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Illegal Migrants Invade Hamilton County Indiana – Why is it Being Kept Quiet?

Noblesville, Indiana is known as a safe, fast-growing city with a low crime rate. They have a competitive and growing school system as well as emergency services that are well suited to the size of the community. Multiple local charity organizations support this area and there are a growing number of apartments around the city. But what if that wasn’t the whole story? What if more migrants than Millers were living in some of those apartments? What if some of those apartments were bringing more crime, undocumented students, and emergency service run volume into the city and over burdening the local charities? What if all this was happening while a shift in demographics has been taking place in our schools?

Noblesville is home to about 75,000 residents, which is substantially larger than Logansport (18,000) and Seymour Indiana (22,000) which have well documented issues with migrants. This might be why the amount of migrants coming into Noblesville has gone relatively unnoticed by the more significant amount of the population. That said, Noblesville is seeing a substantial increase of migrants from one country in particular, Venezuela. Conservative estimates have placed several thousand Venezuelan migrants already residing in Noblesville. Through apartment complexes like Promenade, Deer Chase, and 32/Union as well as rentals; the amount of migrants are rapidly increasing. There is such an influx in migrants that local NGOs have met to find a response.

One such meeting was set up in July of 2024 by the CEO of Hamilton County Economic Development (dba) Invest Hamilton County, Mike Thibideau, in an email to various NGOs and government agencies, including the Fishers Health Department. He estimated, “conservatively… expecting 600 per month”. Another meeting was held as a “crisis response” via Zoom in early October 2024. One individual present for the meeting described the content as being about BMVs being inundated with migrants seeking driver’s licenses, migrants being in possession of social security numbers through the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) system, and also the Good Samaritan Network having received more furniture requests for migrant families than they could handle. Once enrolled as a refugee, the TPS system allows migrants to obtain an ID, social security card, and I-94 forms which enable them to work and rent lodging. Migrants are able to receive all of these without verifying the information that they provide to the government. This BMV information aligns with a tipster that responded to a request for information email, stating that Carmel’s BMV is seeing “many illegals trying to get licenses without documentation.” Carmel, which is also home to Park Lane apartments, and is reported also to be home to a large migrant population, is Noblesville’s neighbor by less than eight miles. The tipster also describes one or two individuals “bringing dozens (of migrants) to the branch and dropping them off, and another individual registering vehicles for illegals who are then actually driving them off the BMV lot.”

Due to the email from Mike Thibideau, records were requested from the Hamilton County Community Foundation (HCCF), the Fishers Health Department, and Invest Hamilton County. HCCF responded and then attempted to recall their email. This email they attempted to recall stated that churches and schools were involved in the preparations for migrants. However, the Noblesville Superintendent, Dan Hile, and multiple churches denied any knowledge of involvement. The Fishers Heath Department, who Mike Thibideau claimed was involved in the July meeting from the original email, turned up zero emails in a records request, searching for reference of said meeting. Was Mike’s email dishonest in who was involved in the meeting, or was the Fishers Health Department not providing the email known to exist, or was all the communication done through private communication? In addition to this, Mike and Invest Hamilton County never responded to inquiries or records requests regarding migrants. Why would HCCF and Invest Hamilton County not respond, or what are they not willing to disclose to members of the public?

Another individual who is involved with the Good Samaritan Network of Hamilton County described two separate times in September 2024 when large groups of migrants arrived in the Noblesville area. This person stated that the first of the groups to arrive had about 200 individuals, and Good Samaritan was asked to supply more than 20 fully stocked school backpacks for that group. This person also claimed the second group contained about 80 migrants and Good Samaritan was once again asked to support these migrants. They received a request to provide four families with furniture, with one family having more than a dozen members. This person also stated that when these migrants arrived in the Wal-Mart parking lot off of US37 in Noblesville, they already had transportation set up to various area apartment complexes where they already had living accommodations arranged. There were questions as to the buses photographed in this same parking lot in September as possibly dropping off these migrants, however the mayor of Noblesville claimed they were Beck’s Hybrids employees. It has been confirmed through a Beck’s employee that they only use H2A work visas and only for seasonal work and it was done “a long time ago” as of November. These buses could be Beck’s, but it is a very weak explanation at best.

