More than 40 residents demonstrated outside U.S. Rep. Tom Suozzi’s office in Glen Cove on February 2, demanding an end to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) after Suozzi, breaking with his party line, will vote in favor of a $64 billion Department of Homeland Security appropriations bill that supported ICE in January.
Show Up LI co-founder and organizer of Monday’s protest, Halle Brenner, said it’s hard not to be upset with what’s happening with ICE and that Suozzi didn’t act in a “democratic” way with her vote.
“How could you vote for ICE?” he said. «They are tying children with zip ties, they are taking grandparents out of their homes. Human beings should not witness this and vote for this agency to have more power.
Suozzi (D-Glen Cove) and U.S. Rep. Laura Gillen (D-Rockville Centre) were two of 7 House Democrats who voted in favor of the $64 billion Department of Homeland Security bill on January 22.
But two days later, Suozzi issued a new statement distancing himself from the vote after a federal agent shot and killed Alex Jeffrey Pretti, 37, an intensive care nurse, in Minneapolis.
Pretti’s death marked the second fatal shooting of a U.S. citizen by a federal immigration agent in the city in January, following the killing of 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good.
«I did not consider the vote on DHS funding as a referendum on the illegal and immoral conduct of ICE in Minneapolis. “I hear the outrage of my constituents and I take responsibility,” he said.
An employee from Suozzi’s Glen Cove office met with protesters and gave them a letter with the same statement as the previous letter sent from Suozzi’s office, condemning ICE. The employee also handed out forms for residents to write down their complaints and for Suozzi to respond directly to them.
Attempts to obtain additional comment from Suozzi’s office were unsuccessful.
Organizer Brenner said the purpose of Monday’s protest was to show people that there are ways to stand up for their beliefs and to show Suozzi that people are angry with her decision.
A Great Neck resident named Harvey said he attended the protest because he sees “our democracy going down the drain.” “This is not what we represent as a country, as people, as a society,” he said.
Maureen Tracy, an 82-year-old Glen Cove resident, said she believes ICE should be defunded and that not enough people oppose the federal government’s deployment of agents.
“I hope he keeps his word and votes with the rest of the Democrats to defund ICE,” Tracy said of Suozzi.
A person driving by shouted, “Get a job!” in the direction of the protesters, to which one of them exclaimed, “Get a conscience!”
