Cuomo Blasts 'Hyper-Aggressive' ICE Sweep

EAST HAMPTON, NY — As a recent sweep by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement became very real for members of a Long Island community desperately trying to get a local man back home, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo spoke out about the "dramatic increase in ICE raids."

Cuomo this week blasted what he called "overly aggressive tactics" that he said raise concerns. While the administration has said that they are only "deporting dangerous criminals" Cuomo maintains that is not the case.

Cuomo said he believes ICE is using an "overly broad net and separating families with no criminal connection."

To that end, New York State has implemented a legal defense program, the Liberty Defense Project, to ensure legal rights are being represented; this year's state budget appropriates an additional $10 million for the Liberty Defense Project, Cuomo said.

The governor directed Secretary of State Rosanna Rosado, who runs the program, to expedite funding to two legal organizations that can provide expedited legal services through the Northern Manhattan Coalition for Immigrant Rights and the Vera Institute of Justice.

More than three dozen people on Long Island were arrested in the latest roundup by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, who arrested 225 people in the New York metropolitan area over the last week.

ICE officers made the arrests across New York City, Long Island and the Hudson Valley over a six-day period that started on Monday, April 9. According to ICE, 16 people in Nassau and 21 people in Suffolk were arrested. All of the 225 people arrested were violating immigration laws, ICE says, and of them, more than 180 were convicted criminals or have charges pending against them. ICE said that 80 of them had been told to leave the country and didn't, or had been previously deported and returned illegally.

"ICE continues to face significant obstacles with policies created by local officials which hinder cooperation between ICE and local law enforcement," Thomas Decker, the filed office director for ICE's Enforcement and Removal Operations, said in a press release. "Yet, with the tireless efforts of the men and women of ICE, this operation was a great success."

But Cuomo said the fight will continue to protect the rights of New Yorkers. "ICE's hyper-aggressive raids on hardworking New Yorkers are immoral and un-New York, and we stand more determined than ever to support the rights of all immigrants in the Empire State through our nation-leading legal defense funds," Cuomo said. "Just as Lady Liberty holds her torch high in our harbor, New York will always stand for freedom and tolerance, and while the federal government tries to tear families apart and betray our core values, we will never back down from fighting for the most vulnerable among us."

The human face of the latest ICE sweep

The East Hampton community is coming together in a show of fierce solidarity and force to help a friend detained by ICE last week.

The outpouring of support from friends and colleagues who know and love Luis Marin Castro paint a portrait of a community rocked by the ICE detainment they say has ripped a man they call kind and hardworking from the heart of his home.

According to a GoFundMe page, "Bring Luis Home," which has raised $47,665 of its $58,000 goal so far, Marin Castro was approached and detained by ICE on April 9.
Efforts are dedicated to raising money to help support his legal expenses, while his friends and legal team fight to bring him home to his wife, two younger sisters, father and mother, the page said.

Rachael Yong Yow, public affairs officer for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, explained why Marin Castro was detained in a statement to Patch: "On April 9, ICE deportation officers arrested Luis Marin Castro, an illegally present national and citizen of Ecuador, as part of a targeted immigration enforcement operation. He has a DUI conviction from July 2015," she wrote in an email. "Upon his arrest, deportation officers issued him a notice to appear before an immigration judge, and he is currently in ICE custody.

Friends are working tirelessly to provide legal counsel and find answers so Marin Castro can be brought back to New York. He was just days away from being fingerprinted for his green card and was working toward citizenship, friends said.

"Luis has been a community member of East Hampton since he arrived with his family from Ecuador in 1997," the GoFundMe page said, adding that he attended East Hampton High School and graduated from Suffolk County Community College.
"You might have gotten to know Luis as part of the Nick & Toni's staff family, where he's worked for the last six years, working his way up from a young busser to sommelier," the page said.

Chimene Visser Macnaughton, who owns Wainscott Main Wine and Spirits, said supporters are working hard to provide his legal team with a file bursting with character letters; letters have been pouring in and she hopes to continue to hear from his teachers, friends, fellow wine professionals, colleagues and friends.

Since he was picked up by ICE, Macnaughton said her employee and friend was moved to Central Islip, then the Bergen County Jail in Hackensack, NJ, to Cibola County Correctional Center in Milan, NM — and on Tuesday, to El Paso, TX. Character letters attesting to his close ties to the community are critical, Macnaughton said. Letters should be send as a Word doc attached to an email sent to wainscottmain@gmail.com with the subject header "Luis Marin Letter."

Sister Margaret Smyth of the North Fork Spanish Apostolate in Riverhead said despite the anxiety his detainment has caused Marin Castro's family and friends, for the most part, ICE actions on the East End have been confined to specific cases, such as individuals who have had a prior arrest and conviction, or an instance where an individual may have crossed the border, been stopped and directed to a court appearance, and then, not appeared.

Smyth said she can confirm at least one other individual was picked up by ICE on the South Fork, from Hampton Bays, last week. "They're targeting specific people for specific reasons," she said. "There have been no raids." And the immigrant population has not expressed alarm, she said. "Most people don't even know this happened."

But in East Hampton, the confusion and questions about why Marin Castro has been moved so often are escalating as scores rally to help, doing all they can to bring him back to the East End. "I can only imagine how he must be feeling," Macnaughton said.

Lead photo courtesy Gov. Andrew Cuomo's office.

Luis Marin Castro photo courtesy GoFundMe.