Protesters demand Islip keep ICE agents out of town shooting range

Protesters outside Islip Town Hall on Sunday demanded that town leaders terminate a contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement that allows agents to use a local shooting range.

The contract has come under scrutiny amid growing opposition to ICE enforcement efforts on Long Island since the start of President Donald Trump’s second term.

"We’re here because the Town of Islip is making money off of the deportation of innocent families," said Ahmad Perez, founder of Islip Forward, a group that monitors and keeps records of ICE agents carrying out enforcement actions on Long Island, and also helped organize Sunday's rally of well over 100 people.

A 'human rights' issue

"We’ve seen ICE agents go through laundromats, to places where people should feel safe," Perez said. "This is not a partisan issue ... This is human rights."

An Islip spokesperson told Newsday last week the shooting range on Freeman Avenue has been used by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which includes ICE, for training since "at least the early 2000s."

Islip Councilman Jorge Guadrón, a Democrat, told Newsday in a text Sunday that ICE in Islip has engaged in a "campaign of intimidation and terrorization ... resulting in fear, trauma, and destabilization of immigrant families and local business across the town."

Guadrón said he envisions drafting a resolution to suspend ICE access to the range, but "I do not have the necessary support at the moment."

Islip Town Supervisor Angie Carpenter declined to comment Sunday.

A statement posted in late July on the town website sought "to clarify some misinformation" about the contract. The range is used by multiple law enforcement agencies and dates back several decades, according to the town.

"These partnerships help to ensure the safe use of firearms and proper training. Those attempting to politicize this matter are unnecessarily causing more distrust of our law enforcement agencies," the July 30 statement states.

ICE agents use the Islip range to qualify for firearms proficiency, according to federal records. The town also rents out the shooting range to the Nassau County Police Department and other law enforcement agencies, according to the statement.

"Nobody has any objection to that," said Elise Antonelli, of Babylon, at the protest, in reference to training at the range.

"Everyone wants our [police departments] to be well-trained. But [the town] knows what ICE is doing in our communities. They’re not only training ... They’re walking around, they’re terrorizing our neighbors. They’re making people afraid to come out of their homes," she said.

Stepped-up enforcement

After Trump returned to office, he and his administration said ICE would target hard-core criminals in the country illegally and arrest and deport them. ICE agents have arrested more than 1,600 people on Long Island since Trump's January inauguration, all of whom had prior criminal convictions, the agency told Newsday last week.

In July, Newsday reported that ICE agents also were sweeping up immigrants on Long Island with no criminal history. The federal agency has refused to comment on whether any of those arrested had clean records.

Islip Town Councilman Michael McElwee, a Republican, told Newsday last week that ICE training at the range has "nothing to do with immigration enforcement."

"They are not using the site as a command post," McElwee said. "They are coming in [to] qualify for their pistols, doing the shooting and leaving."

Newsday has reported on several people who lived on Long Island for years but have either been deported since January or are facing the prospect.

Central Islip residents Josue Trejo Lopez, 19, and his brother Jose, 20, were deported to El Salvador in the spring after spending much of their lives in the United States. Both told Newsday they had clean records.

A Suffolk County Community College student, Sara Lopez Garcia, 20, was deported to Colombia after two months in jail.

A bagel shop manager in Port Washington, Fernando Mejia, who ICE arrested in June, is fighting deportation.

Ken Colón, vice chair of the Islip Democratic Committee, said the town’s contract has made even his own family feel unsafe.

"My own mother, a naturalized citizen from El Salvador who fled a war-torn country at the age of 7, carries copies of her citizenship documents whenever she leaves the house," Colón said Sunday. "My grandmother, who too is a naturalized citizen, is afraid to go outside."