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ICE sweeps frighten even documented immigrants

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Although she is a documented immigrant of long-standing, she wakes up every morning afraid that new federal policies on immigrants will result in her being hassled by over-zealous Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE) agents.

Televised images of immigrant roundups in other parts of the country are difficult to watch for this woman who lives and works on the Island; fear, she said, is her constant companion throughout the day.

She won’t fly, even within the country, not trusting that her legal status will protect her from detention for questions. A trip planned last fall for this spring to visit her mother, who is in ill health, has been put on hold because she’s afraid that by returning to her home country, leaving behind her family and job here, she will encounter difficulty returning to the United States.

She choked up speaking about the possibility that the postponed trip could mean never seeing relatives again.

She spoke to the Reporter this week, but asked that her name not be used, fear dictating her caution, she said.

Department of Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly, in a pair of memos released last week, described new immigration guidelines that will “no longer … exempt classes or categories of removable aliens from potential enforcement.”

Friends of the Islander that the Reporter spoke to — some documented, others not — live with the same fear, she said. Some are afraid to drive, choosing to ride bicycles to avoid getting traffic tickets they believe could lead to their being deported, she said.

Among them are Greenporters who were taken into custody after a 2007 sweep by ICE agents. Although most proved to be documented, their lives were disrupted. Some legal residents were deported, and even for those allowed to return to the United States, they often lost jobs because of their long absences.

“None know what to do now,” she said.

Where they once talked as friends do about happy lives here, today conversations are punctuated by anxiety. They appreciate any assurances they can get, she said.

One such assurance came from Shelter Island Police Chief Jim Read, who as a soccer coach with many of the young Hispanic men on the Island, has built a trusting relationship.
Island police are not charged with enforcing federal immigration laws, Chief Read said in an interview at his office Monday morning. The police department’s actions haven’t changed since Donald Trump succeeded Barack Obama in the White House, he added.

While the men he coaches and shares a soccer field with trust him, many still fear he may be forced into actions threatening to interrupt their lives, the chief said.

Department policy is that when officers stop a person for a vehicle or traffic violation on the Island, they don’t ask for proof of citizenship or immigration status, he said. Nor does the department maintain any list of where immigrants live or work on the Island.

Only if someone is accused of a felony might immigration status come into play, the chief said. That would occur when someone is fingerprinted and data determines that ICE agents have previously issued a warrant for that person’s arrest.

Even then, unless ICE officers move quickly to take the person named in the warrant into federal custody, the accused may be released.

“We are a temporary holding facility,” Chief Read explained. There’s no provision for holding anyone on the Island for more than generally an overnight.

“On minor cases, immigrants aren’t being held,” he said.

This the first in a series on immigration.