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happening.","longText":"","customLogo":null,"media":{"__typename":"Image","id":"contentid/3f0249a2-fc75-44e3-b8df-180b0875ce97","width":2100,"height":1400,"title":"inTRAFFIC260726_photos","headline":"","baseUrl":"https://cdn.newsday.com/image-service/version/c:NTJhNTcxYzgtMDRkMi00:ODc5MDgxZTctZDY1OC00/intraffic260726_photos.jpg","caption":"

ICE on Long Island have used low-profile surveillance tactics to accumulate arrests of immigrants, such as Luis.

\n","altTag":"","byline":"Ed Quinn","organization":"","floatLeft":false,"floatRight":false,"imageSize":"","useFreeform":false},"content":{"__typename":"Article","id":"contentid/c1bb8a6c-c7e0-4b10-9315-81edc6473228","lead":"A Newsday review of court records sheds new light on ICE's Long Island operation and where it's happening.","body":"

Luis, a 25-year-old tile installer, sat in his black Jeep Cherokee outside a job at the Tanger Outlets in Deer Park, looking for a tool. Unknown to him, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents watched from the parking lot.

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In a span of 20 minutes on a late February morning — before Luis could even finish his break — the officers staking him out from two unmarked sedans had run his Jeep’s Virginia plates, learned he was an Ecuadorian citizen, obtained a warrant and arrested him, court records show. He said they didn’t give him a chance to explain that he had a valid work permit and federal status shielding him from deportation.

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\"They ... put the handcuffs on me and left everything there — the keys, the car, everything,\" Luis said in Spanish during a recent interview from his attorney’s Queens office, after a judge freed him. Newsday is not publishing Luis’ last name to protect his privacy as his immigration case continues. \"They didn’t verify anything. They just said, ‘You’re illegal.’\"

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ICE has arrested more than 2,000 people on Long Island since the start of the second Trump administration, and almost none have come from the type of attention-grabbing sweeps that have sparked unrest around the country. Instead, ICE is leveraging the region’s prevailing car culture, turning strip mall parking lots, side streets and highways into a pillar of its surveillance operation, a Newsday investigation found.

WEBLINK: Lea este artículo en español (Read this article in Spanish) \n

To understand the agency’s tactics, reporters reviewed roughly 400 habeas corpus petitions, which challenge immigrant detentions, and the government’s responses filed in the U.S. Eastern District of New York court between Jan. 20, 2025, and June 30, 2026.

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At least 84 of those cases involved ICE arresting immigrants who were using a car on Long Island, including during traffic stops, in parking lots and following crashes.

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In sworn statements and court transcripts, agents repeatedly describe running out-of-state license plates of cars to get the registrant’s name and then putting that name into federal immigration databases to determine the person’s legal status in the country. The traffic stops that often result are a tactic that has come under new and heightened national scrutiny.

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After federal agents killed immigrants in cars in Texas and Maine earlier this month — and a new wave of anti-ICE protests — the Department of Homeland Security on July 14 ordered the agency to temporarily halt most traffic stops. But less than a day later, President Donald Trump criticized the directive, saying on social media that ICE \"cannot give up\" one of the agency’s \"most important and effective crime fighting tools.\"

President Donald Trump posted this July 15 on Truth Social. \n

ICE’s strategy on Long Island shows how it has largely operated outside of coordinated raids and targeted home visits, both more likely to generate protests and bystander video, yet still captured hundreds of unaware immigrants going about their daily routine, according to immigration attorneys.

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They alleged that ICE checking license plate information and car registrations amounted to racial profiling and highlighted the agency’s increasingly widespread and covert surveillance network.

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At his confirmation hearing in mid-March, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin struck a more conciliatory tone than his predecessor, Kristi Noem, whose tenure was marked by ICE agents fatally shooting two U.S. citizens protesting sweeps in Minneapolis. Mullin, a Republican from Oklahoma, said the agency would continue to carry out Trump’s immigration policies but his goal was to ensure the agency wasn’t the \"lead story every single day.\"

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But the scale of ICE’s surveillance on Long Island calls into question even the agency's lower-profile tactics, according to Reuben Kerben, Luis’ Queens-based attorney.

STORYWIDGET: INTRAFFIC260726_pc1 \n

\"It definitely — as someone who lives on Long Island — worries me, troubles me,\" Kerben said. \"Like, what else is being done that we’re not really privy to as the public?\"

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As ICE arrests surge nationwide, their discreet approach here could offer a blueprint on how to carry out arrests with less risk of immediate public awareness.

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A spokesperson for the agency said in an emailed statement that ICE does not have access to New York Department of Motor Vehicles databases and can’t use them to execute arrests. The agency did not answer questions about whether it seeks permission from businesses to conduct surveillance operations in their parking lots.

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Not all arrested immigrants challenge their detentions in court, meaning the true number of traffic-stop arrests is likely higher than the 84 identified by Newsday. But the lawsuits provide one of the largest windows into ICE’s Long Island enforcement actions, since the agency does not release detailed records of how it makes arrests.

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Beyond traffic stops, the petitions show ICE has made multiple local arrests by targeting people outside of scheduled interviews at immigration offices, walking to and from home or businesses, at probation check-ins or after they were arrested by police.

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Newsday’s investigation also uncovered some of the first publicly known depositions from arresting ICE agents, in which they documented running license plates through government databases to identify registered owners. New York bars agencies that largely enforce immigration law from accessing state DMV records, and the depositions don’t indicate whether ICE purposefully targeted vehicles with out-of-state plates so they could legally use other databases.

STORYWIDGET: INTRAFFIC260726_tear \n

Jess D’Amelia, a spokesperson for Gov. Kathy Hochul, said the tactics amounted to \"indiscriminate targeting,\" adding the Trump administration should focus on keeping \"violent offenders accountable and stop wasting critical resources trying to separate families and cause harm to our communities.\"

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\"There’s no real way of realizing who someone is from what comes back with their car’s registration outside of their name,\" Murad Awawdeh, the head of the New York Immigration Coalition, a statewide advocacy group, said in an interview. \"None of this has been about going after the worst of the worst, as Donald Trump has said.\"

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In about one-third of cases Newsday found and reviewed, agents said they arrested motorists even after realizing they were not the people they were seeking. Agents sometimes said they stopped the drivers because they or their passengers resembled the intended target.

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In Houston earlier this month, ICE officials said the man shot and killed while driving a van was not the intended target of the arrest.

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‘Even more under the radar’

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Luis said he has a New York driver's license but at the time of his arrest was driving the Jeep with out-of-state plates.

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New York lawmakers passed a law in 2019, during Trump’s first term, allowing undocumented immigrants to apply for driver’s licenses while limiting immigration authorities’ access to DMV records. To access records, federal immigration officials must have a court order or a judicial warrant signed by a judge for a specific person, who would be notified.

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Like Luis, three men stopped by ICE while driving in Bethpage early this year were in a car with Virginia plates. After agents ran a check on the car, they learned its registered owner was a citizen of El Salvador with a 2006 removal order and arrested the men, court records show.

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Edward Cuccia, the Manhattan-based attorney for two of the men, contrasted ICE operations on Long Island to places like New York City, where a raid on Canal Street in October drew scores of protesters who recorded and swarmed immigration officials.

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\"ICE operates with a great deal more freedom\" on Long Island, Cuccia said.

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In dozens of court records, ICE agents describe how they run license plate information while on the road, or sitting in parking lots of big-box stores, like Walmart, Target and Home Depot, often in communities with large Latino populations.

Green Acres Mall in Valley Stream, where ICE agents have arrested people. \n

Green Acres Mall in Valley Stream has been one of the more frequent spots for ICE surveillance, according to Newsday’s review, with at least six people arrested after plate checks there between mid-February and early March. One was making an Instacart delivery.

