Islanders, for months, have protested the Trump administration’s immigration policies and its aggressive tactics in deporting undocumented immigrants.
But Tuesday, Island residents pushed back in new ways against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents who descended upon the Cape and Islands with their faces concealed by masks, and refused to answer basic questions.
One West Tisbury resident personally confronted federal agents in the field, demanding answers while recording a video that has gone viral.
Charlie Giordano, 58, used his phone to document the presence of the federal agents arresting people — some of whom live and work among us — to stand up for what Giordano believes is right at a time when legitimate fear can paralyze some from speaking out.
“I don’t care for injustice. I don’t care for bullies. I think words are who you want to be, and actions are who you are,” Giordano said in an interview with The MV Times. “Everyone says they would’ve stood up to the Nazis back in the day. This is your chance. We have to safeguard democracy and prevent tyranny.”
Giordano, who sells motorcycle parts for a living, was just one resident on the Island who protested ICE activity. Others stood outside Steamship terminals warning residents of the federal agency’s presence, or recorded ICE arrests happening across the Island.
But Giordano’s response was likely the most extreme. In the video, he filmed interactions he had with federal agents after he followed them to various locations, including all the way to Menemsha, where detainees were transported off-Island. The video has more than 600 likes on his Instagram page, and thousands more on a different account, called “What’s the Word? Massachusetts,” that reposted his video.
Intervening in a federal investigation is a crime, and Giordano — with his phone recording video feet from local and immigration officers — pushed those boundaries in an act that is not recommended by local enforcement, but showed what some are willing to do to stand up for due process.
“Their objective is to instill fear in our community,” Giordano said about what he believes are the agents’ intentions in a follow-up interview with The Times. In the video he posted, Giordano can be seen calling out the officers for their actions, and standing up for his right to film them on public property.
Giordano was following their car on Tuesday when he was pulled over by a local officer, Noah Stobie of the West Tisbury Police Department. In the video, Stobie agreed with Giordano that he exercised his constitutional rights, and warned him not to go over the line and impede the investigation the federal agents were conducting.
A presumed ICE agent in the video threatened Giordano with arrest, issued him an “official warning,” and said he’d get the FBI involved and take him into custody if he disrupted them further. But Giordano didn’t back down.
“This is your official warning,” Giordano responded in the recording. “I know what my rights are, and if you break them, be forewarned that I will do what I need to do to protect myself.”
He then asked the officers to identify themselves, and asked why they were wearing masks as they walked away and refused to respond. Giordano later told the Times it’s the anonymity of these agents that puts him on edge. Usually, he said, agents are required to identify themselves when asked — a practice that protects citizens if something happens, and they need to identify an officer of the law who was present. But ICE agents are known for covering their faces and hiding their identities.
“There seems to be a total disregard for the rule of law,” Giordano said. “And once we don’t have that, the country — the democracy, the republic — slides into oblivion. I’ll be damned if I’m gonna sit idly by and watch America fall into fascism.”
After Giordano posted the video on social media, he received a lot of support from residents. He said he especially heard from the Brazilian community on-Island, who offered him an outpouring of gratitude.
“The reaction from the Brazilian community toward me has been overwhelmingly heartwarming and really beautiful,” he said. He cited a voice message he received from one person of Brazilian heritage who expressed his thanks for Giordano’s courage.
“In the name of the Brazilian community, I just want to say — I love you, my family loves you, we all love you,” the person in the voice message said. “We are so proud of what you did today, you have no idea. God bless you for not putting up with this … for stepping up.”
For some locals, the fight for immigrant rights is geared toward awareness and advocacy. Roberta Kirn, Jane Katch, and Batya Diamond stood under a beaming sun at the Steamship Authority in Vineyard Haven on Tuesday to alert commuters to ICE’s presence on the Island with a homemade sign that read “ICE is on the Island.”
Chilmark resident Katch held the sign, and said she understood the risk of standing up to federal operations, but felt it was important to bring awareness to the immigrants in the Island community.
“I feel like as an older, white-haired woman on the Island, I can do what I want,” Katch said. “If I saw something, I definitely feel like I could step up and say, ‘Where is your warrant?’”
