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Long Island immigration raids draw criticism, suit

BY SUSANA ENRIQUEZ | susana.enriquez@newsday.com

9:55 PM EDT, October 4, 2007

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When Hempstead residents Cecilia and Fernando presented their passports to federal immigration agents during a raid to prove they were U.S. citizens, authorities accused them of having fake documents.

Fernando said Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agents pulled him aside last Wednesday and forced him to wait downstairs until they were convinced that he was a citizen. He asked to see a warrant, but said he was ignored.

"What they did to us is humiliating," said Fernando, 22, who declined to give his last name.

Cecilia, 21, who also did not give her last name, said, "[Just because] we look Spanish doesn't mean that everyone is an immigrant."

During last week's raids on Long Island by ICE, citizens like Cecilia and Fernando were enmeshed in the arrests of 186 people, 157 of which ICE officials said were gang members or associates. Mark Thorn, a spokesman for ICE, said only that he was looking into it.

Nassau County Police Commissioner Lawrence Mulvey criticized federal officials, saying that of the 82 people detained in Nassau County, most were undocumented immigrants who were not the subjects of warrants. The clash with ICE officials led Rep. Peter King (R-Seaford) to arrange a meeting between Mulvey and high-level federal officials to discuss the agency's tactics.

Cesar Perales, president and general counsel of the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund, said the recent raids have given credence to a class action lawsuit filed two weeks ago that claims that the Fourth Amendment rights of 14 people against unreasonable searches and seizures were violated during raids earlier this year.

As a result of the recent raids, Perales said, 13 more people have been added as plaintiffs in the lawsuit.

"We have been inundated with phone calls from people who are terrified," Perales said. "They feel that their rights were violated. In essence they were the victims of home invasions."

He said he plans to ask the court today for immediate intervention to prevent more raids.

Fernando's mother, Carmelina, who owns the house on Terrace Avenue and also lives there, said that having people burst into her home and breaking doors reminded her of when she lived in El Salvador.

"There, it's the Death Squads and here it's immigration," said Carmelina, 47, a legal resident.