Dozens demonstrate outside Woodbury building where ICE lawyers are working

Nearly 100 people protested on Friday outside an office building in Woodbury that is renting space to lawyers for the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, saying ICE is spreading fear and chaos.

The protesters gathered outside 88 Froehlich Farm Blvd., where ICE last month started leasing office space to as many as 40 lawyers, according to Craig J. Padover, president of Hauppauge-based Aresco Management, which owns the building.

The protesters said they want ICE out of the building because the agency is inflicting violence, separating families and violating proper legal procedures as agents arrest many immigrants with no criminal records.

“It’s not the America I grew up in,” said Sal DeAngelo, 77, of East Northport. “I think my parents would roll over in their graves if they saw this.”

ICE, he added, “is causing more problems than they are solving. They’re divisive. They’re operating outside the law.”

Another protester, Abbe Joseph, 62, of Melville, said, “ICE has no place here. We have to protect our neighbors. They’re part of our community.”

ICE is “separating families. It’s devastating. They shouldn’t be treating any human being the way they are treating the immigrants," Joseph added.

Protesters carried signs saying “End Kidnapping by Masked Gunmen, Not OK in USA,” and “Hate Won’t Make America Great Again, Immigrants Make America Great.” Some passing motorists honked their horns in support.

Padover has said no masked, armed ICE agents are using the offices, nor will detained immigrants be taken there.

Nassau County police, along with extra security guards hired by Aresco, were on hand. No incidents were reported.

“This is America. You are allowed to protest,” Padover said. “As long as you peacefully protest, that is your right.”

Though the demonstrators called on Aresco to cancel the ICE lease, Padover said “it is a lease among two parties. It can’t be arbitrarily canceled.”

The protest came as tensions over President Donald Trump’s mass deportation campaign and ICE’s controversial tactics escalate nationwide. The fatal shooting by immigration agents of two U.S. citizens — Renee Good and Alex Pretti — in Minneapolis last month provoked shock, demonstrations and a freeze on funding for the Department of Homeland Security by congressional Democrats.

One protester on Friday held a sign that said, “We Stand With Minneapolis.”

Trump and members of his administration contend immigration agents are following proper procedures. Trump says his campaign is targeting dangerous and violent criminals, though studies show that most of the immigrants arrested have no criminal record.

The Woodbury office appears to be part of a ramping up of ICE activities nationwide as it obtains more facilities to meet its increased responsibilities. The agency's budget has more than tripled in recent years. The newsmagazine Wired reported this month that ICE is moving into or expanding operations at 150 sites around the country, including in Woodbury, as part of an aggressive expansion.

Protester Mehri Fryvel, 72, of Garden City, said she fears a Minnesota-style ICE surge with several thousand agents coming to Long Island.

“I feel that we are next,” she said. “I am vehemently opposed to that kind of cruelty.”

Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-Glen Cove), whose district includes Woodbury, said in a statement that Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem "has still not responded to my letter requesting to know exactly what the intention of this office is."

"We do not need or want a sweeping deportation program here on Long Island," Suozzi said. "We have the lowest crime rate in America and while I will support the deportation of criminals, I would fight an intense deportation program.”