‘An abuse of power’: Elected officials and community groups rally against reported surge in ICE raids in Queens
Source: QNS
A number of Black and Latino elected officials and community leaders gathered in East Elmhurst Monday evening to rally against what they described as a surge in ICE activity in the surrounding area in recent weeks and launch a week of bilingual “Know Your Rights” pop-ups.
The rally, organized by Assemblymember Larinda Hooks, took place on Aug. 17 at Barclay Triangle in East Elmhurst, a neighborhood which Hooks said is home to both a civil rights legacy and generations of immigrant families. She said federal immigration authorities have ramped up enforcement in the neighborhood over the last month.
Hooks was joined by several elected officials for the rally, including Assembly Members Catalina Cruz, Jessica González-Rojas, Alicia Hyndman and Clyde Vanel as well as Council Member Shanel Thomas-Henry. A number of community organizations, including Make the Road NY, the New York Immigration Coalition, the NAACP, Las Doñas and Hands Off NYC, also joined the rally.
Hooks charged that ICE activity dramatically increased in the area in July, with 14 pick-ups reported along Astoria Boulevard and Northern Boulevard across the month compared to just two in June.
Monday’s rally comes one week after a number of residents and community groups gathered at Corona Plaza on Aug. 10 to protest against a reported uptick in immigration enforcement in the area. Organizers at that protest said armed federal agents have taken someone into custody in the area nearly every day in recent weeks.
Attendees at the Aug. 17 rally accused ICE of targeting individuals with no criminal record and claimed that the federal government had targeted East Elmhurst and surrounding neighborhoods because they boast a significant immigrant population.
“They’re taking anybody,” Hooks said. “It’s not just criminals… It’s people who are working for a living, who pay their taxes, who have never been touched by the justice system. This is not enforcement. This is cruelty and this is an abuse of power.”
Attendees called on local residents to be aware of their rights when they encounter ICE agents to keep their neighbors safe, emphasizing that the local community can help protect its immigrant neighbors. They said the rally aimed to inform immigrant residents that “they are not alone” as well as encouraging local residents to stand up to ICE.
Several speakers said they joined Monday’s rally to demand that ICE be removed from their communities and New York City.
“We want ICE out of our neighborhoods,” Hooks said. “ICE away from our schools, ICE away from our children.”
The rally also aimed to highlight the solidarity between Black and Latino communities in the neighborhood, communities Cruz said had been historically pitted against one another.
“This is a historically black neighborhood and the Republican Party has historically tried to divide immigrants and black communities,” Cruz said. “They’re going to continue to try and divide us, but we’re not going to let them.”
Hooks, similarly, accused the federal government of targeting working-class black and brown neighborhoods but said the community would continue to stand united in the face of ICE raids.
“Black and brown neighborhoods is where they figured nobody would make noise, but they figured wrong. We are here, and we are making noise, and we’re going to continue to make noise, and we’re going to continue to stand up,” Hooks said.
González-Rojas, meanwhile, called on the state legislature to pass the New York for All Act, which would prevent local law enforcement from working with ICE and other federal immigration authorities.
She said the state has made significant progress to combat ICE, noting that the state legislature has passed the MELT Act barring ICE agents from wearing masks as well as approving legislation preventing ICE agents from entering sensitive locations such as schools or shelters without a warrant.
“ICE is being lawless,” González-Rojas said. “They are not following the law. They are violating the mask regulations. They are entering spaces (that they shouldn’t).”
ICE has not yet responded to a request for comment.
González-Rojas and Cruz were two of 16 Queens Democrats to sign onto a letter last month calling on House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer to join their calls to abolish ICE.
Hooks did not sign onto the letter and said after Monday’s rally that she would have supported a letter addressed to all Democrats in Congress instead of just two individuals.
“They’re all in this fight together. Not one Democrat can stop this. So I’m not targeting two people,” Hooks said. “If we’re going to send a letter, we should send a letter to all of them.”
Still, Hooks believes that it is possible to remove ICE from New York City without abolishing the agency, adding that it is imperative to pass measures preventing local law enforcement from collaborating with ICE agents.
“If everyone stops helping them, I think they would know that they can’t do nothing in this state, and they will go look for somebody else.”
Other attendees at the rally spoke of how the local immigrant community is living in fear amid an escalation of immigration raids in the area.
Tony Alarcón, the interim executive director of immigrant advocacy non-profit Las Doñas, said local residents are “afraid to go out.” He alleged that an immigrant man was detained outside a laundromat near 85th Street and Northern Boulevard last week as he waited for his clothes.
The man’s wife later visited the laundromat to search for him and found his clothes abandoned in a washing machine, Alarcón added. CCTV footage allegedly showed the man drinking a soda outside the laundromat when he was approached and apprehended by several agents.
“Think about that for a moment: you go to do your laundry. You sit outside, drink a soda while you wait, and suddenly you’re gone,” Alarcón said.
González-Rojas accused ICE of carrying out “predatory behavior” in the local community.
“They are stepping up their efforts. They are surrounding people. They are kidnapping our neighbors without warrants, and we say no. We say hands off New York,” González-Rojas said.
ICE has not yet responded to a request for comment.
Hooks, meanwhile, will be hosting a round of bilingual Know Your Rights pop-ups throughout the 35th Assembly District over the next week to help prepare local residents for potential encounters with federal immigration authorities. Monday’s rally concluded with a door-to-door canvass aiming to spread awareness.
