Anxiety, fear ramp up among Worcester’s immigrants over ICE raids
- Worcester police are unaware of any recent immigration sweeps, but the interim police chief said one person with a ‘bad felony’ had recently been arrested by ICE.
- City councilors have asked for a report on policies in the event of local raids.
WORCESTER ― Confusion and fear.
Those emotions are alive in Worcester amid reports of President Donald Trump’s administration authorizing raids of undocumented immigrants in several U.S. cities, states and territories.
“A lot of community members are scared, thinking they will deported by ICE,” said Maricelis Gonzalez, executive director at El Buen Samaritano Food Program Inc. in Worcester. The social service agency has provided a range of services for the city’s immigrant community for more than 30 years.
One is a weekly food pantry that typically serves roughly 300 families. Half that number arrived for essentials on Jan. 24, the first Friday after Trump’s inauguration. Gonzalez believes it’s because undocumented families are afraid federal immigration officials will swoop in and deport them.
The number of undocumented immigrants in Worcester in unclear. Gonzalez said 40% of the 2,800 households that her agency serves are undocumented families.
She’s not aware through her community connections of any recent raids in Worcester by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The Boston ICE office didn’t respond to a request for information on whether the agency has conducted raids in Worcester.
Boston ICE arrested a Haitian national last week in Boston who has 17 criminal convictions in Massachusetts. Wisteguens Jean Quely Charles, 25, is part of a violent Haitian street gang, according to ICE.
If federal agents came to her building, Gonzalez said, she would demand to see identification before letting them inside.
“They have to do their job,” said Gonzalez, adding she supports the rounding up of undocumented criminals to make the streets safer. “I want the criminals out of here.”
She made it clear that she backs Worcester County Sheriff Lewis G. Evangelidis Jr’s support for efforts to remove undocumented immigrants with criminal records from Worcester County communities. Evangelidis supports a bill at the State House that calls for a 36-hour waiting period on ICE detainers. Those are requests from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to detain someone so ICE officials have enough time to take the person into custody before they’re released and potentially start a deportation process.
Petty: ‘People are nervous’
Mayor Joseph M. Petty is unaware of recent ICE raids in Worcester. Last weekend Petty visited five churches to ease community concerns.
“People are very nervous,” said Petty. “Some are afraid to go to work, to go to church, to go to school. Living in fear is unacceptable.” He added Worcester will cooperate with federal agents who have a criminal warrant signed by a judge.
Worcester police are unaware of any recent immigration sweeps of undocumented immigrants, said a department spokesman.
Interim Police Chief Paul Saucier said during Tuesday’s City Council meeting that a person with a “bad felony” had been arrested in the city by ICE. After the meeting, Saucier said the arrest happened Monday, and didn’t offer additional details.
As for local police cooperation with ICE, Saucier said in a statement that his department adheres to a 2017 decision by the state’s Supreme Judicial Court. That ruling prohibits court officers and law enforcement from arresting and holding someone solely based on a civil immigration detainer, beyond the time the person would be entitled to be released from state custody.
“However, we will assist any law enforcement agency to apprehend a dangerous criminal,” said Saucier’s statement.
The office of District Attorney Joseph D. Early Jr. declined to comment on Trump’s executive orders. “We don’t feel we have enough information to comment right now,” said Early’s spokesperson.
Could local leaders be prosecuted?
State and local officials could face federal prosecution if they don’t cooperate with ICE raids. Reports have cited a directive from the U.S. Justice Department to federal prosecutors to potentially take that step.
Petty and City Councilor-at-Large Khrystian King have asked the city solicitor to report on the city’s policies in the event of local ICE raids.
“I want to make sure we’re all on the same page,” said Petty, who wants the report as soon as possible given the ever-changing immigration directives from the White House.
King’s expected request wants clarification on whether city employees could be arrested for not complying with ICE. He also wants clarification on the role of the city’s police, and whether they’re guided by the 2017 court decision on detainers.
”There’s a lot of information and misinformation out there, and I want to make sure what the role of the City of Worcester is as a municipality in all of this,” said King.
City Manager Eric Batista said in a statement that Worcester would never target individuals based on immigration status or identity.
Worcester: not a sanctuary city
There is no local ordinance or formal policy that designates Worcester as a sanctuary city, said Batista. Sanctuary status denies or limits enforcement of federal immigration laws. Eight Massachusetts communities have official sanctuary status: Amherst, Boston, Cambridge, Chelsea, Concord, Newton, Northampton and Somerville.
While Worcester is not a sanctuary city, Batista said it would remain a welcoming place for immigrants and continue to work with community partners to give aid and resources to new arrivals.
“It’s important that we lead by example as the second-largest city in New England and ensure that all community members feel safe and welcome,” said Batista.
Know your rights
Some city councilors are distributing pamphlets to constituents that explain their constitutional rights in the realm of immigration, said King. One is the the multilingual Red Card from the Immigrant Legal Resource Center. Other pamphlets come from the Office of New Americans at Friendly House.
King has no information that federal agents have conducted immigration raids in Worcester since Trump took office. He did say that fear and confusion is a potential public safety issue, because immigrants may be less inclined to work with police on general neighborhood crime fighting.
“We have to make sure folks understand the limits that law enforcement in Worcester has, as related to ICE detainers,” said King.
Legal perspective
Meanwhile, “unconstitutional” is how Worcester immigration attorney Alex Mooradian described most of Trump’s immigration moves, including a desire to upend the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution that guarantees birthright citizenship.
However, Trump’s stated strategy of authorizing federal agents to enter schools and churches to hunt for undocumented immigrants is a legal gray area, according to Mooradian.
Worcester Schools Superintendent Rachel Monárrez sent a communication to school staff and families that said the schools would protect students from immigration agents and not cooperate with ICE officials that target students on civil enforcement matters. Fitchburg Superintendent Jon Thompson sent a similar communication to that community.
Schools and churches have historically been off-limits to immigration raids, except in cases of public safety, but Mooradian said the Trump White House likely has the authority to “change priorities.”
He explained those priorities include the amount of enforcement, who would be a focus for referral to immigration proceedings, and what people are referred to an immigration judge. While Mooradian believes lawsuits will challenge Trump’s immigration agenda, some of the administration’s priorities present areas for the courts to resolve.
“People are horrified,” said Mooradian, as he has witnessed clients shaking with anxiety and others not sending their children to school or forgoing medical care because they’re gripped with fear.
Even people living in the United States legally with green cards and other protected status have reached out to Mooradian, asking if they could be deported.
Worcester is home to a sizeable pocket of immigrants from Afghanistan, many of them young children, said Mooradian. They’re waiting for loved ones to arrive from Afghanistan. The families followed legal channels to reunite, only to see the Trump administration delay or block the arrivals.
“The impact makes no social sense, no economic sense, no political sense. It’s inexplicable to me,” said Mooradian, who questions whether the Trump administration has the resources to carry out its immigration agenda. He also wonders about the public’s tolerance for these moves.
Focus on the positive
Gonzalez is looking at the bright side. She’s focused on educating those who rely on her organization’s services, telling them to carry their naturalization papers and other forms of identification should they be approached by federal agents.
For the undocumented with criminal records, Gonzalez is all for ICE taking them off the streets. But the vast majority of families visiting El Buen Samaritano are honest people who came to Worcester to build a better life, she said.
“It’s heartbreaking. It’s all happening so fast,” said Gonzalez. “We continue to educate our undocumented families, what to do, the steps they can take, so they don’t live in fear in our city.”
This article was originally published by Worcester Telegram & Gazette.