
The fear is real.
Amid rumors and speculation that federal immigration enforcement agents would conduct raids on the Island on Thursday, schools and local businesses reported widespread absenteeism because undocumented immigrants were staying at home.
Lumberyards have been eerily empty. Some Martha’s Vineyard schools have reported nearly double their normal absentee rate, which officials say is likely because parents — and their children — are staying home over fears of being deported. A proprietor of a large Island business reported that 20 percent of their staff have not shown up to work, what they believe is over fear of deportation. Steamship employees have speculated that fewer commuters traveled to the Island as well.
On a day with more questions than answers, our reporting across the Island is that the fear is indeed real while the actual arrests or raids by ICE agents are not — at least not yet.
The MV Times has had reporters looking across the Vineyard to document ICE agents but none have seen any evidence of their presence, nor documented any detentions.
Local law enforcement have said that they were not informed of any ICE agents on the Island nor have they assisted any federal agents with arrests, though they have also noted that they wouldn’t necessarily be informed if ICE were traveling to the Island. A spokesperson for customs enforcement did not comment on questions posed by The Times, instead noting that they are very busy.
Posts appeared on local social media sites that Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, agents were expected to conduct raids on the Vineyard, as have been the case around the country, promised in the beginning of the new Trump administration.
People were also sharing WhatsApp messages. One landscaper who didn’t show up to work today shared a notice written in Portuguese that looked official, on a light blue background, from a supposed “Massachusetts Department of Immigrant Protection,” which appears to not be a real department. It claimed a “huge” joint “immigration operation” by ICE, local police and state special forces on busy streets across the state, using even drones with infrared heat sensors to detect people. The Massachusetts attorney general’s office confirmed the message is fraudulent.
Rumor or not, residents of the Vineyard — where there are as many as an estimated 4,000 Brazilian immigrants who live year-round — have taken notice.
Construction sites, one of the Island’s most prominent industries, were impacted.
In Edgartown, five out of nine workers showed up to work for ongoing masonry and stone wall work on a big house in the cold Thursday morning. Three Brazilian and two Jamaican employees asked for the day off due to concerns that immigration agents were on the Island.
“It changes all the work. It halts it, puts it into a stop,” said Ben M., who did not want to share his full name, and who is a co-worker of the five. More than impact at work, he says that “morale gets damaged.”
M. said he has seen ICE arrests on the Island over the years, but that he is concerned for his community seeing the widespread fear today.
“I’m sad, frustrated,” he said. “Politicians (…) their strategy is to not only divide and conquer, but to instill fear, and then they can get you out of your head.”
Without further commenting on politics, he says he’s more worried about what he can do to support immigrants and their children in his community. “The only thing I can do is to be there for them.”
A representative of an Oak Bluffs construction company confirmed with the Times on Thursday that several employees did not come into work over fear of deportation.
They declined to disclose the number of employees who chose to do so, but said that their company heard a rumor yesterday of ICE’s presence on-Island and told employees that they could choose whether to come in.
“We left it open — ‘If you want to stay home, it’s fine.’ We heard the rumor yesterday and left it open for them to decide,” they said, and declined to provide their own identity. They said that some jobs, mostly in carpentry, would likely be stalled because of the shortage of workers.
In one construction site in Edgartown, a Brazilian worker was called “brave” by coworkers for being the only immigrant to go to work today. He didn’t want to share his name for fear of being targeted by ICE.
“If they want to arrest people, they will if you are at home or at work, so I might just work,” he said. “If I got to be deported, what can I do? I will go.”
One high school student told The Times that they showed up for a shift at a local pizza shop on Thursday instead of going to school because the local restaurant was down eight workers.
While they declined to provide their name, the high schooler said that they were afraid for themselves and their family coming into contact with ICE agents.
The staffing shortage could continue, they also said. “If we don’t have something to confirm that [agents] are not here, [employees] probably won’t come to work for fear of getting deported.”
Superintendent Richie Smith said that a number of elementary schools have reported double the typical absentee rate, including Edgartown where nearly 40 percent of the district’s students have a first language other than English. He couldn’t say for sure that the shortage is due to ICE fears, but he noted that there was high anxiety among the community and staff. There’s also a worry that that could lead to gaps in education should the absences be prolonged.
