Long Island rapid response teams work to help immigrants as ICE enforcement expands

They are fighting against ICE raids — citizen "rapid responders" who show up when immigration agents are spotted trying to arrest migrants on Long Island. 

They try to get the immigrants’ names, find out where they are jailed, and get them legal representation. It’s a cat-and-mouse game because the raids tend to happen quickly.

Dozens of volunteers outraged by the raids and moved by the plight of the immigrants are joining the effort, advocates said.

"It’s a climate of fear much bigger than we’ve ever seen on Long Island," said Linda Obernauer, an organizer with United Community Action Network (UCAN), which is helping immigrants in northern Brookhaven Town.

The raids are "horrific," she said. "They are not going after criminals, like they said, like MS-13s. ... They're just doing arbitrary raids to families and to people that we know are hardworking."

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said the agency "does not indiscriminately conduct enforcement actions on random people. ICE officers conduct targeted enforcement actions that are based on intelligence-driven leads focused on aliens identified for arrest and removal from the United States."

The rapid response networks have taken off in the past two weeks since the Trump administration ramped up its effort to arrest and deport immigrants living in the country illegally, as well as some who have some kind of legal status, advocates said. Stephen Miller, White House deputy chief of staff, said in late May that the federal government wanted to arrest 3,000 immigrants a day, up from about 600 daily.

President Donald Trump pledged during his campaign that he would carry out the largest deportation program in U.S. history, arguing that illegal immigration was out of control and some of those coming in are criminals.

Rapid responders grow

The crackdown has provoked protests across the country, including in Los Angeles, where Trump sent 5,000 National Guard members and Marines to quell the demonstrations.

Trump's action has propelled more people to become rapid responders, advocates said. Some residents operate on their own, while nonprofit organizations and community groups are forming teams.

"The reign of terror set into motion by the current presidential administration has hit Long Island and is headed east," Minerva Perez, executive director of OLA, said in a statement. OLA, a Latino advocacy group on the East End, announced last week it was creating response team "Operation Stand and Protect."

The response networks depend heavily on social media, with residents and organizations sharing sightings of ICE raids on Facebook and other platforms. The sharing is aimed in part at warning migrants to stay away from those areas.

Pilar Moya-Mancera, an advocate based in Huntington, said she drives around town before and after work most weekdays looking for ICE activity. She spends much of her weekends doing the same.

She posts videos of raids when she can, and says she gets thousands of views.

"The community trusts us," she said.

The nonprofit Islip Forward launched a phone alert system last week to send notifications of ICE sightings within 10 to 15 minutes of receiving photographs and other evidence, said Ahmad Perez, the group’s founder.

ICE sightings alert

About 2,000 people are signed up for the alerts, which are sent only after Islip Forward volunteers verify it is ICE or another government agency involved in immigration enforcement, Perez said. Islip Forward focuses on Brentwood and Central Islip, but it may expand the service throughout Long Island.

"We believe that the Trump administration is conducting unjust immigration enforcement actions that are impacting innocent families and tearing them apart," he said. "We're going to stand up against it always. Our goal is really to keep our community safe and informed."

The rapid response presence at raids serves several purposes, said Nadia Marin-Molina, the Nassau County-based co-national director of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network.

It helps ensure that ICE agents don’t abuse migrants they are arresting because the scene is filmed, she said. Advocates also try to inform migrants of their rights, such as the right to remain silent and to get a lawyer.

They ask agents if they have an arrest warrant and what agency they are from — usually the agents don’t respond, Marin-Molina and Obernauer said.

Often ICE is gone by the time activists arrive, so activists ask witnesses if they know the names of the detained immigrants, Marin-Molina said. Residents frequently have been able to film the arrest, though, and they and the activists post the footage.

An overall goal of filming the raids is to let the public know they took place, she said.

"I think a lot of times people don't believe that it's happening until they see the video," she said. "And it's shocking to see ... these agents coming in with their faces covered, with their vests and their guns, and, you know, questioning and arresting people."

'It's not America'

The masked agents resemble "the very militias that cause many community members to flee their home countries" in Latin America, OLA’s Perez said. She considers the arrests "abductions" like what has happened in parts of Latin America. The agents typically won’t identify what agency they work for when asked, and there is often no way to track where the detained person is taken and being held, she said.

"That’s what other countries do," she said. "It’s not America."

Many of the arrests are happening outside Home Depot and Lowe’s stores, supermarkets, delis, train stations and even food pantries, Marin-Molina said.

"Any brown person is being chased," Moya-Mancera said. ICE agents "show up to places, and they don't even know who they're looking for. It’s racial profiling."

"Law enforcement activities are not conducted based on racial or ethnic profiling. ICE takes all allegations of racial or ethnic profiling very seriously," the agency said. "ICE’s law enforcement actions are consistent with Department of Homeland Security and ICE policies, as well as U.S. immigration law, which prohibit the consideration of race or ethnicity when conducting enforcement actions."

Marin-Molina said agents "interrogate everybody who is waiting for work at the Home Depot, and then some of the workers run because they're afraid when they see all those agents and then the people who run — they arrest them immediately — and then the others are interrogated, and arrested."

UCAN has been driving around and handing out cards that list workers' rights, including landscapers and car wash employees, Obernauer said. Other groups are holding "know your rights" workshops.

UCAN started taking migrants to doctor’s appointments, food shopping and laundry pickups because they are afraid to go out alone, Obernauer said.

"The whole community is just ... locking down," she said. "They’re traumatized. ... They could just be cutting the lawn and just be picked up for no reason."