U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested about 40 people Tuesday after wide-ranging sweeps on both Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket.
With the help of the FBI and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, ICE conducted several traffic stops across the Vineyard and Nantucket throughout the day. The agency in a statement late Tuesday evening said it apprehended an MS-13 gang member and a child sex offender.
ICE did not provide the names of the people taken into custody, further details of the alleged criminality or say how many were detained on the Vineyard alone.
“ICE and our federal partners made a strong stand for prioritizing public safety by arresting and removing illegal aliens from our New England neighborhoods,” Patricia Hyde, the acting ICE Boston field office director said in the statement.
Reports of officers in unmarked vehicles making stops in down-Island towns spread across social media in the morning, and witnesses said they saw masked officers stopping vehicles to question their occupants.
In one video shared online, a masked officer with the FBI is seen talking to a driver in a L&R Electrical Services van along Barnes Road.
Thiago Alves, the owner of L&R Electrical Services, confirmed one of his workers was stopped by officers that were with the FBI and ICE. Mr. Alves’ business is based in Rhode Island, and his worker arrived on the Island on Monday.
The man, who Mr. Alves said has a green card, was released after questioning, but officers were interested in his immigration documentation.
“They questioned my guys looking for paperwork,” Mr. Alves said.
Several other workers in the trades had been stopped as well, he said.
“My guy said they are stopping all the work vans,” Mr. Alves said. “It’s nothing against [us], it’s pretty much everyone.”
Other Islanders saw people taken into custody in Vineyard Haven. One Island woman, who asked to be anonymous for fear of reprisal, was driving along State Road at about 7:30 a.m. when she saw officers arrest a man across the street from Vineyard Grocer near the cemetery.
While on her way to work, she saw more stops at the Barnes Road rotary, including by officers wearing Drug Enforcement Administration garb.
“They were just grabbing people out of their cars,” she said.
Emily Moehnke was driving her daughter to the 7 a.m. ferry and also saw someone stopped near the Vineyard Haven cemetery. A little later in the morning, she saw an MV Mini Splits truck pulled over by officers on Edgartown-Vineyard Haven Road.
Both the DEA and FBI confirmed they had agents assisting ICE, and referred further questions to ICE. ICE declined to comment further on the arrests after releasing its statement Tuesday evening.
Oak Bluffs police Chief Jonathan Searle said he was not notified by ICE that arrests were going to be made on the Island and his department wasn’t involved.
“We get involved if there’s criminal activity,” he said. “Things with immigration are out of our jurisdiction.”
In the afternoon, several agents gathered at the Menemsha Coast Guard station, where detainees were transported to the mainland aboard a Coast Guard cutter. Just before 4 p.m., a Coast Guard boat carrying about 10 officers departed, but not before a small group of Islanders gave the agents a piece of their mind.
“You should be ashamed of yourselves,” one woman shouted as agents came and went from their vehicles into the Coast Guard station.
As the agents were leaving, Coast Guard member Tyler Vanderhaden came out and spoke to the gaggle of Vineyarders and explained that the station was ordered to help facilitate the transportation.
“I’m sorry this is causing distress in the community,” he said. “However, we do have an order to support [the other agencies].”
The arrests had Island institutions on high alert. The Vineyard public schools, which have many immigrant students, were monitoring the situation, according to superintendent Richard Smith.
In an email to parents sent out Tuesday, Mr. Smith said students’ well-being is the district’s highest priority.
“We want to remind you that we have protocols in place, aligned with state laws and District policies, to handle any requests for student or family information, as well as access to students, staff, or school property,” he wrote. “This includes requests from immigration authorities. Our staff are trained to follow these protocols to safeguard our students and school community.”
This is not the first time that ICE has been on the Vineyard. Last September the agency said it arrested a Salvadoran man who was wanted for “crimes against humanity” and a Brazilian man wanted for international drug trafficking.
But the operation was much larger than in the past, where no more than a handful of individuals were arrested.
Rumors had been swirling around the Vineyard earlier in the year about a potential ICE raid, causing concern in the Island’s immigrant population.
Immigration attorney and Chappaquiddick resident Rachel Self, who did not know the particulars of Tuesday’s stops, said she has seen a shift in ICE’s focus in the last four months.
“While under the previous administration, people with serious criminal records might have been prioritized for arrest, now absolutely everyone is at risk of being detained,” she said. “There are no more priorities. ICE is going after the low-hanging fruit: people who show up to their immigration court hearings and check-in appointments, and people who have otherwise placed themselves on the radar by following the rules.”
She encouraged non-citizens on the Vineyard to know their rights, have a plan in case a loved one is arrested, and continue to move forward with getting full citizenship.
Addison Antonoff contributed to this report.
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