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In response to Newsday, several retailers with stores where arrests took place said they had no agreement with ICE and that either they weren’t notified about agents’ presence in their parking lots or the lots were owned by other companies. Some companies said they don’t have control over who uses their lots and cannot interfere with law enforcement activities.

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Green Acres didn’t respond to a request for comment, and a representative of Tanger, where Luis was arrested, declined to comment.

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License plate checks accounted for about one-quarter of the motorist arrests ICE made, Newsday found.

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\"People are afraid to go out and conduct their daily activities,\" said Ivan Larios, the manager of organizing and strategy for Long Island at the New York Immigration Coalition.

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Families are \"becoming isolated\" and \"even afraid of leaving their homes\" because there are reports and recordings of ICE agents sitting in parking lots, he said.

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Questions of legality

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ICE stops have largely been concentrated in Brentwood, Freeport, Hempstead and Uniondale — Long Island communities with sizable Latino populations.

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\"They are stopping anybody that looks Latino,\" Larios said.

STORYWIDGET: INTRAFFIC-barchart \n

In one case, ICE officers in February stopped a 27-year-old Honduran man driving a construction van in Central Islip, which is almost two-thirds Hispanic or Latino. They approached with firearms drawn and banged on the vehicle’s window, according to the petition challenging his detention. The man was \"terrified,\" according to his account filed in court. Before he could open the door, agents shattered the window, he said, pulled him from the vehicle and forced him to the ground before arresting him. Two days later, a federal judge ordered his release.

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Ify Chikezie, a staff attorney at the New York Civil Liberties Union, called the practice of running plates based on a driver’s appearance unlawful.

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It \"truly amounts to racial profiling if you’re looking at who is getting stopped, whose plates they are running and who is getting approached,\" Chikezie said.

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Last September, Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh issued a concurring opinion in a case filed by the American Civil Liberties Union in California that stated race could be a factor when making arrests. ICE, both locally and nationwide, has likely used this as its justification, immigration attorney Sergey Risko said.

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\"Latinos are an easy target,\" Risko said, referring to the opinion.

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The Federation for American Immigration Reform, a Washington, D.C.-based organization that favors limited immigration, said ICE is carrying out its responsibilities by surveilling parking lots and conducting traffic stops.

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\"Like any law enforcement department anywhere in the country, they look for violators in places where they are most likely to be found and utilize the tools that are available to them to identify people who are subject to enforcement,\" said Ira Mehlman, FAIR’s media director. \"That appears to be precisely what ICE is doing on Long Island.\"

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Immigration arrests on Long Island reached a historic high at the start of the year and continued steadily, according to the most recently available arrest data, from October through early March. The arrests make up a growing share of detentions by ICE in the metropolitan area.

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Since last fall, arrests on Long Island make up more than half of the arrests in the region, although roughly 15% of New York’s undocumented immigrants call Long Island home.

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ICE has had the cooperation of the Nassau County Police Department, which entered into a 287(g) agreement with the federal agency, permitting ICE to deputize police to carry out immigration enforcement actions and locate people suspected of being in the country illegally. In at least five cases identified by Newsday from court records, county police officers conducted traffic stops or responded to crashes and then called ICE to verify the immigration status of the drivers. ICE officers then arrived at the scenes and arrested the motorists.

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Afraid to travel

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ICE’s approach in New York prompted a class-action lawsuit in April alleging federal agents infringe on immigrants’ constitutional rights during the types of arrests they’re carrying out by using racial profiling to make warrantless arrests.

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In filings for several habeas corpus cases, ICE claims to have produced a warrant after an arrest. In one such filing, an officer wrote that detainees \"are regularly served with an arrest warrant during processing as opposed to at the scene of the arrest to protect the arresting officers’ safety.\"

\n

In at least three instances, ICE officers attested in court records an acting supervisory detention and deportation officer completed and signed a warrant only after an ICE or Customs and Border Protection officer ran a records check on a vehicle’s license plate to learn the identity and immigration status of the vehicle’s registered owner.

\n

A measure included in this year’s state budget gives people the ability to sue if federal agents violate their constitutional rights.

\n

Larios, of the New York Immigration Coalition, said the group has been hosting know-your-rights presentations across the region \"so that at least the community are aware of their rights in case ICE shows up.\"

\n

He said because many immigrants are afraid to travel to meeting places, organizers are distributing information about legal rights through both online content and printed cards.

\n

\"We have to get to them,\" Larios said, \"and that’s why we have to be creative and find ways of relaying the information directly to the community members.\"

\n

Some advocates urge immigrants who are stopped to not voluntarily provide ICE with any information.

Immigration attorney Carolyn Corrado. \n

Carolyn Corrado, a partner at Hempstead-based immigration firm Jadeja-Cimone, however, said fear of force is a factor in compliance. One of her clients, a Honduran man, was stopped at the AutoZone in Hempstead in January and said the arresting officers \"pointed a gun at his head, didn’t explain anything to him, [and] took him into custody,\" according to a court transcript.

\n

A federal judge ordered the client’s release three days after the arrest.

\n

\"It’s easy for us to sit here and say, ‘Don’t say anything,’ \" Corrado said. \"But in the moment, I think there are frequently practical considerations, too. One is [being] afraid.\"

\n

Luis, the 25-year-old from Ecuador, said he was in shock when six ICE agents surrounded him.

\n

\"The fear didn’t come right away,\" he said in Spanish. \"At that moment ... I couldn’t really process what was happening. At that moment what I felt was that I hadn’t achieved my dream and if they deported me, where would I go? I left my country because of threats.\"

\n

Months later, Luis said he’s still a little nervous to drive knowing that ICE is conducting traffic stops. Rather than taking on construction work through a  union, he’s largely working for himself now, doing smaller tiling jobs.

\n

\"For some reason, God gave me another chance to be here,\" he said. \"I think all immigrants feel like we’re criminals, and you never know at what moment you will fall, or what moment you could be in a situation like this. There’s always worry for your family because you never know.\"

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ICE on Long Island have used low-profile surveillance tactics to accumulate arrests of immigrants, such as Luis.

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A Newsday review of court records sheds new light on ICE’s Long Island operation and where it’s happening. NewsdayTV's Ken Buffa, Shari Einhorn, investigative reporter Josefa Velásquez and attorney Reuben Kerben break it down.

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Luis, un alicatador de 25 años, estaba sentado en su Jeep Cherokee negro frente al lugar de trabajo, en el Tanger Outlets de Deer Park, buscando una herramienta. Sin que él lo supiera, unos agentes del Servicio de Inmigración y Control de Aduanas lo observaban desde el aparcamiento.

\n

En 20 minutos, una mañana de finales de febrero —antes incluso de que Luis pudiera terminar su descanso—, los agentes que lo vigilaban desde dos sedanes comprobaron la placa de Virginia de su Jeep, descubrieron que era ciudadano ecuatoriano, obtuvieron una orden judicial y lo detuvieron, según muestran los expedientes judiciales. Afirmó que no le dieron la oportunidad de explicar que tenía un permiso de trabajo válido y un estatus federal que le protegía de la deportación.

\n

\"Me pusieron las esposas y me dejaron las llaves y todo ahí  el caro, todo,\" dijo Luis en español durante una entrevista reciente en la oficina de su abogado en Queens, después de que un juez lo pusiera en libertad. Newsday no publica el apellido de Luis para proteger su privacidad mientras continúa su caso de inmigración. 

\n

El ICE ha detenido a más de 2.000 personas en Long Island desde que comenzó de la segunda administración de Trump, y casi ninguna de estas detenciones se ha producido en el marco de las redadas mediáticas que han desatado el malestar en todo el país. En cambio, el ICE está aprovechando la cultura del automóvil de la región, convirtiendo los aparcamientos de los centros comerciales, las calles secundarias y las autopistas en un pilar de su operación de vigilancia, según reveló una investigación de Newsday.

\n

Para comprender las tácticas de la agencia, los periodistas revisaron unas 400 peticiones de hábeas corpus —que impugnan las detenciones de inmigrantes— y las respuestas del Gobierno presentadas ante el tribunal del Distrito Este de Nueva York entre el 20 de enero de 2025 y el 30 de junio de 2026.

