By Melinda Rolls
In early April, Suffolk County experienced the most extensive wave of Immigration and Customs Enforcement sightings since the start of the Trump administration. Over the course of three days, ICE agents entered neighborhoods in Brentwood, Central Islip, North Bay Shore and Wyandanch.
Islip Forward, an activist group that has been closely monitoring ICE activity in Suffolk, tracked the surge through community-submitted reports on its online ICE tracker. “We have never seen something like that, where they were literally over the span of multiple hours all over every section of the community, from North Bay Shore to Central Islip to Brentwood,” Ahmad Perez, the executive director of Islip Forward, recently told The Advocate.
On April 6, the first day of the operation, Perez said he received a message from a friend living on Fulton Street in Brentwood with his immigrant father, saying that ICE agents had come to his home. The following day, the friend told Perez that ICE had come back and detained his father. “It’s just the uncomfortable reality that our families here in Brentwood, Central Islip and Islip are facing,” Perez noted.
Perez said the online ICE tracker, used to document sightings such as on Fulton Street, was designed to promote transparency around ICE operations. The group began tracking ICE enforcement at the end of January after News12 reported that ICE agents had mistakenly targeted the wrong home in Brentwood while searching for undocumented children on Jan. 23.
Perez said the mistake had a profound impact on the community, deepening existing fears about ICE activity. “In a case of mistaken identity, they literally scared a community, shattered trust between community members and local law enforcement agencies as well,” Perez said. “People became isolated, siloed and feared going outside or even taking their kids to school.”
In response to the growing fear, Islip Forward developed its tool not only to increase transparency around ICE activity, but also to combat false reports and misinformation. “If someone is spreading the false news that there is an ICE sighting outside the local supermarket, folks won’t buy their groceries,” Perez said. “That’s the real environment we live in today.”
“In a case of mistaken identity, [ICE agents] literally scared a community, shattered trust between community members and local law enforcement agencies as well. People became isolated, siloed and feared going outside or even taking their kids to school.”
Ahmad Perez, Executive Director, Islip Forward
To prevent false information from appearing on the tracker, Islip Forward verifies all reports submitted through the platform. Online submissions must include geotagged photos or videos, allowing the location to be verified. Each report is then cross-checked through community testimony, with Islip Forward representatives visiting the reported sites to confirm details with neighbors.
“We have turned away more submissions than we have accepted, because that is truly the level of verification that we hope to establish, because we are not attempting to also spread misinformation,” Perez said.
Since its launch, Islip Forward reports that the tool has logged over 30,000 individual sessions specifically from users within Suffolk County. However, the organization has also faced backlash. Perez said Islip Forward has received a range of hate mail, often including claims that the tool had been reported to ICE and the Department of Justice.
However, documenting ICE activity with photo and video evidence is legal. Under the First Amendment and the Right to Record Act, individuals are permitted to record law enforcement in public places if they do not interfere with the officials.
Despite the backlash, Perez remains steadfast in his belief that community safety and compassion can coexist. “We want to be able to walk outside and feel safe in the communities that we have been raised in, but that does not mean we have to sacrifice the innocent families who came here, supported our communities and lives, and are delivering change just like us,” Perez said.
