Community members on Long Island join together in peaceful protest against ICE’s deadly operations and raids in our area and nationwide.
“Stop the raids, stop the hate, immigration makes us great” were the harangues heard on the North Hempstead pier, as hundreds of protesters gathered, lifting bags of ice over the edge of the pier and dropping them into the water, symbolizing their call for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to stay away from their communities.
The demonstration occurred on January 10 in response to the murder of Renee Good, a 37-year-old Minneapolis woman who was shot three days earlier by Jonathan Ross, an ICE agent, while driving away from a confrontation.
The Trump administration has defended the ICE agent’s actions, claiming that the agent feared for his life when Good accelerated his vehicle. Minneapolis officials have denounced the use of deadly force and called the shooting unjustified.
The “ICE Out” protest was organized by the Port Washington Rapid Response Network, an organization that aims to prevent or stop arrests of federal officials by alerting the community to the presence of ICE.
Participants used the demonstration to express broader opposition to ICE’s actions. Chants such as “Our community, our struggle, human dignity is our right” were heard throughout the demonstration.
State Assemblyman Charles Lavine, who has been an outspoken opponent of ICE’s presence on Long Island, attended this protest.
And Michael Mandel, an immigration attorney who has lived in Port Washington for more than two decades, said ICE’s only purpose is to destroy.
“We don’t want ICE on Long Island, in New York or anywhere else in this country,” he said. “We will not stand by while our families, friends, and neighbors are terrorized by fascists, and we will not be satisfied until ICE is abolished and its funds are redirected to improve our communities, not destroy them.”
For her part, Claudia Orellana, whose immigrant husband, Tomas Orellana is detained by ICE in Nassau Countysaid that it is difficult for him to explain the whereabouts of their father to the couple’s 8 children.
“It’s very difficult to explain what will happen next,” he said. Orellana said that despite his fight against ICE, there is still hope. “We have a voice, this is freedom of expression, this is a free country,” he said. “I’m doing this for my husband.”
The family’s attorney spoke at the protest, telling the crowd that they have constitutional rights and that he is fighting for Tomás’ release from ICE custody.
The protest also featured music by local singers and songwriters, and speeches by community figures. One woman, who said she lived in Port Washington for 15 years after emigrating from Colombia, said she wants people to stop being defined by their differences. “We belong to a single race, the human race,” he said.
Immigration repression
In other areas of Long Island, demonstrators gathered at Great Neck Plaza and East Meadow to protest ICE’s immigration crackdown.
Both protests on January 8 attracted community groups and also served as vigils in memory of Renee Nicole Good, a mother of three who was murdered by an ICE agent in Minneapolis.
Nina Gordon and Ron Gross have organized protests against the Trump Administration at the same Great Neck Plaza intersection since May 2025, but Thursday’s had the largest attendance yet.
In East Meadow, more than 200 people gathered outside a Nassau County jail used to hold ICE detainees.
Karen Higgins, a member of Engage Long Island, protested outside the jail and said, “We tried to shout loud enough last night hoping that they would hear us and know that there are a lot of people outside the jail, outside the immigrant community, who support them to give them some hope.”
In Great Neck, Gordon played guitar in memory of Good. “I felt very depressed about what happened,” she said. But he also stressed that making music gave him hope.
Meanwhile, Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman responded to Good’s death in a post on X that said: “The tragedy in Minneapolis was not an accident. “It was the predictable result of radical local elected officials fomenting lawlessness and hostility toward law enforcement.”
On the other hand, “Enough is enough,” New York Governor Kathy Hochul said of the murder. “Let’s start holding these people accountable.”
Gordon organized the protest in conjunction with The Beacon, but other organizations also joined in to lend their support. Members of community groups such as Engage Long Island, the Bellmore Merrick Democratic Club and Veterans for Peace also participated.
The East Meadow protest brought together groups from across Long Island and beyond. Democratic Socialists of America, the Islip Forward Organization, Engage Long Island and many other organizations united in front of the county jail.
Rachel Klein, a founding member of Engage Long Island, attended both protests. She said she helped create the social justice and political activism group because “everything she cared about was under attack.”
It should be noted that in the 2024 presidential election, the majority of Great Neck precincts voted for Trump by more than 15 percentage points, and in some precincts 90% of the votes went to Trump. Gordon said part of this was due to demographic changes, noting that the Iranian community in Great Neck is more conservative.
“You just have to respond with kindness and love… Even if people don’t come to support us, they see us, and they see that there is resistance to authoritarianism,” Gordon commented.