\n

Al menos 84 de esos casos se referían a detenciones por parte de ICE de inmigrantes que utilizaban un auto en Long Island, ya fuera durante controles de tráfico, en aparcamientos o tras accidentes.

\n

En declaraciones juradas y transcripciones judiciales, los agentes describen repetidamente cómo comprueban las placaas de vehículos de otros estados para obtener el nombre del titular y introducen ese nombre en las bases de datos federales de inmigración para comprobar la situación legal de la persona en el país. Las paradas de tráfico que a menudo se producen a raíz de ello son una táctica que ha sido objeto de un nuevo y mayor escrutinio a nivel nacional.

\n

Tras la muerte de dos inmigrantes a manos de agentes en Texas y Maine —y una nueva ola de protestas contra el ICE—, el Departamento de Seguridad Nacional ordenó la semana pasada que la agencia suspendiera temporalmente la mayoría de los controles de tráfico. Sin embargo, menos de un día después, el presidente Donald Trump criticó la directiva, afirmando en las redes sociales que el ICE \"no puede renunciar\" a una de las \"herramientas más importantes y eficaces de la agencia para la lucha contra la delincuencia.\"

\n

La estrategia de ICE en Long Island pone de manifiesto cómo ha actuado, en gran medida, al margen de las redadas coordinadas y las visitas domiciliarias selectivas —ambas medidas más propensas a generar protestas y grabaciones de testigos—, y aun así ha detenido a cientos de inmigrantes que, sin sospechar nada, seguían con su rutina diaria, según abogados locales especializados en inmigración.

\n

Alegaron que la comprobación por parte de ICE de la información de las matrículas y los registros de los vehículos equivalía a un perfil racial y pusieron de relieve la red de vigilancia cada vez más extendida y encubierta de la agencia.

\n

En su audiencia de confirmación a mediados de marzo, el secretario de Seguridad Nacional de EE. UU., Markwayne Mullin, adoptó un tono más conciliador que el de su predecesora, Kristi Noem, cuyo mandato se caracterizó por el tiroteo mortal por parte de agentes de ICE contra dos ciudadanos estadounidenses que protestaban contra las redadas en Minneapolis. Mullin, un republicano de Oklahoma, afirmó que la agencia seguiría aplicando las políticas de inmigración de Trump, pero que su objetivo era que la agencia \"no fuera noticia principal todos los días.\"

\n

Sin embargo, la magnitud de la vigilancia de ICE en Long Island pone en tela de juicio incluso las tácticas de menor perfil, según Reuben Kerben, el abogado de Luis con sede en Queens.

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\"Sin duda —como persona que vive en Long Island— me preocupa, me inquieta,\" afirmó Kerben. \"¿Qué otras medidas se están tomando de las que, como ciudadanos, no tenemos conocimiento?\"

La magnitud de la vigilancia que ejerce el ICE en Long Island pone en tela de juicio incluso las tácticas menos llamativas, según Reuben Kerben, el abogado de Luis con sede en Queens. \n

A medida que aumentan las detenciones de ICE en todo el país, su discreto enfoque aquí podría servir de modelo sobre cómo llevar a cabo detenciones con menor riesgo de que el público se entere de inmediato.

\n

Un portavoz de la agencia afirmó en un comunicado enviado por correo electrónico que el ICE no tiene acceso a las bases de datos del Departamento de Tráfico de Nueva York (DMV) y no puede utilizarlas para llevar a cabo detenciones. La agencia no respondió a las preguntas sobre si solicita permiso a las empresas para realizar operaciones de vigilancia en sus aparcamientos.

\n

No todos los inmigrantes detenidos impugnan sus detenciones ante los tribunales, lo que significa que el número real de detenciones en controles de tráfico es probablemente superior a las 84 identificadas por Newsday. Sin embargo, las demandas judiciales constituyen una de las principales fuentes de información sobre las acciones de control de ICE en Long Island, ya que la agencia no publica registros detallados sobre cómo lleva a cabo las detenciones.

\n

Aparte de los controles de tráfico, las demandas muestran que el ICE ha llevado a cabo múltiples detenciones locales dirigiéndose a personas fuera de las citas programadas en las oficinas locales de inmigración, mientras se desplazaban a pie hacia o desde sus hogares o lugares de trabajo, en controles de libertad condicional o tras haber sido detenidas por la policía.

\n

La investigación de Newsday también sacó a la luz algunas de las primeras declaraciones públicas conocidas directamente de los agentes de ICE que llevaron a cabo las detenciones, en las que documentaban que consultaban las matrículas en bases de datos gubernamentales para identificar a los propietarios registrados. Nueva York prohíbe a las agencias que se encargan principalmente de hacer cumplir la ley de inmigración acceder a los registros del Departamento de Vehículos de Motor del estado, y las declaraciones no indican si el ICE se centró deliberadamente en vehículos con matrículas de otros estados para poder utilizar legalmente otras bases de datos.

STORYWIDGET: SPANISH-INTRAFFIC-tear \n

Jess D’Amelia, portavoz de la gobernadora Kathy Hochul, afirmó que estas tácticas equivalían a una \"persecución indiscriminada\" y que la Administración Trump debería centrarse en \"hacer que los delincuentes violentos rindan cuentas y dejar de malgastar recursos esenciales intentando separar a las familias y causar daño a nuestras comunidades.\"

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\"No hay forma real de saber quién es alguien a partir de la información que aparece en la placa de su coche, aparte de su nombre,\" afirmó en una entrevista Murad Awawdeh, director de la Coalición de Inmigración de Nueva York, un grupo de defensa que opera en todo el estado. \"Nada de esto ha tenido que ver con perseguir a lo peor de lo peor, como ha dicho Donald Trump.\"

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En aproximadamente un tercio de los casos detectados por Newsday, los agentes afirmaron que detuvieron a los conductores incluso después de darse cuenta de que no eran las personas que buscaban. En ocasiones, los agentes explicaron que detuvieron a los conductores porque estos o sus pasajeros se parecían al objetivo buscado.

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A principios de este mes, en Houston, los funcionarios del ICE afirmaron que el hombre al que dispararon y mataron mientras conducía una furgoneta no era el objetivo de la detención.

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'Aún más fuera del radar'

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Luis afirmó que tiene un permiso de conducir de Nueva York, pero que, en el momento de su detención, conducía el Jeep con placas de otro estado.

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Los legisladores de Nueva York aprobaron una ley en 2019, durante el primer mandato de Trump, que permite a los inmigrantes indocumentados solicitar permisos de conducir, al tiempo que limita el acceso de las autoridades de inmigración a los registros del Departamento de Tráfico (DMV). Para acceder a dichos registros, los funcionarios federales de inmigración deben contar con una orden judicial o una orden de búsqueda y captura firmada por un juez para una persona concreta, a la que se le notificaría.

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Al igual que Luis, tres hombres detenidos por el ICE mientras conducían en Bethpage a principios de este año viajaban en un coche con placas de Virginia. Tras comprobar los datos del vehículo, los agentes descubrieron que su propietario registrado era un ciudadano de El Salvador con una orden de expulsión de 2006 y detuvieron a los hombres, según muestran los expedientes judiciales.

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Edward Cuccia, el abogado de Manhattan que representa a dos de los hombres, comparó las operaciones del ICE aquí con las de lugares como la ciudad de Nueva York, donde una redada en Canal Street en octubre atrajo a decenas de manifestantes que grabaron y rodearon a los funcionarios de inmigración.

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\"El ICE opera con mucha más libertad\" en Long Island, afirmó Cuccia.

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En docenas de expedientes judiciales, los agentes del ICE describen cómo comprueban la información de las matrículas mientras circulan por la carretera o desde los aparcamientos de grandes superficies, como Walmart, Target y Home Depot, a menudo en comunidades latinas.

