ICE raids provoke fear - and outrage

“They came in the night. We heard the voices, the door being broken, and they took our neighbor away.”

Residents of 45 Broadway in Freeport told Workers World of the latest government abduction of an immigrant worker in the pre-dawn hours of Sept. 29. The victim was the 83rd worker to be arrested on Long Island that week, according to the Workplace Project, an immigrant rights group in nearby Hempstead.

Workers who gathered at a deli across from the house were angry at the reign of terror carried out by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement branch of the Department of Homeland Security, still called La Migra by immigrants. “It was right after the governor announced that undocumented workers could get licenses in New York. That is when La Migra came after us.” In all, there were 186 arrests.

In Hempstead, ICE arrested a man who was home with his infant daughter. They took him away, leaving the baby alone on the bed.

Homeland Security, which has deported more than 600,000 people from the U.S. this year, raided at least seven Long Island communities with significant Latin@ populations. Workplace Project organizers are warning people not to open their doors. Immigrant rights activists are mounting campaigns aimed at alerting the public to the terror Latin@s face.

Even the Nassau County police have expressed outrage because Homeland Security told them the raids were to get members of gangs, but that turned out to be a lie.

The Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund filed a lawsuit in the same week arguing that authorities violate Latin@ families’ civil rights by raiding their homes without court warrants. (Newsday, Sept. 27) ICE’s goal is to seize as many undocumented persons as possible as the agents try to meet increased arrest quotas recently imposed upon them by their superiors at ICE, according to CBS-TV.

“We are organizing, taking testimonies, and reaching out across Long Island,” said Carlos Canales of the Workplace Project, “but it is a very serious situation, and Washington and anti-immigrant forces are behind these raids.”