As ICE raids grow in Riverhead, OLA presses for public safety
Amid the uptick in Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent raids sweeping the East End, OLA Eastern Long Island is continuing its push for stronger public safety measures — this time by putting the pressure on Riverhead at Wednesday night’s town board meeting.
After waiting through multiple public hearings and the approvals of a long list of town board resolutions, executive director of OLA Minerva Perez stepped up to the podium to present the proposed legislation that the organization has been circulating among East End towns to create task forces on immigration enforcement.
“We are putting it forward because of very real concerns, across the East End, because of the change of patterns and activity that ICE has been using to do random raids. This is not an anti-ICE resolution. This is not a doctrine that is anti-ICE,” Ms. Perez said. “What we’re seeing now on the East End of Long Island is that the relative calm and safety that people have come to truly enjoy is disrupted at a very different level when ICE comes to town, with little regard for public safety of any kind.”
The local law proposal also establishes police department policies around license plate recognition technology and establishes local police departments’ ability to train and designate officers to investigate incidents of law enforcement impersonations.
The purpose of the local law is to install an “emergency preparedness” plan if another ICE raid happens on the North Fork. While local municipalities cannot stop ICE itself, advocates said these towns do have the power to take accountability and responsibility for public safety when these situations occur.
“There’s not faith in the fact there’s going to be order and calm, and safety, in the actions of ICE at this point, so we can’t rely on that,” said Ms. Perez, who noted retired New York assemblyman Fred Thiele’s aid in crafting the resolution. “We can’t ask you to curtail the actions of ICE because that is not your purview, but what we can do, which is what this law is about, is sort of reinvigorating and reconnecting the fabric of our community.”
ICE activity spikes
After the recent ICE activity in Greenport that led to the detention of three longtime North Fork residents on Feb. 4, OLA first brought the proposition to Southold. A Public Safety Task Force was unanimously approved by the Southold Town Board on Feb. 10.
OLA has only presented for the town boards of Southold, Shelter Island and Riverhead so far. They plan to visit seven more towns and villages, with East Hampton and Quogue meetings being next on the list on Friday, Feb. 20.
Hours before the Riverhead Town Board meeting on Wednesday, Feb. 18, eyewitness reports, photos and videos flooded social media of ICE agents allegedly detaining a man who had just left the Suffolk County Criminal Court in Riverside.
The detained man was later identified as Esaul Córdova García by his wife who launched a GoFundMe for help with raising money for legal expenses. Mr. Córdova García has three children ages 10, 5 and 2, according to the fundraising page.
He is currently serving a five-year probation after pleading guilty in October 2022 to a second-degree unlawful surveillance Class E felony charge, according to Suffolk County Court online records. He was arrested in 2012, but had been released for his own recognizance since his arrest. He was also sentenced to five months in jail after pleading guilty. His next court appearance date was scheduled for Feb. 25.
The Riverhead News-Review reached out to ICE for confirmation and details on Mr. Córdova García’s detainment, as well as his defense attorney for his Suffolk County court case.
Anita Boyer, a Hampton Bays resident and local organizer behind the vigils and peaceful demonstrations against ICE on the East End, shared a video with Riverhead News-Review of the Wednesday morning arrest. She and a few others involved with OLA’s Rapid Response Network were alerted to potential ICE activity at the courthouse at around 11 a.m.
Ms. Boyer footage showed six masked individuals wearing vests marked “POLICE” “HSI” or “ERO” surrounding the man in the parking lot. An unmarked vehicle pulled up to block the man’s car in. At one point, Ms. Boyer said one agent appeared to be holding a canister of pepper spray with the “pin out” and “thumb on the trigger, ready to spray.”
“I really believe that if the court police officers were not also in the area, that would have been used against us,” Ms. Boyer said in a phone call on Thursday. “I feel like that [proposed] resolution would have been a great way to keep everything calmer and safer, and to keep the court police officers who were there from asking me what’s going on — I’m like, ‘Don’t ask me, ask the agents over there who are taking a guy forcing him out of his car.'”
Ms. Boyer said she believes there needs to be more action beyond creating task forces and committees, as there is no time “when people are literally getting snatched off the street.”
There have been approximately 68,289 ICE detentions reported nationwide as of Feb. 7, according to immigration data collected by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) at Syracuse University. Roughly 73.6% of those held in ICE detention have no criminal conviction and many of those convicted committed only minor offenses, including traffic violations, the report stated.
Pushing public safety for all
Many speakers in favor of the resolution at the Town Board meeting stressed the local law is not meant to be anti-police. Rosario Rodriguez of Riverhead, who was overcome with emotion when translating her sentiments into Spanish, said the resolution is about supporting safer coordination and public awareness.
“When fear spreads through the entire segment of the community, public safety suffers because trust breaks down,” Ms. Rodriguez said. “This resolution is about transparency and trust. It ensures that federal agents are present. There are clear procedures and accountability that strengthens public safety for everyone in Riverhead.”
Before sharing her comments, Gilda Rojas-Munguia started to take out her passport and Social Security card. Riverhead Town Supervisor Jerry Halpin stopped her, saying she “did not need to do that here.” However, Ms. Rojas-Munguia continued to make a point that these are the types of safety precautions she and her family have had to take.
“Especially me as a mother and who has children going to the Riverhead school district, it would give me peace of mind, it would give everyone peace of mind, if we had more transparency,” Ms. Rojas-Munguia said. “If a random person comes up to me while I’m walking, and they have a mask, and they say ‘I’m ICE’ [to me] or to my children who are young … What am I supposed to do if something like that were ever to happen to one of my children?”
Kerry Flanagan of Riverhead pointed out the town’s history of embracing immigrants, particularly the Polish.
“We see our immigrant neighbors terrorized, chased, abused and disappeared. We see our students terrified for their parents. We can’t allow one group of people in our community to be terrorized this way,” Ms. Flanagan said. “Was anyone checking the immigration status of the Polish back in the day? Were the Polish being chased and abducted off the streets of Riverhead, simply for being Polish? We have to do better as a community, and the leaders of our town have to do more to keep our residents safe, all residents, regardless of immigration status or the language they speak.”
Riverhead officials reportedly are not considering OLA’s proposed legislation at this time.
Mr. Halpin told the Riverhead News-Review on a call Friday, Feb. 20, that the Town Board was not considering the legislation at this time and has not planned to bring it to a work session yet.
He acknowledged the town’s Hispanic Development Empowerment & Education Committee was not formed with public safety responsibilities in mind. However, the town supervisor would like to discuss this matter further with the group’s members before making any further decisions.
“I love that we have the opportunity for people to express themselves and for us to listen. I’m not listening just to respond, I’m listening to understand,” Mr. Halpin said. “I care about people, there’s a concern there, and I believe that they were heard and understood — it’s a step.”