El centro comercial Green Acres Mall, en Valley Stream, una zona en la que agentes del ICE han detenido a varias personas. \n

El centro comercial Green Acres Mall, en Valley Stream, ha sido uno de los lugares más frecuentados por la vigilancia de ICE, según el análisis de Newsday, con al menos seis personas detenidas tras controles de matrículas realizados allí entre mediados de febrero y principios de marzo. Una de ellas estaba realizando una entrega para Instacart.

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En respuesta a Newsday, varios comerciantes con tiendas en las que se produjeron detenciones afirmaron que no tenían ningún acuerdo con el ICE y que, o bien no se les había notificado la presencia de agentes en sus aparcamientos, o bien dichos aparcamientos eran propiedad de otras empresas.

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Green Acres no respondió a una solicitud de comentarios y un representante de Tanger, donde Luis fue arrestado, declinó hacer comentarios.

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Newsday descubrió que los controles de placas representaron aproximadamente una cuarta parte de las detenciones de conductores realizadas por el ICE.

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\"La gente tiene miedo de salir y realizar sus actividades diarias,\" afirmó Iván Larios, responsable de organización y estrategia para Long Island en la Coalición de Inmigración de Nueva York.

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Las familias se están \"aislando\" e \"incluso tienen miedo de salir de casa\" porque hay informes y grabaciones de agentes de ICE apostados en los aparcamientos, añadió.

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Cuestiones de legalidad

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Las detenciones de ICE se han concentrado principalmente en Brentwood, Freeport, Hempstead y Uniondale, comunidades de Long Island con una considerable población latina.

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\"Están parando a cualquiera que parezca latino,\" afirmó Larios.

STORYWIDGET: SPANISH-INTRAFFIC-chart \n

En un caso, en febrero, agentes del ICE detuvieron a un hombre hondureño de 27 años que conducía camión de obras en Central Islip, donde casi dos tercios de la población es hispana o latina. Se acercaron con las armas desenfundadas y golpearon la ventanilla del vehículo, según la petición en la que se impugna su detención. El hombre estaba \"aterrorizado\", según su declaración presentada ante el tribunal. Antes de que pudiera abrir la puerta, los agentes supuestamente rompieron la ventanilla, según afirmó, lo sacaron del vehículo y lo tiraron al suelo antes de detenerlo. Dos días después, un juez federal ordenó su puesta en libertad.

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Ify Chikezie, abogada de la Unión de Libertades Civiles de Nueva York, calificó de ilegal la práctica de comprobar las matrículas basándose en la apariencia del conductor.

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\"Realmente equivale a un perfil racial si se analiza a quién se detiene, de quién son las placas que se comprueban y a quién se aborda,\" afirmó Chikezie.

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El pasado mes de septiembre, el juez del Tribunal Supremo Brett Kavanaugh emitió una opinión concurrente en un caso presentado por la Unión Americana de Libertades Civiles en California, en el que se afirmaba que la raza podía ser un factor a la hora de realizar detenciones. Es probable que el ICE, tanto a nivel local como nacional, haya utilizado esto como justificación, señaló el abogado especializado en inmigración Sergey Risko.

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\"Los latinos son un blanco fácil,\" afirmó Risko, refiriéndose a la opinión.

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La Federación para la Reforma Migratoria Estadounidense, una organización con sede en Washington D. C. que aboga por una inmigración limitada, afirmó que el ICE está cumpliendo con sus responsabilidades al vigilar los aparcamientos y realizar controles de tráfico.

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\"Al igual que cualquier cuerpo policial en cualquier parte del país, buscan a los infractores en los lugares donde es más probable encontrarlos y utilizan las herramientas de que disponen para identificar a las personas sujetas a medidas de control,\" declaró Ira Mehlman, director de comunicación de FAIR. \"Eso parece ser precisamente lo que está haciendo el ICE en Long Island.\"

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Las detenciones por motivos de inmigración en Long Island alcanzaron un máximo histórico a principios de año y se mantuvieron a un ritmo constante, según los datos más recientes disponibles, que abarcan desde octubre hasta principios de marzo. Estas detenciones representan una proporción cada vez mayor de las realizadas por el ICE en el área de la ciudad de Nueva York.

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Desde el otoño pasado, las detenciones en Long Island representan más de la mitad de las realizadas en la región, aunque aproximadamente el 15 % de los inmigrantes indocumentados de Nueva York residen en Long Island.

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El ICE ha contado con la colaboración del Departamento de Policía del condado de Nassau, que tiene un acuerdo 287(g) con la agencia, para localizar a las personas buscadas. En al menos cinco casos identificados por Newsday a partir de expedientes judiciales, agentes de la policía del condado llevaron a cabo sus propios controles de tráfico o acudieron a accidentes de tráfico y, a continuación, llamaron al ICE para verificar la situación migratoria de los conductores. Posteriormente, agentes del ICE llegaron al lugar y detuvieron a los conductores.

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Miedo a viajar

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El enfoque de ICE en Nueva York dio lugar en abril a una demanda colectiva en la que se alega que los agentes federales vulneran los derechos constitucionales de los inmigrantes durante este tipo de detenciones, al recurrir a la discriminación racial para llevar a cabo detenciones sin orden judicial.

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En los escritos presentados en varios casos de hábeas corpus, el ICE afirma haber presentado una orden judicial tras la detención. En uno de esos escritos, un agente escribió que a los detenidos \"se les entrega habitualmente una orden de detención durante la tramitación, en lugar de en el lugar de la detención, para proteger la seguridad de los agentes que la llevan a cabo\".

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En al menos tres ocasiones, los agentes del ICE declararon en los expedientes judiciales que un oficial supervisor interino de detención y deportación rellenó y firmó una orden de detención solo después de que un agente del ICE o de Aduanas y Protección Fronteriza comprobara los datos de la matrícula de un vehículo para conocer la identidad y la situación migratoria del propietario registrado del vehículo.

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Una medida incluida en el presupuesto estatal de este año otorga a las personas el derecho a demandar si los agentes federales violan sus derechos constitucionales.

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Larios afirmó que la Coalición de Inmigración de Nueva York ha estado organizando charlas sobre «conoce tus derechos» en toda la región \"para que, al menos, la comunidad sea consciente de sus derechos en caso de que aparezca el ICE.\"

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Señaló que, dado que muchos inmigrantes tienen miedo de desplazarse a los lugares de reunión, los organizadores están distribuyendo información sobre los derechos legales tanto a través de contenidos en línea como de tarjetas impresas.

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\"Tenemos que llegar hasta ellos,\" afirmó Larios, \"y por eso debemos ser creativos y encontrar formas de transmitir la información directamente a los miembros de la comunidad.\"

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Algunos defensores instan a los inmigrantes a que, en caso de ser interceptados, no faciliten voluntariamente ninguna información al ICE.

La abogada especializada en inmigración Carolyn Corrado afirmó que el miedo influye en la decisión de los inmigrantes de facilitar información voluntariamente a los agentes. \n

Sin embargo, Carolyn Corrado, abogada de inmigración Jadeja-Cimone, con oficina en Hempstead, afirmó que el miedo a la fuerza es un factor que influye en el cumplimiento de la ley. Uno de sus clientes, un hombre hondureño, fue detenido en el AutoZone de Hempstead en enero y afirmó que los agentes que lo detuvieron «le apuntaron con un arma a la cabeza, no le explicaron nada [y] lo detuvieron», según la transcripción judicial.

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Un juez federal ordenó la puesta en libertad del cliente tres días después de la detención.

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\"Es fácil para nosotros sentarnos aquí y decir: 'No digas nada',\" afirmó Corrado. \"Pero en ese momento, creo que a menudo también hay consideraciones prácticas. Una de ellas es [el] miedo.\"

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Luis, el joven de 25 años procedente de Ecuador, dijo que se quedó en estado de shock cuando seis agentes del ICE lo rodearon.

