In a Time of Need, Friends Give OLA a Boost at Sag Harbor Fundraiser
- Stephen J. Kotz
- Jul 1
- 3 min read
Kidd Squid Brewing Company in Sag Harbor was packed on Thursday, June 26, as well over 100 people attended a fundraiser for the Organización Latino Americana of Eastern Long Island.
OLA, which over the past decade has become the best known advocate for undocumented migrants on the East End, has ramped up its activities recently in the face of the crackdown of the Trump administration on undocumented immigrants.
OLA’s executive director, Minerva Perez, said the organization had recently launched a “rapid response” team of 150 volunteers, with a goal of expanding that number to 500, who will be assigned to witness the apprehension of migrants by law enforcement officials.
When OLA receives word of an enforcement action by federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, “we are going to send people there to document it,” Perez said. “They’ll also be there because that may be the last known place that person will be seen. Whatever it is, we want to document the process.”
Perez added that OLA recognizes that the federal government has a right to enforce immigration law, “but people in masks not giving their agency names are not part of a legal process.”
Five months into the second Trump administration, “we are definitely seeing targeted ICE actions on the East End of Long Island,” Perez said, “with more indiscriminate actions happening in Western Suffolk.”
Last week’s fundraiser was organized by Shawn Sachs, who said he and other parents felt obligated to do something to assist the families that have been traumatized by the federal crackdown.
He said he reached out to Perez about doing a fundraiser for OLA, with the event being pulled together in less than a week’s time. “Kidd Squid always comes through,” he said, adding that Jesse Matsuoka of Sen and K Pasa, provided much of the food.
He quoted U.S. Representative John Lewis, “who used to say, ‘You vote with your feet’ — you show up.”
“We hoped the community would show up and they did,” he continued. “These are families of the kids they go to school with.”
The event cleared approximately $32,000, Sachs said, with all the proceeds going to OLA.
Perez said the organization has many uses for the money, including helping pay the costs of a three-attorney staff that offers free legal services to immigrants.
And she said OLA would continue its work, organizing “training, training and more training” for immigrant families.
“OLA lived through Trump I. We wrote our own playbook because of Trump I,” she said. “We are trying to make sure people have a good emergency plan to know what to do if you get taken. Whether or not you are taken unlawfully, it doesn’t matter. Whether or not you are taken without due process, it doesn’t matter. You are still taken. At that point, where are your kids? At that point, where are your elders that you might be in charge of making sure they have their medication.”
Perez added that as fears of deportation arise, so does exploitation of immigrants. “As a result of all these fears, the levels of exploitation have gone through the roof,” she said. “Housing exploitation, wage theft, other types of crime, and that’s all just a piece of the lives of fear that people are going through.”
She lamented that “none of us is safer because of what is going on, and we had a pretty safe thing going.”
Sachs said last week’s event was not intended to be political. “This is about community sticking up and standing up for its own,” he said. “That’s the beauty of a strong, wonderful community like this. You stand up for what’s right.”
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