Riverhead 'party' draws more than 200 protesting ICE raids
Over 200 people brave the cold in Riverhead Saturday to protest ICE raids here and elewhere. Credit: Randee Daddona
How does a protest turn into a party? With purple pompoms, dance music and doughnuts.
More than 200 demonstrators on Saturday morning in Riverhead protested the U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement raids sweeping the nation with familiar chants like “ICE out now!” and signs that read “Make America Kind Again.” But organizer Anita Boyer, 38, of Hampton Bays, who described herself as the “instigator” or “spark” for the rally, added a twist by proclaiming at the start: “It’s a party, not a protest!”
“I have been to a few protests that just felt like a bummer,” Boyer told Newsday, adding she drew inspiration from protests in Portland, Oregon, where demonstrators wore inflatable animal costumes, including a large frog. “And I feel like joy is revolutionary and that’s what I want to bring.”
The two-hour rally began in the Riverhead Town Hall parking lot before the group assembled on the sidewalk of Roanoke Avenue, many of the protesters bundled up as the temperature hovered in the teens. A steady stream of cars honked in support at the urging of sidewalk signs that read “Honk Free Speech.”
The passenger in one passing vehicle held a sign toward the demonstrators that read, “Where is the outrage for our vets?”
The protest was the latest in a series of similar demonstrations across Long Island and nationally after the Trump administration began its aggressive crackdown on undocumented immigrants, which reached a flashpoint in Minneapolis recently when two people were killed by federal agents in separate incidents.
The Trump administration says illegal immigration “harms American citizens,” according to a recent Department of Homeland Security statement, a message those in Riverhead soundly rejected.
Mirna Canel, 19, of Riverhead, and Jackie Estrada, 19, of Calverton, said they were both representing Guatemalan immigrants.
Estrada said people are afraid of families being separated. “We’re here to be their voice,” she said of those living in fear.
Canel wrapped the Guatemalan flag around her as she chanted against ICE.
“It's very important for our community to stand up and so that ICE can see that we're not afraid of them,” she said.
Rep. Nick LaLota (R-Amityville), who represents the East End, wrote a letter to constituents Wednesday in response to the recent tragedies in Minnesota. He said while Americans have a constitutional right to protest, it does not give people the right to “interfere with law enforcement activity.”
He cautioned that the “political temperature” in the country was “far too high.”
“Americans can and should debate immigration policy, federal enforcement priorities, and the proper scope of government,” he wrote. “But we must do so without dehumanizing one another or turning our streets into battlegrounds."
Several Riverhead Town police vehicles were parked in the area Saturday to monitor the rally but no incidents were reported.
Suzanne Leaver, 63, of Amagansett, held a sign shaped as stop sign that read “Stop ICE.” She said her mother is a Holocaust survivor and many members of her family were “disappeared.”
“I have a deep need to participate and it helps me when I’m feeling powerless,” she said.
Zachary Strebel, 29, of Eastport, said Saturday’s protest was his first. The recent tragedies in Minneapolis were a turning point, he said, adding what he saw made him “sick to my stomach.”
"Nothing seems like it's going to change without everyone else chipping in and standing up for our neighbors,” he said.
Joe Werkmeister joined Newsday in 2022 and covers Suffolk County government and politics. He is a graduate of St. Bonaventure University and previously worked as the editor of two North Fork community newspapers.
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