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\" El miedo no fue al instante.  Lo que viví en ese momento fue algo como en shock y no podía como tomar en ese momento y lo que yo viví y lo que yo sentí en ese momento era como que no cumplí mi sueño todavía y si llegara pasar a deportar y donde voy a llegar\"?

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Meses después, Luis dijo que todavía tiene un poco de miedo sabiendo que el ICE está realizando controles de tráfico. En lugar de aceptar trabajos de construcción a través de un sindicato local, ahora trabaja principalmente por su cuenta, realizando pequeños trabajos de alicatado.

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\" Todos los inmigrantes creo que sienten como que fuéramos unos criminales y no se sabe en qué momento podemos caer…La preocupación por la familia que tengo también\", dijo. \"Uno nunca sabe lo que puede pasar mañana o pasado mañana\".

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El ICE de Long Island ha utilizado tácticas de vigilancia discretas para acumular detenciones de inmigrantes, como Luis.

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A Long Island homecare agency is struggling to find health aides to care for patients. Attendance in Hempstead public schools plunges on ICE raid days because children of immigrant families stay away. A storied Glen Cove restaurant, one of the first on Long Island to serve Salvadoran cuisine, now does almost all its business in takeout because customers have stopped dining out.

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The immigration crackdown President Donald Trump promised on his first day in office has taken hold on Long Island. Federal immigration agents have arrested roughly 3,000 Long Islanders, but the campaign’s effects extend far beyond those detained. Across the region, employers are losing workers, businesses are losing customers and families are retreating from public life. Immigrants make up nearly a fifth of Long Island’s population, and as many withdraw from daily routines or vanish from the communities where they live and work, the region itself is beginning to change.

WEBLINK: Lea este artículo en español (Read this article in Spanish) STORYWIDGET: LIDEPORT260617_dailyarrests \n

Newsday will examine how with a series of stories about the crackdown’s impacts on Long Island’s economy, schools, workplaces, neighborhoods and families.

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The changes have been fitful and uneven — obvious in some communities, slight in others. But broadly, many thousands of immigrants, documented or otherwise, cannot be \"pristinely\" removed from jobs, neighborhoods and families on Long Island because their lives are socially and economically enmeshed with Long Islanders who remain, said David Dyssegaard Kallick, director of Immigration Research Initiative, a nonpartisan think tank. \"You can expect ripple effects to the economy and also ripple effects to our sense of who we are.\"

STORYWIDGET: LIDEPORT_map \n

Changing landscape

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More than 2.5 million people were deported under President Barack Obama, but the current campaign is different, Kallick said. Enforcement under Obama \"was largely focused on turning people back who had been the newest arrivals,\" he said. \"This is raids on communities, raids on workplaces, picking people up in courthouses when they're coming to do what they're supposed to do in registering. ... It's much more disruptive, more indiscriminate, violent.\"

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The demographic landscape is different too. Trump’s immigration campaign came at a time when Long Island's immigrant population neared 550,000 and the portion of population that is foreign-born neared levels not seen for a century or more: close to 15% nationwide, 21% on the Island.

STORYWIDGET: LIDEPORT_foreignborn \n

But since the stepped-up enforcement began, immigration rates have fallen into a \"historic decline,\" according to the Census Bureau, which does not distinguish between unlawful and lawful immigration. In New York State from 2024 to 2025, net migration from immigrants dropped from 290,500 people to 95,600 people. Nationally, the rate of immigration also more than halved over that period, from 2.7 million to 1.3 million, with further slowdowns projected for 2026. Immigration contracted so much it helped slow the nation’s growth rate.

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Kallick and others, including the Brookings Institution, have warned that low or zero immigration could negatively impact areas like Long Island, which face the prospect of declining labor productivity as their populations age.

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On Long Island, where immigrants already play a critical role in the labor market, \"many service sectors will be adversely affected by the departure of immigrant workers,\" Stony Brook University economist John A. Rizzo said. He said services will become less available and more expensive as departing immigrants will be replaced by \"workers who will require higher pay. ... Mass deportation is a terrible economic policy for Long Island.\"

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The Trump administration and its supporters assess the impacts of immigration overhaul much differently. They describe it as a law-and-order campaign to remove violent \"criminal aliens\" from the country that is paying social and economic dividends.

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The U.S Department of Homeland Security,  whose official Instagram account late last year suggested the nation was \"besieged by the Third World,\" maintains that its work on Long Island and elsewhere is necessary and beneficial.

A crowd forms around an ICE agent's vehicle that was involved in a crash in Westbury last June. \n

Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman told Newsday earlier this year: \"There is absolutely no data to support the fake proposition that removing criminals from Nassau County is hurting the economy. ... In fact, it’s quite the opposite.\"

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The logic is simple supply and demand, then-Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin suggested in an August news release. \"As illegal aliens continue to exit the labor force, more Americans are finding steady and gainful employment.\"

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A Department of Homeland Security representative gave a similar explanation in May . \"If there was any correlation between rampant illegal immigration and a good economy, Biden would have had a booming economy,\" the representative wrote in an email. \"Removing these criminals from the streets makes communities safer for business owners and customers.\" The email included mug shots of five people described as \"public safety threats arrested by ICE in Long Island.\" All were from Central America and had been convicted of a weapons or sexual abuse charge, according to the representative.

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A Newsday analysis of ICE arrest data this spring found that, of thousands of immigrants held in Nassau County jail through Blakeman’s partnership with federal immigration authorities, 59% had no conviction or charge at all.

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Those swept up in the dragnet included a Suffolk County Community College honor student, 20, whose temporary protection status had been revoked; a Port Washington bagel store manager, 42, who had been in the country for more than 20 years but had an expired visa; a young mother, 30, applying for asylum at a Bethpage immigration office; and a man with mental health issues who came to the country without legal authorization in 2022. Also arrested were two brothers from El Salvador, Josue, 19, and Jose Trejo Lopez, 20, who had been in the United States since they were children on temporary protected status, who were taken by ICE when they went to check in with immigration.

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None of them had any criminal history before federal immigration agents arrested them.  

STORYWIDGET: LIDEPORT-videohead \n

The crackdown has contributed to the departure of both documented and undocumented workers on Long Island. Economists say that, on Long Island and across the nation, those departures will create job openings that American-born workers don't necessarily want to fill.

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Since last July, Dana Arnone, a registered nurse and owner of Reliance Home Senior Services, has terminated 142 of her roughly 700 workers because the Trump administration ordered the revocation of temporary protections that allowed them to live and work in the United States legally. The Supreme Court supported the order in a 6-3 decision Thursday that Gov. Kathy Hochul said will \"cripple\" the health care industry.

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Most of the affected employees of Arnone's licensed home care company are Haitian immigrants, she said, adding her staff provides personal care services to the elderly.

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About two-thirds of home care aides are immigrants, and on Long Island the industry is expected to have about 9,500 openings per year through 2033, according to the state Labor Department.

STORYWIDGET: LIDEPORT_tps \n

\"It is a crisis,\" Arnone said. Her company has an office in Wantagh.

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Enrollment at one of the trade schools that trains those workers, West Hempstead's Global School of Health, plunged early last year after ICE appeared at the Hempstead Village transit center, a downtown bus and train hub, said Nathalie Delbrun, the school’s director.

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North Fork farmers said fewer immigrant workers showed up to do spring planting this year; as many as half of New York's farm workers are undocumented, state officials have estimated.

A farmhand ties vines at a vineyard on the North Fork in March. Farmers there said fewer immigrant workers showed for spring planting this year. \n

Some national research suggests that rather than creating jobs, \"mass deportations are hurting the labor market overall and lead to fewer job opportunities, particularly in sectors generally reliant on immigrant workers,\" said Chloe East, a University of Colorado-Boulder economist and co-author  of an April paper that analyzed the deportation campaign's labor market impacts using census and ICE arrest data.

