With the aim of protecting immigrant families from the continuous arrests of the ICE agency in Long Island, members of the community delivered copies of a petition signed by more than 1000 local residents addressed to the Nassau County Executive, Bruce Blakeman, to legislators and other officials of Nassau and Suffolk counties, as well as the delegation of congressmen who represent the area of Long Island in Long Island Washington DC.
“These requests denounce the brutally aggressive and illegal ICE control actions that have been carried out throughout the island,” argue the signatories, who also require the immediate purpose of Agreement 287 (g) that made Nassau County to collaborate with ICE agents (immigration and customs control of the United States), the end of racial discrimination used and transparency in their arrests and transparency arrests
The requests that were delivered to a press conference held in front of the Nassau County Legislature, in Mineola, NY, begin with a moving quote from Ana Frank of 1943:
«Outside are terrible things. At any time of day and night, people are taken out of their homes »and end with a reminder of the essential humanity of all the inhabitants of Long Island. «We are not invisible. We are not disposable. We are Long Island », emphasize the signatories.
The full text of this request can be consulted here:
– Petition to Nassau County:
https://forms.gle/xspmajawswq9m2bm6
– Suffolk county request:
https://forms.gle/fyqwdnuqktw5yzmf8
– Request for the delegation of the Long Island Congress:
https://forms.gle/1tqGecrmvlzy6am9
Among the more than 40 community organizations, activists, religious groups, entrepreneurs and residents who participated in the press conference of August 7, supporting this initiative and including representatives of the copatrokers of the petition, stand out:
The Circle of Hispanity, the Latin Association of Long Island Inc., the National Day laborers, the Association of Latin Masters of Long Island, Workplace Project, Westbury Hispanic United Association, Long Island Immigrant Student Advocates Inc., Long Island Network for Change (Linc), New York Immigration Coalition.
They also joined the North Country Peace Group, Bellmore Merrick Democratic Club, South Shore Women’s Alliance, Assemble Long Island, Jewish Action Bend The Arc: Chapter of Long Island, Together Long Island, South Country Peace Group, Port Washington Allies, Nora H Johnson. Esq., Port Together, Sisters of St. Joseph, Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Huntington.
Likewise, organizations, Long Island Immigrant Justice Alliance, Bay Shore-Babylon Women’s Huddle, Long Island Jobs With Justice, Building Bridges of Brookhaven, Thus Vamos Ny, Democracy Forward Long Island, North fork Universalist Fellowship, Long Island Immigration Clinic Of St. Joseph, the United Church of Christ, Mt. Sinai Congregational Church, the Ethical Humanist Society of Long Island YL Southold Peconic Civic Association.
They separate families
“We demand that ICE leave Nassau County and Long Island,” said Osman Canales, a renowned activist who monitors the activity of ICE agents in Long Island, and has been publishing photographs, videos and reports on Facebook about the unfair arrests that makes “La Migra” in neighborhoods such as Brentwood, Hempstead, Westbury, Patchogue, Riverhead, Riverhead, Riverhead, Riverhead Station, Coram, Mastic, Shirley, etc.
Many times these arrests of Hispanic immigrants without a criminal record, whether parents, workers or students, are committed by effective immigration assumptions who cover the face with masks, some carry weapons and do not show the orders of the judges to make arrests, something that seems kidnapping more.
«We are not criminals. We are essential workers, taxpayers, caregivers and businessmen. We ask you, County Executive (from Nassau) Blakeman, to publicly reaffirm their commitment to protect peace of peaceful immigrant families, ”said activist Glenis Palacios when he read the petition at the press conference.
In this meeting several speakers were demonstrated by telling how these ICE operations negatively affect Long Island, sowing panic and fear in immigrants who have no criminal record and who see how their families are separated cruelly.
It should be noted that the non -profit organization, Islip Forward, which tracks the sightings of ICE agents in Long Island, said he had reported at least 97 anti -immigrant activities since the end of January.