The Good Samaritan Network and Invest Hamilton County are not the only NGOs or agencies that have been involved in aiding and bringing migrants into Noblesville and the surrounding area. Fortunately, Nancy Chance of Good Samaritan was wise enough to look for answers at the end of the September 2024 influx she witnessed. However, Noblesville’s mayor Chris Jensen was not helpful and explicitly denied these events had happened despite the aforementioned situations, even claiming Nancy was spreading lies. Mayor Jensen went so far as to threaten another reporter with “spreading misinformation” if they were to write anything about it. This lack of transparency with the mayor continues to hinder discovering information regarding migrant relocation to Noblesville. These denials continued with the mayor-appointed Chief of Noblesville Police, John Mann, despite a source describing regular conversations between that person and Noblesville Police Department (NPD) detectives. This source even presented pictures of a neighboring rental property with specific and suspicious activity that he had also shared with NPD.

Despite Chief Mann’s denial of any increase in migrants arriving in Noblesville, his detectives have stated that the influx is NPD’s highest concern. Chief Mann’s denial also doesn’t add up with the crime numbers for the city, specifically those associated with 32/Union Apartments. According to CityProtect.com and their crime data for Noblesville, 32/Union had 271 police calls to that complex in the year 2024 alone. These included a shooting, theft, batteries, thefts of vehicles, and fights. Looking at the quarterly break downs, police calls have risen quarter over quarter since 2023’s fourth quarter. Nearly daily runs are logged showing “preventive policing” to the 32/Union apartments. This means crime is so out of control in this complex that it necessitates NPD officers to be visible daily to prevent more crime. It has also been reported that 32/Union is one of two Noblesville apartment complexes with about 80% of their residents being Venezuelan. Noblesville’s census data broken down by demographic shows that the area around 32/Union and Deer Chase apartments have a remarkably higher amount of Hispanic residents compared to neighboring areas. This seems to substantiate the claims that residents of 32/Union are constantly bringing in more mattresses and there are serious concerns regarding occupancy rates. There is so much concern with the crime and occupancy of this complex that a Hispanic employee stated, “we don’t have a Hispanic problem, we have a Venezuelan problem”.

Unfortunately, crime is still rising in other areas of Noblesville as well. The fourth quarter of 2023 saw 45 police calls to this complex and 62 calls in the fourth quarter of 2024, without the last 20 days of December being accounted for. During July-September’s third quarter of 2024, there were 79 police calls. There were also 68 auto thefts this year, many of which took place in downtown Noblesville. These auto thefts have been attributed by local law enforcement to the Venezuelan migrants. So much so that the Tren de Aragua gang has been mentioned in multiple conversations with law enforcement and Indiana Attorney General (AG) employees. Rising crime is to such an extent that one law enforcement officer, who couldn’t comment on an ongoing investigation, nodded when asked if the Hoosier Armory break in might also be attributed to these migrants. Why is crime happening more frequently in recent months? Why would Chief Mann deny everything despite this publicly available data? If it is not an “influx” of migrants, then what is the explanation?

What other illegal activity could these migrants be bringing to this typically low crime town? Local law enforcement is well aware of significant drug sales activity coming out of 32/Union as well. Not to mention the disclosures of individuals having witnessed multiple of these deals taking place. An individual within the Attorney General’s circle also described criminal situations where Venezuelan migrants who were known to be illegally using DoorDash and UberEats delivery accounts to gain access to affluent homes. They then use trail cameras to watch these homes to find the best time to break in. This has then led to multiple home invasions in Hamilton County. It was disclosed that these migrants are renting and buying food delivery accounts though a WhatsApp group. This is very similar to what was reported as going on in the Dallas/Fort Worth area in August 2024. Along with a homicide that occurred in 2023 on the north side of Noblesville that was also attributed to a DoorDash delivery. This provides a view into the tactics which the criminal element has previously used. All of this crime is likely what a Hamilton County Sheriff’s Deputy, who could not speak on an active investigation, but when presented with the details of Mike Thibideau’s email, confirmed, “it’s true.”