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The researchers found that in areas with a marked increase in ICE arrests, employment among undocumented immigrants dropped 4% — not because of deportations but because of a \"chilling effect\" as those who remain reduce work because they fear going to and being at work could increase the likelihood of interactions with the agency.

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The researchers also found that enforcement had no effect on employment of working-age U.S.-born people in the aggregate and a \"negative and significant impact\" on U.S.-born male workers with a high school education or less.

STORYWIDGET: LIDEPORT260621_pc1 \n

American-born workers haven’t, by and large, slid in to fill these job vacancies, East said. That is because the jobs tend to be \"lower-paid, dangerous or seasonal.\" What tends to occur is contraction, she said. In construction, for example, she said, companies will respond to a shortage of laborers by reducing the number of new buildings under construction. \"That reduces jobs for everybody — electricians, roofers or architects,\" she said.

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Some analysts say such conclusions about the job market effects of Trump's immigration overhaul are premature. Jason Richwine, a resident scholar at the Center for Immigration Studies, which backs tougher immigration policies, argued in a May essay in American Affairs that while 2025 was a \"great start,\" a \"sustained policy of low immigration will be necessary over the long term\" to force employers to meaningfully raise wages and politicians to address more of their social problems.

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\"Right now, employers constantly claim that there are not enough native workers, but what they actually mean is not enough natives will work at the [low] wage they would like to pay,\" Richwine wrote. \"Out of necessity, if low immigration becomes a permanent, enforceable, economic reality, employers will put more effort into recruiting and retaining workers.\"

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Island impacts 

Far fewer fans and players are turning out for men's soccer games in Huntington. Organizers say it's due to fear of ICE raids. \n

Across Long Island this year, recreational soccer leagues limped through the season without Latino players and far fewer fans. Attendance at some church events declined, according to the Catholic Diocese of Rockville Centre, because immigrant parishioners were too anxious to attend.

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In Glen Cove, the restaurateur Edward Villatoro, owner of El Tazumal, said he was considering moving away from the Salvadoran cuisine his parents started serving almost 40 years ago. Business is down by about 30%, and the remaining customers mostly order for delivery, instead of dining in, because of what he called the \"fear factor.\" Three of his employees have self-deported, he said, because \"they just didn't want to live with this craziness.\"

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In Hempstead Village, Nelson Hernandez, a Latino leader with ties to the village business community, said the village’s working-class and middle-class residents were \"cutting down on everything\" that they spend money on, some because they anticipate returning to their home countries and want to save dollars while they can. The village's microeconomy, he said, is \"going to take time to get back on track, or it may never get back on track.\"

STORYWIDGET: LIDEPORT2606pc2 \n

On days when ICE has been spotted operating, said Hempstead schools Superintendent Gary Rush, as many as 20% of students stay out of classes, \"and it’s continuing to snowball.\" Rush said he believed ICE's presence at a Home Depot parking lot in the village downtown frequented by day laborers looking for work contributed to chronic absenteeism at a nearby elementary school. Participation in after-school sports and clubs districtwide has fallen, Rush said, because some older students are working part time to make up for wages no longer earned by parents who have lost their jobs or are scared to go to them. Fewer parents show up for parent-teacher conferences.

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Looking ahead

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Advocates say the deportation campaign is illegal and have filed dozens of legal challenges that include Long Islanders. The litigation will make its way through local federal courts in coming years and will ultimately determine the number of immigrants on Long Island, their role in the future and the legality of ICE tactics as the campaign goes on.

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Already judicial decisions, including some from Long Island judges, have questioned and even stopped some of the policies that advocates said violate civil rights and have led to fear and confusion. Just last week, a federal judge ordered the administration to restart asylum proceedings and applications related to a travel ban that had been frozen.

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In one case in which a Hempstead man was seized but ultimately released, U.S. District Court Judge Gary R. Brown said ICE's actions were \"incompatible with Constitutional norms\" and \"a reprehensible act of unimaginable cruelty. ... This isn’t how things are supposed to work in America.\"

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A class-action lawsuit, filed in April on behalf of roughly 15,000 people arrested by federal immigration agents in New York State since January 2025, alleges that the agents targeted Hispanic communities and that race-based stops of Latinos surged in Hempstead and Brentwood. In an email, a Department of Homeland Security representative said the allegations were \"disgusting, reckless, and categorically FALSE.\"

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Looking ahead to the economic impact, experts like Kallick warn that the mass removal of immigrants and the ban of many of those seeking to travel to the United States could ultimately hurt the country's place in the world.

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\"What happens if America is no longer the place future superstars from around the world want to come?\" he said. \"We would be facing an economic and social future that is less attractive for all of us.\"

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Doctors accused an LI nurse of faking childhood vaccines yet she kept practicing for years. The DA never investigated. NewsdayTV's Ken Buffa and Newsday investigative reporters Jim Baumbach and David Olson have the story.

\n","lead":"Doctors accused an LI nurse of faking childhood vaccines yet she kept practicing for years. The DA never investigated. NewsdayTV's Ken Buffa and Newsday investigative reporters Jim Baumbach and David Olson have the story.","byline":"Newsday Staff; File Footage; SCPD","organization":"","url":"https://www.newsday.com/long-island/investigations/julie-devuono-fake-covid-vaccine-cards-frfqkimk","duration":"606229","verticalDuration":"","newsLabel":"none","publishedDate":"2026-04-15T04:00:00Z","updatedDate":"2026-04-15T04:00:00Z","subType":"video","disableDeepLink":false,"mmjName":"Ken Buffa","useVideoAsPosterframe":false,"noPreRoll":false,"parent":{"title":"Investigations","__typename":"Section"},"tags":[{"name":"Health","url":"/tag/Health","__typename":"Tag"},{"name":"Investigations","url":"/tag/Investigations","__typename":"Tag"},{"name":"Newsdaytv_mmj","url":"/tag/Newsdaytv_mmj","__typename":"Tag"},{"name":"Top Video","url":"/tag/Top Video","__typename":"Tag"},{"name":"Local Crime","url":"/tag/Local Crime","__typename":"Tag"},{"name":"Crime","url":"/tag/Crime","__typename":"Tag"},{"name":"Health care","url":"/tag/Health care","__typename":"Tag"},{"name":"Child and teen health","url":"/tag/Child and teen health","__typename":"Tag"},{"name":"Health care policy","url":"/tag/Health care policy","__typename":"Tag"},{"name":"has-horizontal","url":"/tag/has-horizontal","__typename":"Tag"},{"name":"Working Moms","url":"/tag/Working Moms","__typename":"Tag"}],"location":[{"name":"Amityville","__typename":"Location"}],"source":[{"name":"Newsday","__typename":"Source"},{"name":"Newsday","__typename":"Source"}],"image":null,"teaserTitle":"Warnings before COVID vaccine fraud","contentPath":[{"id":"contentid/Newsday.LongIsland.d","title":"Long Island","path":"/long-island","__typename":"Section"},{"id":"contentid/Newsday.LongIsland.Investigations.d","title":"Investigations","path":"/long-island/investigations","__typename":"Section"},{"id":"contentid/b09f15f2-8ede-446d-9f13-8a1d68e5798e","title":"INVAX260329_video","path":"/long-island/investigations/julie-devuono-fake-covid-vaccine-cards-frfqkimk","__typename":"Video"}],"desktopAdzone":"","mobileAdzone":"","videoAdzone":"","mobileVideoAdzone":"","customCSS":null,"customJS":null,"teaserImage":null,"hasMidroll":false,"noIndex":false,"moveAd":false,"treatAsAppWeblink":false,"pushAlertTitle":"","pushAlertMessage":"","premiumType":"inherit","publishingInfo":{"contentId":"onecms:b09f15f2-8ede-446d-9f13-8a1d68e5798e","__typename":"ADMPublishingInfo"},"topElement":{"__typename":"Image","id":"contentid/27d6d20b-00db-4a7a-8e1b-b1bb410eeadd","width":1920,"height":1080,"title":"FAKE VACCINE PKG 1 Copy 01.00_01_18_23.Still028.jpg","headline":"","baseUrl":"https://cdn.newsday.com/image-service/version/c:NDdkZTQyMWEtOWMzZS00:NWI4ZWFhN2EtNjVjOS00/fake-vaccine-pkg-1-copy-01-00_01_18_23-still028-jpg.jpg","caption":"","altTag":"","byline":"","organization":"","floatLeft":false,"floatRight":false,"imageSize":"","useFreeform":false},"topMediaItem":{"__typename":"Animation","id":"contentid/fee73ba0-172f-450d-82f4-639f20436a17","title":"animation_1776282511","caption":"","byline":"","organization":"","animationId":"1776282511","mediaLink":"https://assets.projects.newsday.com/animation-service/v1/1776282511/animation.mp4"},"verticalMedia":null,"relatedContent":[],"relatedLinks":[{"__typename":"Article","id":"contentid/6f7ded3e-38c5-4b43-aca0-f55a8b734ed8","url":"https://www.newsday.com/long-island/investigations/julie-devuono-wild-child-vaccine-fraud-eu1wiqu9","headline":"Wild Child's Julie DeVuono: Behind the childhood vaccine probe that didn't happen.","teaserTitle":"Why Julie DeVuono never faced criminal charges","body":"

