Masked ICE arrests, deportations on Long Island an elusive mission

President Donald Trump’s edict to remove every person from the U.S. who lacks legal immigration status is driving a sense of anxiety for migrants, their families, employers and communities on Long Island and much of the nation.

Raids carried out daily by Immigration and Customs Enforcement amount to an eerily opaque project. Heavily armed agents, typically wearing masks, civilian clothing and no identifying badges, roll up suddenly, anywhere, aggressively make arrests, and spirit people away.

Even for the Long Islanders who feel that anyone here illegally should be deported regardless of their circumstances, the tactics should give pause.

Ordinarily, local police agencies patrol and respond to calls with their marked cars, name tags, and precinct pins. Court proceedings, predictably, follow. But nowadays, communities where immigrants work and live face an unfamiliar wave of furtive and faceless federal interventions. ICE operations grab individuals from streets, workplaces, private residences, courthouses and even immigration offices — when they are complying with required regular check-ins.

They are sent to crowded detention centers and then deported. It takes families and lawyers days, if not weeks, to learn their status and whereabouts and to make contact.

MAD RUSH TO DEPORT

The White House is in a mad rush to deport people in record numbers. But even for the most violent and dangerous — who nearly everyone agrees need to be removed — the process seems haphazard and chaotic.

In March, Trump aide Stephen Miller announced a goal of 3,000 ICE arrests per day. But in May, when federal judges presiding over a court case demanded details, administration lawyers denied such a target exists. Does it or doesn’t it? Could 11 million people here illegally really be kicked out by the end of Trump’s term? Nobody can be certain.

So far, the deportations and arrests seem to be lagging far behind any plan. Between Jan. 26 and May 3, there were 72,179 deportations reported. In the last four months of Joe Biden’s presidency, there were 85,769.

The mad rush extends to ICE’s massive expansion, with signing bonuses of up to $50,000 on the table for new agents and billions of dollars recently allocated by Congress for the agency. “Defend your culture,” states one DHS slogan to entice recruits for the deportation drive, appealing to “patriotic Americans.”

DHS boasts of going after “the worst of the worst,” which means heinous criminals who are here illegally. But the administration’s claim to nab “criminals first” is dubious. The conservative Cato Institute said Aug. 5: “Since Jan. 20, ICE has conducted about 15,000 street arrests of immigrants who had no criminal convictions, charges, or removal orders.”

Uncounted numbers of people have gone underground. Last week, videos of the main avenue of the mostly Latino community of Huntington Park, California, showed a western ghost town swept by anticipation of ICE raids. On Long Island, pastors report a decline in attendance and requests for social services, even from citizens and green card holders, who fear arrest. Worries about being wrongly arrested based on an ethnic profile or faulty tip is making citizens carry daily their passports and legal residents their visas as a precaution.

Another grim side effect of the raids is impersonation. In places as disparate as South Carolina, Brooklyn and Maryland, criminals falsely claiming to be from ICE have committed sexual assaults, robberies and abductions.

NASSAU MASK LAW EXEMPTION

It’s an ironic twist. Face coverings were so concerning to Nassau County officials that one year ago, they enacted a ban on masks in public except for medical or professional use. Recently, County Executive Bruce Blakeman, a vocal supporter of Trump’s deportation push, signed an executive order exempting law enforcement from the mask ban.

The Department of Homeland Security says the masks shield ICE officers and their families from doxing and threats. But many ICE hires are so new to law enforcement they may have little understanding of their need to be accountable, making the masking all the more ominous.

Local governments are affected by the feds’ lack of transparency. Detailed information is elusive. Newsday revealed last week that ICE has arrested more than 1,600 people on Long Island with prior criminal convictions since Jan. 20. But authorities aren’t saying how many had no criminal records or pending charges, or if they did, whether those cases were serious or violent.

More than 1,400 immigrants have reportedly moved through 50 Nassau county jail cells set aside for ICE, which reimburses the county $195 per inmate per night. Since the program began in February, the county has billed the federal government $725,000, according to the county comptroller’s office.

In Suffolk County, which has no housing deal with Homeland Security, the interaction with ICE has its own political edge. Protesters in Islip, led by the civic group Islip Forward, have focused on a contract the town has with ICE that allows agents to use a local shooting range. Councilman Jorge Guadrón described in Newsday how the ICE mission is causing “fear, trauma and destabilization of immigrant families and local businesses.”

The upcoming weeks and months should tell us a fuller story. But it’s clear that if this show of force adds up to intimidation and wrongful detentions, that would be a destructive policy and the program should be stopped or revamped. Long Islanders, through their elected officials, must monitor the process for fairness and accountability, and not just act as cheerleaders for — or opponents of — Washington policies.