Island employee arrested by ICE in February is home
A 20-plus year employee at a Shelter Island business, who was on his way to work from his Greenport home last February and arrested by Immigration and Custom Enforcement officers at North Ferry, is home and has been back at work since March.
Hugo Leonel Ardon Osorio, a truck driver and construction worker for Marcello Masonry on North Ferry Road, was detained by ICE at about 6:30 a.m. on February 4. After a grueling 23 days in custody, he said Saturday, he was released. Bobby Marcello, owner of Marcello Masonry said Saturday he had hired an attorney to plead the case for Mr. Ardon Osorio’s release.
The day after his arrest that February morning by ICE agents, Mr. Marcello described Mr. Ardon Osorio as a person of outstanding character who had been an exemplary employee. “He’s a stand-up guy in every respect,” he said. “Works hard all the time. When he can’t get a sitter for his kids, they stay with my kids. He’s around my house a lot.” He added that Mr. Ardon Osorio and his spouse had just had a baby girl.
Asked why he thought his employee was detained, Mr. Marcello said, “I have no idea,” but repeated that Mr. Ardon Osorio, whom he has known for two decades, was a fine person.
In an interview Saturday, Mr. Ardon Orsorio — who spoke mostly in Spanish and was interpreted into English by his friend and Marcello co-worker Daniel Palencia — said that after his arrest at the North Ferry terminal, he was taken to a detention center in New Jersey for three day and then transferred to the holding facility at 26 Federal Plaza in lower Manhattan where he was incarcerated for a month.
“The conditions were really bad,” he said. He was chained by the wrists and ankles and placed in a room that was extremely overcrowded. “At lunch they threw the food at us,” he said. “They treated us like dogs.”
Released, he was back at home in Greenport and working again at Marcello Masonry. He didn’t speak of his present immigration status, but that “it’s being worked out.”
Mr. Palencia, who lives in Southold, had his own struggles with the immigration system. He came to the United States in 2016 with his mother when he was 11. Crossing the Mexico-U.S. border into El Paso, Texas, he and his mother turned themselves into immigration authorities and sought legal status. He was detained for three months in deplorable conditions. He spoke of “cold rooms” where temperatures went desert cold at night. “They took our sweaters away from us.”
In addition, he was placed in rooms — “We called them cages” — that would be suitable for four or five people but at times held 40 individuals. “We were sleeping on top of each other,” he said.
The Texas government then sent Mr. Palencia and his mother to New York where, he said, they were detained at JFK Airport. Eventually they hired a lawyer and received asylum status. The whole ordeal took nearly three months.
He went to Southold schools, where his grandparents lived, and has worked for Marcello Masonry for two years.
Reflecting on his own experience, and that of his friend, Mr. Ardon Orsorio, he said, “There are bad people out there. But you can’t arrest everybody for the way they look or if they speak Spanish. You can’t arrest hard-working people who are trying to support their families.”