She, Kirn, and Diamond all echoed the same sentiment: Their priority is to protect the people in the local community who are most at risk.
“There were people who came and thanked us,” Kirn said, referring to their sign and the awareness they were spreading.
“It just seems like there’s no rule of law, really, and that’s shocking,” Kirn told The Times in a follow-up interview. “People who are privileged and who aren’t at risk in certain ways need to do our part.”
According to Kirn, it was notable to see how many people weren’t out and about on Tuesday. The number of locals who stayed home, likely due to fear of ICE raids and persecution, was alarming to her.
“It was clear that it wasn’t busy in town — there weren’t people at the Post Office, there weren’t people at Stop & Shop — people were hiding,” she said. “What can we do? What we can do is not be silent. We can speak up. And especially people who are privileged. If I were any color besides white, I would be worried.”
Charlie Giordano, the West Tisbury resident with the viral video, echoed similar sentiments, and said it was precisely because of his privilege and history as a boxer that he felt comfortable confronting the agents, albeit still fearful of possible repercussions.
“You cannot have courage without fear,” he said. “If you don’t have fear, what are you being courageous about, what are you overcoming?”
He said he hopes the video he posted inspires more people who are able to get out and stand up for what’s right, whether through advocacy or protection of marginalized groups.
“In the end, the best I can hope for is to try to inspire like-minded people to get up and actually do something.”
Thank you Mr. Giordano. We are developing into a police state……
Thank you Charlie, you speak for many of us.
Congratulations Charlie, you absolutely did the right thing! Accepting and giving into these fascist policies will only enbolden Trump and Stephen Miller, the architect of these horrendous policies. If we stand up and fight, as Charlie did, the Trump administration will eventually back down. Bullies don’t deal with confrontation very well.
One elderly woman and one leftist with a phone indicates that the majority of true US citizens realize that deporting aliens is the appropriate policy. Deport the criminals that broke the law. Biden encouraged the alien invasion, a failed president.
What’s are “true US citizens”, Roy? Share with us your litmus test.
Bill, Hopefully this definition will explain the obvious to you.
A citizen is a person who is a legally recognized member of a state or nation, entitled to its rights, privileges, and protections, and subject to its laws and duties. Citizenship typically confers rights like voting, residing in the country, and access to public services, while imposing obligations such as paying taxes or obeying laws.
Maybe you could define what qualifies as “criminal”, and why you find it so offensive and personally harmful ?
Is the mere presence of “ being here” what you would describe as harmful ? Despite working needed jobs, participating in the community, making this island a better place ?
Is tax fraud, habitual bankruptcy, sexual assault on the list of criminal activities, and would you experience the same outrage for those perpetrators?
Or is this just a “brown” problem.
Ms. Kirn commented “…there is no rule of law…”; Mr. Giordano “…total disregard for the rule of law…” But isn’t that what the Federal Authorities were doing(?) detaining people who were here illegally.
Read the Constitution. Due process according to the law is guaranteed. Disappearing people while masked and with no visible identification is kidnapping.
MS-13 gangbanger, child sex offender among 40 illegal migrants busted as feds raid Nantucket, Martha’s Vineyard.
Too bad can’t report truths. Just one side is not reporting.
Can we seriously trust what an ICE spokesperson says anymore? Was any proof offered in any way? 47’s administration has little credability any longer
Illegal is illegal. If you came home tonight and a stranger was sitting in your living room, can they stay? All immigrants are welcome but play by our rules not yours.
Thanks Paul
Don’t “our rules” require law enforcement officials to identify themselves?
A very inept analogy, sorry to say. And totally avoiding the crux of the matter: people’s rights ate being totally ignored. Perhaps you are not of an ethnicity that fears unidentified masked men grabbing you off the street and hustling you away to an unknown place and being held there, absent a warrant or opportunity to call your family or a lawyer. But the ineptitude of these goons may well impact you eventually, or a friend. Or conversely, why didn’t ICE arrest the Egyptian national who overstayed his visa and tried to murder a bunch of elderly people protesting the hostages being held by Hamas? Too busy arresting Brazilian landscapers living quiet lives on MVY ? Like Mr. Keller I call BS to the claims of drug dealers or violent criminals.
