Vol. 71/No. 38      October 15, 2007

The operations were carried out mostly in homes in towns that included Hempstead, Westbury, Hicksville, Port Washington, Brentwood, Central Islip, and Huntington. In Hempstead, where one carwash was also raided, six men were arrested in one house alone. The predawn raids allegedly targeted suspected gang members with arrest warrants, but the ICE didn’t supply the warrants to the local cops until four days after the operations began.

“They pushed their way in, manhandled those inside, yelled at them, threw them on the floor, flipped mattresses, and kicked and busted doors and locks,” said a witness to one raid who asked that her name not be used. She described how residents answered the door after heavy banging on it. Children saw their fathers mistreated, handcuffed, and taken away, she said.

In another case, Marlene Martínez told the Spanish-language daily El Diario/La Prensa that ICE agents arrested her husband while she was at work, leaving her four-month-old baby alone for several hours.

At least one U.S. citizen was arrested in the raids. She was later released.

A number of those arrested are in detention centers in Brooklyn, New York, where relatives and supporters are trying to get them out on bail.

Immigration authorities “cannot continue terrorizing families, and breaking families apart,” said Henríquez at the September 27 rally. Fifty relatives, supporters, and immigrants rights advocates joined the action calling for an end to the raids, according to the New York daily Newsday.

The day after the protest, complaining about “lack of communication” with ICE officers, Nassau County police commissioner Lawrence Mulvey said they would stop cooperating, “unless these issues are ironed out.” At the time of the announcement, however, joint raids had already been carried out for four days.
 
 
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