A major ICE operation is underway in and around New Bedford, with at least 12 people having been arrested in less than two days.
That's according to reporting by the New Bedford Light.
CAI's Gilda Geist spoke with the Light's Kevin G. Andrade to learn more.
Gilda Geist How many people has ICE arrested in the greater New Bedford area so far this week?
Kevin G. Andrade It's at least a dozen, but at the moment it could be as high as 20, and there are strong suspicions that that's a severe undercount. We're hearing reports of ICE often stopping people, checking for documentation that shows legal permission to reside and work in the U.S., and then letting them go. We also heard reports this morning of a person with legal permanent residency and some charges from many years ago being taken into custody while on his way to work. So as of today, I can confidently say there's been at least seven today. The governor's press release said there were [at least] 12 [total]. When we published last night, we said there were eight, and this morning we updated the 8 to 10 [arrested] yesterday.
GG Have you been able to figure out who these people who are getting detained are in terms of age, roughly where they're from, their status, or whether they've been charged with violent crimes?
KGA We've seen people all over the status spectrum, all over the age spectrum. We're unaware of any women being taken into custody, but that doesn't mean they have not been. We've been able to identify six people so far, but obviously there are many more. Most of the people taken into custody have been from Central America. One person we're aware of yesterday was from Haiti, and we are aware of one person from Portugal and another from Brazil. But again, that is not a complete list by any stretch of the imagination of who's been taken. There's little indication that today is going to be the last day of this.
GG Previously in New Bedford we've seen everything from smash-and-grab arrests from ICE to quieter arrests at people's visa appointments. What were these most recent arrests like?
KGA They tend to be traffic stops. They tend to be very public. A couple of them this morning happened by the on-ramps to 195 in Dartmouth near the mall. Another happened near the Dartmouth police station. They're happening in public places and ICE is being aggressive about it. We have received reports of one incident where somebody was taken into custody after they [ICE] smashed their window. We also are aware that yesterday a major target was the fish house district, the port. We are aware of five fish house workers who were taken into custody yesterday by ICE in that area of the city. Almost everybody who works in those fish processing houses is an immigrant. A lot of this seems to be not targeted operations. A lot of it seems to be, they're going to gas stations, they're waiting to see who shows up and picking someone, or they're going to immigrant-heavy neighborhoods like Acushnet Ave, which is dead today. There's nobody walking the streets. It appears to be an operation that's going throughout the South Coast. It's still a very fluid situation. What is very clear is that ICE is in the area in force, and it is using a strategy of being everywhere at all times.
GG Do you have any sense of where these detainees are being taken, whether to Burlington ICE processing facility or the Plymouth jail or somewhere else?
KGA Some of them get taken to Burlington, some of them get taken to Plymouth. One of the men who was taken in Fall River was taken to either the Warwick ICE office or the Wyatt Detention Center in Central Falls, both in Rhode Island.
GG What have local and state officials and other community leaders been saying about the surge and about how it's impacting immigrant families in the greater New Bedford area?
KGA Governor [Maura] Healey's already condemned the operation. Mayor [Jon] Mitchell of New Bedford has also condemned the operation. He said there's been no communication between New Bedford police and ICE. Governor Healey also said that her office asked for information from ICE and they have not given it about who's been taken into custody. Mayor Mitchell, he actually said at one point, yesterday's arrests in our city underscored that even under new management, ICE continues to overreach. A lot of the immigration advocates right now, their understanding is that this is an unjust situation. But also, they're a little shell-shocked. They're out there running a response operation. The Massachusetts Habeas Project actually has 20 volunteer lawyers set aside just to file habeas corpus petitions for people that they expect to be taken into custody by ICE in this New Bedford operation.
This is a developing story. Andrade is reporting these stories with his colleagues Anastasia Lennon, Brooke Kushwaha, and Nathan Collins.
