ICE storms Sunset Park
Immigrant neighborhood turned into ghost town ahead of weekend raid
Expert advice: What to do if
ICE agents comes knocking
Getty Images
COURIER LIFE, J PS ULY 19-25, 2019 3
BY ROSE ADAMS
The threat of raids by federal
immigration agents have left
Sunset Park a ghost town,
with locals heading indoors
and store owners closing
up shop as fear grips the
neighborhood, according to a
local civil rights advocate.
“The park is completely
empty,” said Dennis Flores,
the co-founder of a civil rights
organization in Sunset Park
called El Grito. “Several parts
of the neighborhood would be
packed with street vendors,
but it’s a ghost town,” he said.
Immigration agents
attempted two raids on
undocumented residents in
Sunset Park on Saturday,
neither of which led to to an
arrest, the Mayor’s offi ce
confi rmed.
The Immigrations and
Customs Enforcement offi cers
began the raids at about 6:30
a.m., knocking on the door
of a residence on 60th Street
between Second and Third
avenues. The agents then
headed to another home on
56th Street between Fifth and
Sixth avenues at about 7:30
a.m., according to Flores.
None of the residents
opened their doors to ICE
offi cials, according to the
Mayor’s Offi ce of Immigrant
Affairs. One man refused
to allow the federal agents
access to his 56th Street
home without a warrant, but
the G-men vowed to return,
according to a Pix 11 report .
“It’s scary because it’s my
home and I know I don’t have
to open the door, but they told
me I did,” the man told PIX 11.
The homeland security
agents also tried and failed to
raid a home in East Harlem
on Saturday, the Mayor’s
offi ce reported. The attempted
arrests came a day before ICE
was scheduled to sweep the
country , conducting repeated
raids across 10 US sanctuary
cities from last Sunday
through the end of this week.
In preparation for the
ICE raids, the Mayor’s offi ce
and several community
organizations have been
trying to inform residents of
their rights and to spread the
word about the ICE.
“We are working both
on the ground and with
numerous community
partners to monitor, share,
and respond to ICE activities
throughout the fi ve boroughs
as they are reported through
multiple rapid response
hotlines,” said Bitta Mostofi ,
the Commissioner of the
Mayor’s Offi ce of Immigrant
Affairs.
Immigration experts told
residents to refuse entry to
immigration agents, and that
residents should reach out
to an immigration attorney
should residents face a removal
warrant against them.
But not all city employees
plan to cooperate with the
mayor’s anti-ICE approach.
In a letter to his constituents
on July 12, Edward Mullins,
the president of the police
union Sergeants Benevolent
Association, urged cops to
“NOT leave any ICE Agent
abandoned if in need of
assistance and to stand
shoulder to shoulder with
each agent so that they too can
return home safely to their
families.”
ICE SCARE: Locals observed as immigration offi cials knocked on the
door of a house on 56th Street. The residents did not open the door to
the agents. El Grito
BY KEVIN DUGGAN
Kings County
immigrants, regardless
of their legal status, are
protected by many of the same
rights that safeguard U.S.
citizens against harassment
by law enforcement.
As President Trump
directs Immigration and
Customs Enforcement agents
to conduct raids throughout
the borough, locals should
seek to arm themselves
with knowledge of their own
rights, and use the law to
protect themselves against
the federal operatives.
ICE agents are not entitled
to enter your home, and
must come equipped with a
warrant signed by a federal
judge in order to invade
your property, according
to a senior immigration
expert, who said that anyone
confronted by ICE at their
door should demand a copy
of the warrant and seek to
confi rm its validity — before
opening their door.
“If ICE comes to the door
in the middle of the night
— usually at 4 a.m. — you
should ask them, ‘do you
have a warrant,’ and if they
don’t have a warrant you
don’t have to let them in,”
said Hasan Shafi qullah,
Legal Aid Society’s chief
immigration lawyer.
Trump’s G-men
attempted to gain access
to a property in Harlem,
along with two properties in
Sunset Park, and in at least
one of the Brooklyn cases,
the feds were thwarted when
a local man refused to allow
them entrance for lack of a
warrant, according to a Pix
11 report .
And, while federal judges
may issue warrants at their
discretion, history has
shown that — in the case of
immigration enforcement
— they do so only rarely,
according Shafi qullah.
“It’s up to federal district
court judges whether they
will issue the order,” he said.
“In my experience, it’s been
very rare that ICE agents
have a judicial warrant, but
it’s unclear whether they
will start doing that more in
the future.”
However, Shafi qullah
noted that locals should
watch out for ICE agents
attempting to mislead
them by offering so-called
“administrative warrants,”
which are not signed by
a judge and do not entitle
them to enter your home.
Judicial warrants typically
feature the name of the
federal court prominently
on the document, while ICE’s
administrative warrants do
not.
Other tricks employed by
ICE include telling people
they have to open the door
without a judicial warrant, or
wearing police department
jackets, the lawyer said.
“ICE uses all kinds of
ruses to gain access and get
people to cooperate with
them,” he said.
He noted that people
unsure about their
immigration status should
phone the United States
Department of Justice’s tollfree
number at (800) 898-7180
to see if they have a removal
order against them, adding
that there is no risk in
calling.