Two children arrived at Northwell Health facilities with alarming symptoms. One had swelling consistent with mumps, the other a severe neck abscess requiring immediate care.

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Their parents insisted both had been vaccinated. State records appeared to confirm it.

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But blood tests told a different story. Neither child had immunity to highly contagious diseases including mumps, measles and hepatitis B.

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Their parents had refused shots by their children's regular pediatricians and instead took their kids to the same Amityville provider, nurse practitioner Julie DeVuono, to obtain immunization records.

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Doctors filed urgent complaints with state regulators, warning of apparent child vaccination fraud. One called it \"a huge public health concern\" and wrote, \"She must be investigated, license revoked, and punished to the fullest extent of the law.\"

\n

Those warnings had little impact.

\n

For the next three years, DeVuono continued to operate Wild Child Pediatrics, claiming to administer thousands of childhood vaccinations, even as questions about her pediatric records mounted — and even as authorities later uncovered a separate $1.2-million scheme involving fraudulent COVID-19 vaccine cards.

\n

A Newsday investigation found that despite early warnings of an alleged fraudulent pediatric vaccine operation that experts say would be among the largest in recent U.S. history, state regulators failed to stop DeVuono's practice. The investigation also found the Suffolk district attorney chose to not criminally investigate those allegations, despite urging by health officials.

STORYWIDGET: INVAX260419_complainttear \n

The state Education Department has the power to suspend or revoke nurses' licenses. But 18 months after the doctors' complaints, it fined her $500 — for incomplete record keeping in seven cases — while allowing her to keep submitting immunization records for kids to attend school.

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DeVuono only stopped practicing when Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney's office secured her conviction in the COVID-19 case, which authorities stumbled upon when DeVuono herself called police to her office following a client dispute over money.

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Through a public records request filed with the Suffolk District Attorney's Office in 2024, Newsday in December obtained thousands of pages of records, undercover video files and audio recordings that provide the most complete accounting of DeVuono’s case. She surrendered her New York nursing licenses and closed her Wild Child pediatric practice as part of a 2023 plea agreement in which she admitted forging thousands of COVID-19 vaccine cards. She also pleaded guilty to submitting an oxycodone prescription for herself in the name of her brother. A judge sentenced her to community service.

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The case put DeVuono at the forefront of the antivaccination movement on Long Island, a group skeptical of the safety and effectiveness of vaccines and that believes vaccine requirements are an infringement on personal rights. The movement, which started on the political fringes of both parties, has gained new prominence with the rise of President Donald Trump, who appointed avowed vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services.

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Today, the extent of DeVuono's alleged fraud is still not known. State investigators have invalidated an unknown number of children's proofs of immunization and are pursuing a noncriminal administrative case against DeVuono, accusing her of falsifying more than 1,500 vaccine records, which could result in millions of dollars in fines.

\n

Families also provided Long Island school districts with DeVuono-stamped vaccine records after her arrest, court records show, including in the weeks before she agreed to surrender her nursing licenses in the 2023 COVID fraud plea deal with Suffolk prosecutors.

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Although state regulators lauded the removal of her licenses, they thought Suffolk prosecutors should have done more. In a January 2024 email, the state Health Department’s director of investigations criticized prosecutors for not looking into their allegations that DeVuono also committed childhood vaccine fraud.

STORYWIDGET: INVAX_pq1 \n

Noting they had found evidence that her alleged fraud began in 2019 — and that they had raised concerns early in its COVID criminal case — the Health Department's investigations director, Joseph Giovannetti, wrote: \"It’s our understanding ... your office never investigated it.\"

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A spokeswoman for Tierney’s office confirmed to Newsday they did not launch an investigation into those allegations because prosecutors believed they did not receive enough evidence to bring criminal charges.

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In an interview, Tierney said prosecuting pediatric vaccine fraud beyond a reasonable doubt is difficult. He questioned why the state allowed DeVuono to continue practicing even though state regulators received allegations of pediatric vaccine fraud years before his office got involved.

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\"If it was so cut and dry, why was it left for us to physically take her license from her at the time of sentencing?\" Tierney said in response to the state's criticism.

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Education Department spokeswoman Rachel Connors said in a statement that even when there is a plea deal, the Board of Regents, which oversees the department, ultimately decides whether to accept a license surrender and stop someone from practicing. The board formally took her license in December 2023, three months after her plea.

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Health Department spokeswoman Erin Clary said in a statement: \"The Department made considerable, documented efforts to convince the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office to include the pediatric vaccination fraud in its prosecution, and it declined.\"

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The health and education departments cannot directly file criminal charges, but they can refer cases to the state attorney general's office. Asked why the office did not refer DeVuono's case, Clary said, \"DeVuono had already been successfully prosecuted by the Suffolk County DA’s Office, the same office that led the investigation from the beginning and holds key evidence to the case.\"

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DeVuono, who now lives in Pennsylvania, could not be reached for comment. Her attorney in the COVID-19 case, Jason Russo, has said DeVuono told him she never falsified pediatric vaccination records.

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The Pennsylvania Department of State said in a statement this month that DeVuono doesn’t have a Pennsylvania nursing license and hasn’t applied for one.

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'Ripe for investigation'

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The Education Department had previously disciplined DeVuono because pediatric immunization records she submitted for seven children in 2019 lacked basic information such as dosage amounts, the manufacturer and expiration dates.

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To close that case, DeVuono accepted a \"censure and reprimand,\" paid a $500 fine and did not contest the charges. The 2021 settlement agreement makes no reference to vaccine fraud or the complaints filed by doctors in 2020.

STORYWIDGET: INVAX260329_violationsstatement \n

Connors, the Education Department spokeswoman, declined to comment on the case, citing confidentiality.

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The Health Department said it referred complaints about DeVuono to the Education Department for potential discipline because it did not yet have its own investigations bureau until the fall of 2023, several months before it filed administrative charges against DeVuono alleging fraud.

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Vaccine and public health experts found fault with both the state regulators, for failing to stop DeVuono sooner, and with the district attorney's office, for not pursuing a criminal investigation into alleged pediatric vaccine fraud.

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Brian Dean Abramson, a vaccine law professor at University of Houston Law Center, said two physicians separately accusing a nurse of falsifying immunization records should immediately raise red flags and be viewed as credible.

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\"It would be very surprising if that sort of accusation were to arise and there was nothing actually supporting it,\" he said.

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After receiving the complaints, the Education Department should have at least tried to stop DeVuono from continuing to submit vaccination records until it could investigate further, he said.