Smith previously told the Times the schools have been preparing in case ICE attempts to enter schools, try to obtain students’ information, or make arrests, but immigrant parents on the Vineyard have been stricken with fear of deportation.
Vineyard law enforcement officials, like Oak Bluffs Police Chief Jonathan Searle, have said there is no indication of ICE activity on the Island. “As far as we can see, it was something stirred up on social media,” Searle said. “We’re dealing with a lot of hysteria with no credible evidence [for Martha’s Vineyard].”
Searle told the Times that he has been told ICE’s interests on the Vineyard are to apprehend individuals who have committed offenses like violent crimes or illicit drug activities.
The Oak Bluffs chief underscored that immigration enforcers have taken people into custody on the Island before. Last fall, Enforcement and Removal Operations Boston arrested several undocumented individuals for different crimes on the Island.
Tisbury Police Lt. Bill Brigham also said that no immigration enforcement officials were on the Island. “Sounds like someone may have started a bad rumor,” Brigham said. “We have not been contacted or informed by ICE that they are here.”
Dukes County Sheriff Robert Ogden said that federal agents are “not obligated to inform us” of their activities and referred the Times to ICE. James Covington, ICE deputy press secretary for the northeast region, pushed the Times’ inquiry about potential ICE operations to the agency’s national media box.
“As you can probably imagine, these are extremely busy times at ICE,” Covington said in an email. “We hope you understand, at this time we are not able to research and confirm/refute rumored law enforcement operations.”
ICE operations have ramped up nationally during Trump’s second term, and NBC reported that agents are currently searching for undocumented individuals with criminal histories. However, NBC also quoted ICE officials saying that “collateral arrests” of law-abiding migrants with “varying forms of legal immigration status” could occur during these operations.
While it’s unclear if ICE has been on the Island or not, there likely has been some misinformation spreading.
Geoff Freeman, Martha’s Vineyard Airport director, dispelled a rumor that eight ICE planes had arrived at the airport. Freeman had received several calls from people asking about the nonexistent aircraft.
When Freeman called the Times on Thursday morning, only Cape Air and FedEx planes were at the airport. And, he said there would be no advance notice if ICE decided to fly into Martha’s Vineyard.
“There’s no coordination like that,” he said.
Rachel Self, an immigration attorney, previously told the Times if ICE or the police arrive at a home, immigrants should keep the door closed. Ask who they are, and ask to see identification. Police who have an arrest warrant are allowed to enter a home, but immigration agents can’t enter unless they have a special warrant. Self said that a Form I-205, Warrant of Removal/Deportation, doesn’t give agents the right to enter a home. A warrant signed by a judge is the only kind of warrant that gives them the right to enter your home.
If someone is approached about their immigration status, connecting with local lawyers and nonprofit law groups can be helpful.
Around the Island, businesses and pedestrians have noted how quiet the Island has felt. Steamship employees have noted that there have been fewer commuters on recent ferries, although communications director Sean Driscoll said the passenger count was not immediately available.
Kelly Hill, manager at Tony’s Market, said that they have been slow.
“It’s been a weird day. It felt like COVID. The streets are empty,” Hill said. “Not many people coming in and a lot of disbelief.”
Paula Moura, Eunki Seonwoo, Daniel Greenman, Nicholas Vukota and Sam Houghton contributed to this report.
This is like upside-down world: it’s completely detailed article about how there are indeed perhaps thousands of Islanders and year-residents who are, in fact, not legally on Martha’s Vineyard, that is to say, they are illegally residing in the United States. Many people have speculated as to whether there really were many, but from this article, it’s clear that, in fact, those who have pointed out that the island is a sanctuary, were right. Who knew? Why didn’t this article address the employers who are breaking employment laws? I hope there is a follow up to this because it’s not as if it’s ok to skirt Massachusetts law for employers, again, it’s like an upside-down world. Is that something we should be encouraging in our businesses, too? But it’s breathtaking to see how widespread this really is on Martha’s Vineyard. 8 can see that you can bet that the word spreads that immigration law means little—which leads to other laws meaning less, too, including employment law, paying for taxes and services, everything. The latter is often left out. And it’s not racist to point out the facts, there will forever be true.
We’ve pardoned 1500 insurrectionists.
We have a Secretary of Defense who paid off a woman he sexually assaulted.
