Residents press Southampton Town Board to oppose ICE operations in local communities
- Denise Civiletti
- Nov 13, 2025
- 5 min read
A crowd filled the Southampton Town Hall meeting room Wednesday afternoon as residents, clergy and immigrant advocates called on the Town Board to take a stand against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations in Hampton Bays and Westhampton Beach last week.
“Families are being snatched from their homes and workplaces without accountability,” OLA of Eastern Long Island executive director Minerva Pérez wrote in a statement read at the meeting.
Pérez’s words, delivered by OLA member Vanessa Rojano, came during the emotional public portion of a board meeting that drew about 40 people organized by OLA to attend following detentions and 12 confirmed arrests by federal agents in Hampton Bays and Westhampton Beach last week.
Witnesses said the operations involved masked, armed ICE agents in unmarked SUVs detaining workers outside local businesses. The arrests left immigrant families fearful and sparked a wave of organizing across the East End, including a protest outside the Hampton Bays Fire Department, which residents said federal agents used as a staging area.
Similar scenes have unfolded recently in Riverhead, Riverside and Flanders. Residents described seeing armed, masked men in unmarked vehicles detaining people on the street in downtown Riverhead, Polish Town and Flanders.
The community’s message Wednesday was clear: the town must stand with residents and stand up to ICE.
“If the fire department did not authorize ICE to use its property, where is the letter of protest? We must stand with our community, not hide behind half-truths,” Pérez’s statement said.
Laurie Werner, a Hampton Bays resident for more than five decades, described seeing eight unmarked vehicles outside the firehouse and agents “pulling out bulletproof vests and enormous guns.” “I was shaking,” she said. “I thought, ‘My God, I can’t believe this is happening in my town.’”
Brigid Maher of Hampton Bays called the events “a dark chapter in our region’s history” and urged residents to join a protest planned for Friday morning at the Westhampton Fire Department, similar to the one held last week in Hampton Bays.
Council Member Cyndi McNamara responded that while residents have the right to demonstrate, she urged them not to demonstrate at fire stations. “They’re there to protect the community,” she said. “They had absolutely nothing to do with this and were upset to feel people were protesting against them.”
Supervisor Maria Moore acknowledged the anxiety caused by recent ICE activity and said Southampton police neither assist nor coordinate with the agency. “ICE does not notify our police department before they come,” she said. “If they were to ask for our assistance, we would not provide it unless they presented a court order signed by a judge.”
Moore said she plans to send a letter to U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer and Congressman Nick LaLota seeking better communication and clear procedures for local governments when federal operations occur. “Our community is safer and stronger when people feel safe enough to go to work, send their children to school and seek help when they need it,” she said.
Leah Oppenheimer, a longtime Sag Harbor resident and educator at the Children’s Museum of the East End, said a letter alone would not protect local children — many of them U.S. citizens — who are suffering from the emotional toll of federal immigration policies.
“I’ve worked with the Latino community for 15 years,” Oppenheimer said. “I watched a whole group of kids and families grow up. I’m now working on college prep programs, mental health programs and early literacy programs. We run a food pantry to support working families. Something is often forgotten about these people — they’re citizens. The children are all United States citizens,” she said, drawing applause.
She said she recently sat down with teens in a writing class and asked them what was hardest about ICE being in their community. “All U.S. citizens. All straight-A students. All going to very good colleges,” she said. “Every one of them said the hardest part is worrying all day about their families — not knowing if their parents will be home when they get there.”
Maher later recounted scenes involving federal agents in other parts of the country that have circulated online and on television. “We all feel powerless, but doing nothing is not an option,” she said. “Many people showed up to protest ICE. I’ll be showing up again on Friday. We have to stay vigilant, because doing nothing is unacceptable. What will you do to protect the people of Southampton, regardless of where they’re from?”
At the start of the public portion, Moore told residents she understood their “concern and anxiety because of the ICE activity we saw in Hampton Bays and Westhampton last week.” She said the most difficult part was the lack of clear, accurate information.
“We’ve been informed by Chief Kiernan that ICE does not notify the police department before they come,” she said. “If they did ask for our assistance, we would not help unless they provided us with a signed warrant from a judge.”
Councilman Michael Iasilli said the town should go further. “In the interest of transparent government, we need to know why these people are being arrested,” he said.
Maher urged board members to join the protests. “If more people show up and protest, we may make a difference.”
John McAuliff of Riverhead said the board meeting itself was an important step — one he hoped would “serve as an inspiration to Riverhead.”
“I think all of the town boards need to put themselves publicly in a position of opposing ICE and calling for legal status, some green card status, for people who are here,” McAuliff said.
Another Riverhead resident, Cindy Clifford, also addressed the board. “I’m here for everyone who has parents who have — or have themselves — left their first home to start over, everyone who believed in the promise that America offered for a better life and a brighter future,” she said. “It’s too trite to say the American Dream has turned into a nightmare, but I can’t imagine anything worse than knowing that any minute you could be ripped away from your family.”
Clifford said she hopes the Town Board will look for ways to protect residents and push for legislation aligning ICE procedures with the law. “We’re turning to you to circumvent these agents, to assure that they, like everyone else in this county and country, follow the letter of the law,” she said.
She urged that ICE agents be prohibited from masking their faces and be required to show badges, identify themselves by name, and present a legal warrant and just cause before taking anyone into custody. “When the threads of society unravel, there is both a collective and an individual cost,” she said.
OLA community advocate Alma Tovar said the raids left families traumatized and volunteers scrambling to help. “We deserve transparency, justice and respect.”
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