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State law allows the department to temporarily bar a provider from practicing before the resolution of a case if \"the public health, safety or welfare imperatively requires emergency action.\"

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Abramson said vaccine fraud fits that description.

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\"Pediatric vaccine fraud is one of the most pernicious crimes that can occur in our society, because we vaccinate children to protect them from diseases that are known to be deadly,\" he said.

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Abramson also said that the allegations of pediatric fraud were \"ripe for an investigation\" by Tierney’s office.

STORYWIDGET: INVAX260329_maptable \n

New charges would have discouraged other unscrupulous providers from falsifying records, Abramson said. \"It's rare for it to be caught and rarer still to be prosecuted criminally,\" he added.

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Even if a district attorney’s office has the same evidence as a state agency, prosecutors could decline to file criminal charges because its burden of proof is much higher than administrative cases, said John Quinn, a professor at the Touro University law school in Central Islip.

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In addition, taking away a defendant’s ability to practice medicine \"might be enough to satisfy [his] goals,\" said Clayton Masterman, a University at Buffalo law school professor.

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'Lives that could be endangered'

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The state senator who sponsored a 2019 bill that ended religious and other nonmedical exemptions for school vaccination requirements following major measles outbreaks said getting DeVuono to surrender her licenses wasn't enough.

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\"The book should be thrown at anyone who is so reckless as to intentionally fabricate a record that is meant to protect the public health,\" said Brad Hoylman-Sigal, now the Manhattan borough president. \"There are literally lives that could be endangered as a result.\"

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Falsification of pediatric vaccine cards affects more than unvaccinated children, said Dr. Jennifer Duchon, a Manhattan-based pediatric epidemiologist for the Mount Sinai Health System.

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Children — especially those with weakened immune systems and babies too young to get vaccines — can get severely ill from vaccine-preventable diseases, she said.

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State records show DeVuono only began administering childhood vaccines after the state ended nonmedical exemptions in 2019.

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She reported giving children more than 7,500 vaccines over a two-year span — after 17 years of having never reported administering a vaccine.

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Customer dispute leads to police call

Prosecutors said DeVuono made more than $1.2 million by selling fraudulent COVID-19 vaccine cards. \n

DeVuono might still be practicing today if she didn’t call the police in October 2021 to remove an \"unruly\" customer from her office, tipping the authorities off to her lucrative COVID-19 vaccine card scheme.

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The customer, identified in records as Thomas Laviano, of Sag Harbor, told police he had paid DeVuono $200 a month earlier to receive the COVID card with the first dose listed, without ever receiving the shot. He didn’t expect to be asked to pay another $220 when he returned for the second appointment in October 2021.

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That led to an argument that got so heated DeVuono called police to have him removed from her office.

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When an Amityville village officer arrived, records show, DeVuono explained that she had been administering COVID-19 shots \"along with a holistic way that rids the body of the vaccine\" and charges patients $220 each time. According to the police report, Laviano would not pay, and they argued.

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In a telephone interview with Newsday in March, Laviano, 71, said, \"she charged me twice, and I was arguing with her that it's not right, and then she called a cop on me because I got a little agitated.\"

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But Laviano also expressed sympathy for DeVuono, saying, \"she helped a lot of people\" by allowing them to receive COVID-19 cards without getting the vaccine at a time when many workplaces and indoor events required proof of vaccination.

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\"My hat’s off to her,\" he said.

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Before Amityville police left the scene in 2021, records show, an anonymous bystander told the officer that people often line up outside DeVuono’s office, and one of them told her they were there getting fake vaccine cards.

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Amityville police referred the case that day to Suffolk police and the district attorney's office, records show.

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A day later, Laviano provided a statement to a Suffolk detective detailing how he scored an appointment with DeVuono.

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Having learned of DeVuono’s sham vaccine-card operation from a friend, he said he expressed his interest by texting her with the code word: \"Smilari 62.\" The records do not explain the significance of the code word.

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Weeks later, DeVuono told a client in her office, \"We found out that there is a file with our name on it on the desk of the Suffolk County D.A., and they are planning to send someone out undercover.\" She said she thought about stopping, but decided to limit her practice to \"known people.\"

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That exchange is caught on video — by an undercover police detective sitting a few feet away in the waiting room.

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Charges never came

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Suffolk police arrested DeVuono in January 2022 for the COVID vaccine fraud, three months after her 911 phone call.

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It was a Thursday night. Three days later, on a Sunday, state health investigators emailed Suffolk prosecutors \"flagging the issue of non-covid vaccination fraud.\"

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Another 20 months passed before DeVuono agreed to the plea deal with Tierney’s office. Giovannetti said in a statement provided by a Health Department spokeswoman that the department's investigations bureau \"actively encouraged the DA’s office to include [pediatric vaccination fraud] in its charges.\"

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Those charges never came.

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\"We obtained no legally competent evidence with which to initiate an investigation,\" Tierney spokeswoman Tania Lopez said in a statement.

DeVuono with her attorney Jason Russo in 2023. \n

Authorities also alleged DeVuono prescribed thousands of oxycodone pills at Long Island pharmacies between 2016 and 2021 in the names of two family members who lived in different states — unbeknownst to them, they said — and her grandmother, who died in 1980. Tierney's office said in a statement that there was no evidence she was selling oxycodone. DeVuono was undergoing substance abuse treatment at the time of her sentencing, court records show.

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In December 2023, three months after DeVuono pleaded guilty, Newsday reported the Health Department was investigating her for pediatric vaccine fraud. In that story, the Suffolk district attorney’s office said, \"There was no evidence that anyone received non-COVID fake immunization cards\" from Wild Child.

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That statement shocked state health investigators.

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Its director of investigations, Giovannetti, who also is an attorney, wrote in an email to prosecutors, \"The statement implies that the question was investigated by your office and a determination made.\"

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In an interview, Tierney said his office’s 2023 statement to Newsday that they had \"no evidence\" of non-COVID vaccine fraud referred to \"evidence that we could use\" in a criminal case.

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The issue emerged at the start of DeVuono's June 2024 sentencing hearing when Suffolk state Supreme Court Justice John Collins said he received a presentencing letter from the Health Department.

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Noting that the letter alleged DeVuono falsified 226 childhood vaccine records for \"at least\" 26 children in 2020 and 2021, the judge asked prosecutors if they \"intend to undertake an investigation of those allegations,\" according to a transcript of the proceedings obtained by Newsday.

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Assistant District Attorney James Bartens said, \"Of course we will look at whatever evidence they have come about, but as of this point we are not privy to their investigation as far as what evidence they have procured.\"

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The judge stopped him midsentence, and asked, \"Did you get the same paperwork I got?\" Bartens initially said he didn't think so — \"Come on,\" the judge said, incredulously — before Bartens found it on his desk.

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Then he said: \"This was not a complete shock and we have been aware of the Department of Health’s investigation into this matter.\"

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Tierney told Newsday in the recent interview he remains open to prosecuting DeVuono for pediatric vaccine fraud — if he has enough evidence. But, he said, prosecutors would need an informant or other witness who was in the room with DeVuono and the child patient as she was committing a fraudulent act, such as administering a \"false vaccine.\"

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Abramson, the vaccine law professor, said although someone who witnessed DeVuono committing a fraudulent act in the room with patients would strengthen a case, it wouldn’t be necessary for a successful prosecution.

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Under the plea deal Tierney's office reached with DeVuono in the COVID-19 case, she surrendered her nursing licenses, was required to forfeit more than $1.25 million and promised to serve 840 hours of community service, in lieu of six months' jail time.

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Giovannetti, who the health department said was not available for an interview, said in the statement that although the agency was unsuccessful in its efforts to convince Tierney to file pediatric vaccination fraud charges, \"There is no doubt that the DA’s Office protected public health and safety in Long Island by ensuring that Julie DeVuono will never practice medicine in New York again.\"

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An undercover investigator’s hidden camera captured Julie DeVuono at work at her Wild Child Pediatrics practice in Amityville in January 2022.

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