To accompany these details, the number of Hispanic individuals housed at the Hamilton County Jail, is out of proportion with the Hispanic census numbers in Hamilton County (5.7%), of which Noblesville (5.1%) is the county seat. As of the start of 2025 about 11% of the inmates are obviously Hispanic, and many of those individuals were arrested on multiple violent charges and never have been issued an ID. One jail employee has also described that the jail teaches English to non-English speaking inmates, and all the students are Hispanic at this time, which this employee claims is not the normal situation. This in itself is not damning evidence, but it does add more questions that the city leadership still won’t answer about migrants moving into Noblesville, and at least a portion of them bringing crime with them. It has also been claimed, by multiple sources in and out of law enforcement that downtown businesses have also seen a significant rise in thefts. Even local churches have had young adult Spanish speaking males, with very broken English, walk up and ask for help. What was considered odd by church leadership was that these men denied the offered food and clothing assistance only to demand cash. When that wasn’t provided to them, they left visibly upset.

Noblesville’s mayor has denied any migrant increase without commenting on the evidence already described here. The Chief of Police has also denied migrant questions without commenting on the same evidence. Superintendent Dan Hile was also questioned about migrants in Noblesville schools and responded with what the mayor and NPD chief had already described. What is the reason that Dan Hile would claim to be so unaware of any migrant activity happening within the school district when at the beginning of the 2024 school year, the bus driver for 32/Union Apartments had to be changed to a bilingual driver due to the amount of non-English speaking students on the bus route? There were so many students in this single apartment complex that they filled one entire bus of high school students. According to other Noblesville bus drivers, this is not a normal number of students for one complex. Ignorance doesn’t make sense when a school resource officer (SRO) also described a situation where numerous Venezuelan students were registering for school under one address. If one bus is already full of high school migrants, and according to this SRO, elementary is seeing the larger quantities of migrants, how many undocumented students is the school district now serving?

The immigrant influx grant is helpful to help learn how many undocumented students could be in Noblesville schools. Noblesville received this grant for the 2023-2025 Title III (English Second Language) allocations. Noblesville had a 65% increase of immigrant students from the 21’-22’ to 22’-23’ school years to make the total 204 students. When also looking into the Title III data, Noblesville has increased from 449 ESL students in 2021 to 692 students in 24’. Noblesville schools had an 11% increase in Hispanic enrollment in 2022 and an 18% increase in 2024. This significantly outpaces the other demographics within Noblesville schools. The Caucasian demographic is steadily decreasing and others are being far outpaced in growth by Hispanics. This is a demographic shift due to the increase in ESL and minority populations, led by Hispanics. Is the administration of Noblesville schools promoting an artificial demographic shift for more grant money? Even the Indiana Department of Education has changed their webpage title from “English Learning Education” to “English Learning and Migrant Education”. The superintendent should not be unaware of this information, specifically related to Noblesville schools, or be much more transparent with what he does know.

Since learning about Mike Thibideau’s email, it was discovered that the Hamilton County Commissioners signed a letter of support for relocating refugees to Hamilton County in 2019. Exodus Refugee, a migrant assistance and relocation Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) made a statement of appreciation for this letter of support. What’s more concerning is that Exodus Refugee, who brought 884 new refugees to Indiana in 2024, as noted on their ‘about me’ page, thanked only two other government entities for their support according to their press release. They thanked the state of Indiana and the city of Indianapolis, along with the Hamilton County Commissioners. When the only County Commissioner to not sign the letter, Mark Heirbrandt, was questioned about the letter of support, he seemed surprised that it was still active and then changed why he didn’t sign it multiple times. Commissioner Heirbrandt immediately requested a vote at the next meeting to withdraw this letter of support, which was voted in favor of. Why was there a sudden change of heart and a race to fix it five years later, as soon as members of the public found out about the letter? How can Noblesville’s mayor, Chief of Police, and school superintendent not have any idea about migrants relocating to the area when this document has existed for years?

Despite all the denials, there still is significant evidence that migrants are coming to Noblesville and other parts of Hamilton County en masse. But how are they getting here and who is bringing them? With Exodus Refugee publicly thanking Noblesville, and Invest Hamilton County creating a discussion with other NGOs to address the migrants moving into the area, are NGOs a part of relocating migrants into Noblesville? Are they paying for all of this relocation? When following the money for these two organizations, several more NGOs are discovered to be involved. Upon digging into these NGOs which support refugee resettlement and defending against deportation there are, among others, HCCF, Church World Service, and several government offices are linked through donations.