Your president is a convicted felon.
Seems we can maybe have a gentler, more nuanced approach to 4000 LAW-ABIDING, hardworking, family oriented, kind and respectful Brazilians who support our businesses and economy and make this island a better place.
To Paraphrase George Orwell, “All laws are created equal but some are more equal than others.” Yes , you can assault police officers in the name of the president, you can pay women for sex, — even underage ones, you can commit fraud, steal from charities, stiff your workers, avoid taxes, break fair housing laws and a bunch of other things if you are of a certain political party. But don’t be born brown and try to make a better life for you and your family in America, the used to be land of opportunity.
Thanks you
Because we have made it so hard. https://immigrationlab.org/project/lifting-barriers-to-citizenship/
Agree!!
Plenty of hardworking immigrants stop being so unemphathetic
This is going to cause children to not trust police and other authoritive figures. Then they will not report assaults and other nefarious behavior such as pedophiles and such.
Let me just tell you that bad guys are not just dark skinned or foreign men.
Once upon a time, those who’d lived on this island forever welcomed migrants to their shores. These migrants didn’t ask permission to land; they assumed their right to be wherever they chose to be. Some of those who’d been here forever may have had misgivings at the time, or in the decades and centuries that followed, but in any case the migrants and their descendants (some by blood, others by adoption) made themselves at home.
These descendants have claimed for themselves the right to determine who belongs and who doesn’t. To fully belong, one has to be able to afford to buy property. (Note that to those who were here once upon a time, “afford” and “buy property” might have required explanation.) Conditional belonging, however, is extended to those with useful skills (another concept that would probably require explanation).
But those with useful skills can’t afford to live here or even work here legally (whatever that means — those first migrants weren’t interested in “legally”), never mind “buy property.” So what happens? Work needs to be done. Workers are needed to do it.
Your call. Moving to Mars is not an option.
Any business that has hired people who are not citizens is blatantly breaking our laws. This isn’t debatable. We need to crack down on them as we would if they broke any other law.
“Not debatable.” Proceeds to say something entirely untrue. Obviously non-citizens are allowed to be hired for work in this county. Maybe you meant to type “undocumented” but you didn’t.
John– It is not against the law to hire non citizens. There are many people here who have many different statuses regarding their journey to citizenship. People with green cards are not citizens. Of course, you know that and just made an honest typo. Some people think that virtually all non citizens are “illegal” . That is clearly not the case. But just yesterday, trump signed an ex order and made 600,000 people who were here legally “illegals”. Those people did everything that what was required of them, they jumped through all the hoops, filled out all the paperwork and paid all the fees. But just because he and his puppy killing director of DHS don’t like Venezuelans. They are all “illegal” now. How fair is that ?
The undocumented person creates a legal LLC. This is fully allowed under the law. Then the employer pays the LLC and not the person in question. Employer’s hands are now clean. Make a law-create a work-around. Try and keep up.
Janet it’s been like this for 25 years it’s just gotten bigger. It always amazed me that a so called illegal could buy a motor vehicle insure it register it inspect it but couldn’t get a license now I believe they can. There are many success stories of Brazilian family’s doing very well and it’s because of hard work focused on raising a family going to church. Owning a business. Brazilians make this island better. The fear I felt today on the street felt like lock down during Covid once again it’s Washington spreading the fear
No one is going to round up Vineyarders and deport them unless there are serious crimes in their record. These fears are not needed. Of the millions here in the US, the government will deport the serious offenders.
andy– we’ll see about that. From what I have seen so far, I doubt you are correct. Of course, there is always the interpretation of what a “serious” crime is.
How about a traffic ticket?
Our government has always deported people who are not citizens and commit serious crimes.
What Trump is doing is new—he wants to terrorize immigrants, even if they have followed our immigration process.
You must get your news from social media. Youre trying to spread fear. If youre not breaking the law; you should have nothing to be worried about.
This is blatantly untrue.
This is happening on the mainland.
I believe the Republicans call this “collateral” damage.
Well said Janet, Mike, Don, Bryan, Patty, Bob,Brenda, Susanna and Tom. Trump has blatantly reminded us through his actions and bad examples that rules and laws don’t matter. Immigration enforcement is unjust if it is separating children from their parents…. What is happening in America is frightening and dangerous !
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