ICE Critics Rally Against South Fork Migrant Arrests

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents’ recent arrest of about a dozen immigrants on the South Fork sparked renewed protests of President Donald Trump’s continuing aggressive national migrant deportation effort.

Critics rallied at Southampton Town Hall at the town board’s latest meeting on Nov. 12 in the days after ICE agents made arrests in Hampton Bays and Westhampton, where the agency using a local firehouse as a staging ground became a flashpoint.

“I understand there’s concern and anxiety because of the ICE activity that we saw,” Southampton Town Supervisor Maria Moore said. “The most difficult part is that there’s no clear, accurate information coming our way … ICE does not notify the police department before they come. We don’t know when they’re coming.”

She noted that the town has no sway over federal agencies, but that local officials support nonprofits such as OLA of Eastern Long Island, a nonprofit organization that advocates for the East End immigrant community and helped organize the protests.

A long list of critics spoke out at the town board meeting.

“We have masked men carrying off peaceable members of our community without warrants, without due process,” one of the critics told the town board. “This is not the American way. ICE officials claim to be targeting dangerous criminals. The worst of the worst, they say. But the public sees much abuse.”

Southampton Town Councilmember Cyndi McNamara noted that firefighters were upset that critics protested outside of the Westhampton Beach Fire Department firehouse, which ICE agents have used as a staging ground for enforcement efforts. ICE critics noted that the protests were aimed at the ICE agents, not firefighters.