Beginning with Exodus Refugee, they are “dedicated to the protection of human rights by serving the resettlement needs of migrants and other displaced people”. Following their money, in 2020 and 2021 they received Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans. Exodus received money from a 2018 established endowment valued at $533 and grants from the Central Indiana Community Foundation (CICF) through the Indianapolis Foundation, Women’s Fund of Central Indiana, the Glick Fund, as well as other CICF partner foundations such as HCCF & the Crosser Foundation. Notably, HCCF also received $58K from the City of Noblesville in 2023. They also received a grant from Eli Lilly in early 23’ for $1.2 million. Exodus gave $173 thousand for rent in 2023 and an additional $3.8 million for personal assistance. Exodus even has weekly volunteer opportunities to set up apartments for refugees. However, what is more striking are the government agencies that have given money to Exodus Refugee via pass through donations. In 2023 the US Dept. of HHS has donated a total of $5.1 million via pass through donations through Indiana Family and Social Services Administration ($2.1 million), Indiana Department of Health ($495 thousand) and Church World Service (CWS) ($1.3 million). CWS has also donated $4.6 million from their own financials in 2022.

The US Dept. of Homeland, US Dept. of State Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration, and the Office of Refugee Resettlement are also involved in millions of dollars of funding for CWS and Exodus Refugee. Church World Service “welcome(s) refugees and asylum seekers with open hearts and helping hands.” They also “advocate for better policies, and (stand) in solidarity, (and help) keep immigrant families together”. CWS has received over $186 million in government grants, some of which is passed on to Exodus Refugee as previously mentioned. The State Department as created a NGO organization called Welcome.us in the wake of the 21’ Afghanistan withdraw and the refugee crisis. Welcome.us was even utilized at Camp Atterbury near Franklin, Indiana which housed Afghan refugees. A project of CWS is the Refugee Welcome Collective (RWC) and is funded by the US Dept. of State. Organizations like RWC guide people to resources provided to migrants and have offices located throughout downtown Indianapolis. They include Catholic Social Services, Center for Victim and Human Rights, Chicagoland Immigrant Welcome Network, Heartland Alliance for Human Needs & Human Rights, Immigrant Welcome Center and several more. Of these, several are based in Chicago where CICF has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to NGOs based there, specifically the Heartland Alliance and the Immigrant Welcome Center. These two also received over $1 million from Lilly Endowment Grants.

By following the money one can see that migrant resettlement and providing deportation defense is a very lucrative business with tens of millions of dollars being funneled from the federal government into NGOs. The State of Indiana has served as a host to pass through donations and is therefore not innocent of this situation either. It is not a stretch to conclude that federal government and by proxy, the state of Indiana has been in the business of migrant resettlement, despite the increased burden on local services and increased crime that has come with some of these migrants. The extent of how much more the local services are being used, was described by one Noblesville firefighter, as being significantly busier because of all the increased amount of people in the area. Another reason migrant relocation cold be happening in Noblesville is the significant increase in apartment complex development in recent years. Noblesville Economic Development Office brags on their website that they’ve created 13,500 new residential units since 2020 and has built their first downtown apartment in over 100 years, then built or planned 5 additional downtown apartment complexes. Although crime has come with this increase in migrants into the area, the increased need for services also comes from those same migrants who are seeking to find gainful employment, some choose to do so illegally, though situations like AG Rokita highlighted with Tyson Foods.

