Huntington Station ICE protesters focus on loved ones missing at the holidays

In a CVS parking lot in Huntington Station on Sunday, as customers funneled in and out of the store, sat an empty dinner table decorated for Thanksgiving.

Nearby, at least 200 faith leaders and their congregants gathered in a parking lot where day laborers waiting for work have been arrested by federal agents. The group assembled to spotlight how, with the holiday season approaching, these day laborers, like so many others taken away by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, will be far from their families.

"It’s not just a political issue. It’s a moral issue," said Sister Janet Kinney of Sisters of St. Joseph in Brentwood. "All of our faith traditions talk about love of God, love of neighbor, taking care of the forgotten ... It’s literally all over our Scriptures.."

The group walked in a procession from St. Hugh of Lincoln to the CVS on East Pulaski Road. Some carried flowers, others tied white ribbons on their arms. The group surrounded the holiday table, with empty chairs tucked into it, praying, singing and calling on politicians to denounce recent ICE arrests.

"Lately there have been ICE sightings and arrests almost every day," said Nadia Marin-Molina, co-executive director of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network.

Organizers chose to gather at the CVS on Sunday because it has been a major hub for day laborers to find work, she added.

"It’s actually been a good place for workers to find work. Now, it’s a dangerous place," Marin-Molina said. "Many workers have been abducted by ICE agents here."

The group took turns reading the names of those arrested by ICE, including Central Islip brothers Josue and Jose Trejo Lopez, who were detained during a routine immigration case appointment in Manhattan and deported to El Salvador.

President Donald Trump has pledged to conduct the largest mass deportation campaign in U.S. history with an effort targeting dangerous criminals in the country illegally.

"They're taking innocent families that have no criminal record," said Ivan Larios of the New York Immigration Coalition. "These are breadwinners who nobody knows where they are. ... We ask [officials] to speak up and denounce how ICE and the Department of Homeland Security is violating human rights."

About a dozen faith groups were represented on Sunday, according to Kinney, including Christians, Jews, Muslims and Hindus.

"We denounce the separation of families," said Rabbi Lina Zerbarini, of the Kehillath Shalom Synagogue in Cold Spring Harbor. "We call for due process."

Immigrant advocates and religious leaders have decried other ICE actions in Suffolk as well as Nassau. Earlier this month, a crowd gathered on Montauk Highway in Hampton Bays to protest East End arrests.

In September, protesters gathered outside Huntington Hospital after family members said federal immigration agents arrested a relative who was injured in the process and treated for his injuries there. Advocates have long denounced Nassau’s partnership with ICE, launched by County Executive Bruce Blakeman in February. Blakeman allocated 50 jail cells for the federal agency to detain immigrants. 

Officials jailed nearly 2,200 people there from February through September. A 42-year-old father of two died there while in custody.

The Spanish-language Mass at St. Hugh of Lincoln ended just before Sunday's procession began across the street. But its Hispanic congregants were too nervous to join, according to advocate Richard Koubek, for fear of being arrested.

As the sun set and temperatures grew frigid, the group closed with a song to immigrants: "We want you to stay right here."