By Scott Brinton
Amanda Garcia’s 47-year-old son, a Home Depot driver with Temporary Protected Status, was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers on the street in New Jersey last July. Garcia is unsure, she said, whether her son was carrying his Employment Authorization document at the time.
Garcia said her son was sent to the Delaney Hall Detention Center in Newark, N.J., and transferred to a facility in Pennsylvania before being flown to El Salvador, which he left in 1999 when he was 20.
Now separated from his three children — 22, 19 and 16 — and jobless in a country that he has not lived in for 27 years, “he’s very depressed,” Garcia said.
More than 400 protesters turned out for the March for Humanity in the Village of Hempstead on May 1, International Workers’ Day. Garcia was among them. She led the 3 p.m. demonstration through the streets of Hempstead as the sun shone down, schools let out and commuter traffic crowded the roads. The march began with roughly 250 protesters but swelled by an additional 150 or more by its midpoint as residents and students joined in.
Garcia, 65, who was born and raised in San Salvador, El Salvador’s capital, carried a circular cardboard sign that read, “ICE Out of Long Island.” The grandmother and soon-to-be great-grandmother walked with sadness etched across her face, followed by a mix of protesters, including immigrant rights activists, union workers and anti-war demonstrators.
Marchers chanted slogans such as “We want justice — You say how — ICE out of Hempstead now!” and “This is for the families who are locked inside — Together we will abolish ICE!”
One of the march’s lead organizers, Ashley Guardado, 36, of Hempstead, told the crowd as they were about to step off, “Thank you for coming to support our community today. This means everything to us … We will not be guided by chaos but by connection.”
Civil rights attorney Fred Brewington, whose office is located a short distance from the Hempstead NICE bus terminal where the march began, said, “This is democracy in action. This is showing the people who are most affected can make a difference.”
ICE debate in Hempstead
Bradley Hinton, 75, of Hempstead, is a retired repairman who volunteers to drive frail neighbors to their medical and other appointments. He attended the march, he said, because he wants ICE out of Hempstead. “A lot of the businesses are losing out,” he said, because Latino residents worry they might be targeted by ICE for detention and deportation, regardless of their immigration status.
“They’re scared,” Hinton said. “The kids are scared. They’re afraid to come out. You can’t blame them.”
Hinton said he was disturbed when he learned that Village of Hempstead had been cooperating with ICE, allowing the federal agency to use its armory as a staging area for its operations. And, he said, he wondered if the village was still working with ICE at the armory, noting that Hempstead has accepted federal Department of Homeland Security funding.
Hempstead Mayor Waylyn Hobbs stopped briefly by the protest as marchers were preparing to step off, accompanied by Assistant Chief of Police Derek Warner. When asked whether the village was still permitting ICE to use the armory, Hobbs said in an interview, “That’s not true.”
Warner said village officials have not cooperated with ICE for more than two months, saying that any residual belief that the village was still working with the agency is a “false impression.”
The mayor said ICE continues to operate in the village, as permitted by law, but reiterated that Hempstead officials are no longer working with the agency as they were.
Hempstead’s cooperation with ICE was the subject of intense discussion and debate at a Village of Hempstead meeting in early February, covered by The Advocate. At the time, ICE had come under increased scrutiny following the deaths of Nicole Good, a mother of three, and Alex Peretti. Both U.S. citizens, they were shot and killed by ICE agents in Minneapolis.
At the February meeting, Hobbs said that he and the village board of trustees had already agreed to end Hempstead’s cooperation with ICE. “I have instructed our police department chief that we will not have any of our officers working with ICE,” Hobbs said, adding that he was working with Gov. Kathy Hochul on legislation to prevent local police officers from working with ICE.
Push for New York For All
Daniel McElroy, 30, of Garden City, said he attended the protest to advocate for New York For All legislation, which would prohibit state and local government officials from cooperating with ICE in immigration enforcement. “The fact that police [are] working with ICE is extremely dangerous,” he said.
McElroy noted the Nassau County Police Department’s cooperation with ICE. Last year, County Executive Bruce Blakeman and Police Commissioner Patrick Ryder signed a 287(g) agreement allowing ICE to use the Nassau County Correctional facility in East Meadow as an immigration holding facility. It also authorizes 10 detectives to work with ICE agents in immigration enforcement.
McElroy held a gray Styrofoam tombstone with the name Santos Reyes written across it in white lettering. A 42-year-old Honduran national, Reyes died in ICE custody at the Nassau County jail last Sept. 18. The father of two had been arrested while at work on a construction job. The exact cause of his death remains unclear, though authorities said Reyes suffered from underlying health issues.
Blakeman has maintained that Nassau County is cooperating with ICE in the removal of known criminals only, not those who abide by the law, a claim that protesters at the march disputed.
This April, State Sen. Andrew Gounardes and Assemblywoman Karine Reyes, both Democrats, led a coalition of state legislators to call for passage of the New York For All measure, but its fate remains uncertain.
“Half-measures are simply not enough when lives are at stake,” Gounardes, from Brooklyn, said. “We’re fighting for comprehensive legislation that prevents collusion with ICE, pushes back against President Trump’s authoritarianism and ensures true public safety for all New Yorkers.”
Miguel Alas, a volunteer with the Central American Refugee Center in Hempstead, said the march aimed to shine a light on the critical issues faced by immigrants. It was intended, he said, “to make the community aware of the meaning of justice, of hope.”