Todd Rokita, Attorney General of Indiana, recently addressed “a large scale influx of illegal aliens and ‘legal migrants’ into local communities”. In November AG Rokita sent a civil investigative demand to Tyson Foods in Logansport related to potential human labor trafficking. Could this also be happening in Noblesville? Two employees at  Meijer at IN 32 & Hazel Dell Pkwy claimed that there are so many Venezuelan employees in the morning that they would be able to be open without them. Also, a frequent customer who has had multiple conversations with Hispanics working at the McDonald’s at the same intersection stated that they told him they were also all from Venezuela. This seems to corroborate what a resident at Promenade Apartments, near this intersection described. The resident claimed that Venezuelans are living 10 or more to an apartment, and there are at least 100 of them living in the complex. This seems to be backed up with the same demographic map mentioned earlier that shows about 130 Hispanics residing the in the Promenade area. This is significant because this complex is just a couple miles from the church previously mentioned, where migrants had requested money. This source also described that some of the Venezuelans living at Promenade utilize DoorDash for employment. One can hope they’re not using this employment in the same way as the aforementioned illegal activity. What other employment might these migrants be utilizing? One nurse at Eskenazi hospital in Indianapolis, just 20 miles away and the nearest Medicaid hospital, described many situations where a single Hispanic male would bring in multiple young pregnant women to be treated. A majority of the time all of these individuals were not English speaking. Might this be a sign that migrants are trafficking women as a source of income as well, and could some be living in 32/Union? Illegal immigration has a cost, about $886 million in Indiana, and it is quite the unfortunate situation that even those who don’t bring crime still find illegal ways to get money and cost the taxpayers even more.

To review what we know: local NGOs have been planning a response for an influx in migrants, the rising crime in the area, and specifically at a particular apartment complex, law enforcement officers have privately confirmed that there are too many incoming migrants, and the jails have an increase in Hispanic inmates arrested with no issued ID on many of their arrest records. It’s also known that homes are being broke into utilizing delivery companies and trail cameras, there have been media reports of shootings locally where a delivery company was utilized, and a weapons store where a stolen car was used in an attempted robbery. It’s documented that Noblesville schools are having to adjust to the rising amount of migrants and receive grants to fund the increase in migrants, as well as alter bus drivers and routes. We also have significant documentation of large NGOs funneling money from federal government agencies into the local NGOs to relocate migrants. There are also eye witnesses describing where some of these migrants are working, where others are choosing illegal activities. However, the most concerning information of all is an informant’s claim that a federal LPA grant being used by Noblesville has mandated sanctuary policies. While attempting to prove or disprove this report, the City of Noblesville delayed providing this information as requested by an Access to Public Records Act request. Why did it take Noblesville three months to release the information from this request? Though they could have been innocently slow in fulfilling the request, but could they be hiding something after three months?

If they are hiding something, this would explain why Mayor Jensen so adamantly denied the questions about a potential migrant influx, and why he had Superintendent Hile and Chief Mann also deny any migrant increase. Beyond the public being energized to stop cities from being overrun by migrants, such as what has happened in Seymour and Logansport Indiana, as well as Springfield Ohio, having sanctuary policies is an illegal act under Indiana Code 5-2-18.2. If it is not to cover up a criminal action, then why does the mayor deny all this evidence? What else does he know? Could it have anything to do with the amount of new apartments being built by campaign donors? When these complexes fill up, developers and city officials could claim they need to create more apartments with more ‘donations’? Why would the Chief buy into this political nonsense instead of putting public safety first and informing the public about the rising crime to prepare them instead of panicking the public? Why would the superintendent be so closed lip about it when his school district is receiving money for migrants and adjusting bus routes for them? Who else is involved? Above all, the public should know what the end goal of the parties involved is.

This will be answered in time, but also it might be solved on its own. As President Trump takes office and promises to deport the criminal migrants in a mass deportation and shutting down the CBP One app, these migrants might choose to take matters in their own hands, and will self-select to move to a sanctuary state and solve the issues of crime and overwhelming of our public services. President Trump’s election and tough border security policies might solve the issues in Noblesville despite their local officials not addressing this issue. Though Indianapolis Public Schools have set up groups to fight President Trump’s actions, ICE has already started removing the criminal element within the migrants, and the CBP One app has already been taken down. We are seeing results in the first week of Trump’s presidency already. Exodus Refugee is delaying, possibly permanently 120 migrants set to arrive next month in Indiana. AG Rokita has also sued St Joseph County Sheriff for not following immigration laws as well. When President Trump’s policies are backed up by a strong Governor, Lt. Governor, and Attorney General, the possibility of migrant problems being solved shines brightly.