God bless you Charlie.
I for one don’t believe for a hot second that they arrested an MS 13 member and a child sex offender. In America– the officials release the names and the charges. At least in the America that I know. But one thing is clear here– peacefully protesting at 5 corners is useless. We need to step up the game— I am not advocating violence or doing anything illegal, but we are a creative bunch out here — think about what you can do the next time our island in invaded by a bunch of masked goons. And it will be invaded again. I hope the Brazilian community will at the very least set up a texting network to warn each other. Back in the old days, we had these things called “phone trees” where one person would initiate a call to 3 or 4 people who would then call 3 or 4 people and on and on– And that way we knew there was a snow day for school. One thing for sure ===It will happen again. And the Brazilian community will be the most impacted. As George W Bush said ” fool me once, shame on you, fool me-You can’t get fooled again” . I strongly urge the community to set up a network —count me in– Islanders talk isn’t good enough– we need every text message to be effective at reaching a potential victim of this blatant lawlessness.
Until the dust settles and the facts come out, beliefs aren’t significant. Sadly, we live in a time of Pick-Your-Own-Reality where 50% of the country doubts the facts of the other half.
Wake up Vineyard or maybe you are to far gone to liberal wokeness
Maybe some are too far gone to care about others.
Jarek– What’s wrong with objecting to blatant violations of our constitutional protections? What’s wrong with objecting to heavily armed masked men who refuse to identify themselves or even what agency they are working for stopping random vehicles ? What’s wrong with objecting to those heavily armed men abducting people who were simply on their way to work ? I wonder Jarek, would you object if they just drug people out of their cars and summarily executed them on the spot because they think they might be “illegal” ? Where’s the line Jarek ? We have constitutional protections against arbitrary arrests, but these goone don’t seem to care , and, apparently neither do you. I’m sure they would be quite all right with saving the money being spent on silly court cases and just blowing their brains out on the spot. I wonder who would object ? I really do wonder — It’s not a rhetorical question. “Woke” liberals?–yes they would–every time– of that I am sure. But I am not so sure that fascist who “identify” as patriots would.
I’m among the many Vineyarders who are descended from illegal immigrants. I’m a Mayflower descendant. I’ve even got Mayhews a few generations back in my genealogy. Documents weren’t a big issue back then. The illegal immigrants pretty much took what they wanted whenever they landed. When those who were already here (the “locals”), fought back, they were killed. When they didn’t fight back, they were pushed west and ever westward. It took two and a half centuries, by which time the illegals had established a government and declared themselves legal. Now they, which is to say “we,” get to say who’s legal and who isn’t. As George Orwell so famously said, “Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.”
Charlie, you are the man! So proud of you standing up to them and not holding back !!!!
Thank you Charlie. First it was the Gypsies and the mentally infirm, then it was the Jews. This isn’t going to stop when all the “illegals” are rounded up. Please be careful. These are violent humans looking for martyrs.
I have offered to hide folks in my apartment in CT…..like some folks did for the Jews in WWII.
Maybe MV folks could organize that possibility…..along with the good deeds you have already tried to do for “undocumented”. I am an undocumented Russian Jew.
No warrants.
No probable cause.
Anonymous agents taking people who knows where.
How do they even begin to initiate the due process they are entitled to under the Constitution? It states “all persons” not only citizens. These are the rules. Play by them, or forfeit your rights down the road. Simple as that.
Why aren’t they obliged to show their faces and wear identifying badges? I thought these things were standard for law enforcement to prevent them abusing their power. And why, in that video, was an FBI agent wearing a mask? And how do we know they’re who they say they are? And don’t they have to have a judicial warrant to arrest people? There is so much wrong with this it’s hard to encompass.
AND FINALLY, DON’T THINK THEY WONT COME FOR YOU.
Sorry not my style. These same agents could someday be saving your life. They are simply following orders. You go after the head of the snake, which is Trump and the Republican Congress. It’s called protest and voting not verbal abuse of agents.
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