Protesters at Suffolk police precinct decry staging ground for ICE agents

One of four planned anti-U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement protests across Long Island this weekend, held Sunday in Huntington in front of the Suffolk County Police Department's Second Precinct, was attended by people from across the region. Some from as far out as Brookhaven Town; others, like Carma Velasquez, from around the block. 

Velasquez was awakened by a cacophony of protest sounds: screeching whistles, honking horns and pounding drums. She rolled out of bed and followed the noise, forgetting to put on her glasses. 

"I got closer, because I can't see," Velasquez, 34, said. "I was like 'Is this for, or is this against?'"

It was when she saw a sign featuring a cartoon of President Donald Trump's face and the words "Domestic Terrorist" that she got her answer. Velasquez then joined about 70 others protesting at the  Second Precinct on Park Avenue, which was used as a staging area for ICE agents last Sunday, Newsday previously reported.

The protest ran for about 2-1/2 hours. Various demonstrators took to a megaphone to address a dozen police officers standing in front of the building behind a metal barricade, mostly expressionless. Protesters held signs that read "Abolish ICE" and "Shame."

Suffolk County officials have repeatedly denied its police officers are coordinating with ICE. 

Osman Canales, an anti-ICE activist who posted a video of the ICE agents at the precinct last week, turned toward the police officers Sunday and shouted into a megaphone.

"Our community is hurting, our community is in fear," Canales said. "How is our community going to trust you?"

Canales declined to comment to Newsday at the scene.

Trump administration officials have insisted ICE is focused on detaining the "worst of the worst" — illegal immigrants who have committed dangerous crimes. But 73.6% of detainees, as of Feb. 7, did not have a criminal record, according to Syracuse University's Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse.

The protest was one of several over the weekend organized by a coalition of groups, with one in Hempstead and one in Brentwood on Saturday, and another in Riverhead on Sunday. 

Courtney Belanger, 34, of Manorville, runs the grassroots organization, Assemble Long Island, and helped organize Sunday's demonstration in Huntington. Some drivers lowered their windows to express a distaste for the protesters' mission, but Belanger said that did not bother her.

"It's part of the job," she said. "It's the least we can do. Immigrants everyday are scared to just leave their homes."

Nick Gonsalves, 32, traveled from Ridge to Huntington for the protest. He wore a neon vest and carried a gas mask — just in case. 

"I got it a couple months ago," Gonsalves said of the mask. "As things ramped up more, I started realizing the necessity for things like that."

Gonsalves said he was moved to get involved out of fear that ICE's aggressive deportation strategy could lead to "people like me, a gay male who has a Hispanic last name" being targeted. He handed out homemade knitted hearts tied to poems to other protesters.

"This is me just trying to spread a little bit of love while everything is going on," he said. "We can't just stand idly by and let these things happen. The more these things happen, the more they become normalized."

One passing driver who honked their horn in support looked familiar to  Velasquez, whose family is from El Salvador. It was her sister, she said.

"I come from a Hispanic family that came here," Velasquez said. "To see what's happening to these other families that came here. ... it's very hurtful. I feel that."

By Joshua Needelman

joshua.needelman@newsday.com

Joshua Needelman covers the Town of North Hempstead for Newsday. A Long Island native and University of Maryland graduate, his work has appeared in publications including The New York Times and The Washington Post.