know why they treat me like that.”
Jose said he helps people because he sees himself in others who are struggling. Growing up, he would sometimes tell his mom he was hungry and she would tell him to go to sleep so he wouldn’t be hungry anymore.
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“I always try to help, and (I tell my wife) that I don’t feel like it’s right if I have food on my table and I can share a little bit. I wouldn’t mind doing that because I know what it is to have nothing on the table,” Jose said. “I come from a very poor family in Mexico.”
Being in ICE detention has been hard, he said. The inmates are mistreated: bad food, sleep deprivation. But when Jose thinks about the situation he’s in, he said he first thinks of his family.
“I feel very, very guilty for putting my family through this,” Jose said. “But at the same time, it’s like, I need to fight for them.”
As Jose spoke, Courtney sat next to her mother, listening intently as tears slowly rolled down her face.