ICE detains 3 farmworkers in Hatfield, two factory workers in Holyoke
ICE detains 3 farmworkers in Hatfield, two factory workers in Holyoke, say witnesses
Updated 7:54 AM; Posted 7:54 AM
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By Phil Demers
pdemers@masslive.com
Five Springfield residents of Latin American heritage were detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement this week and remain incarcerated in Greenfield awaiting immigration court hearings, according to labor activists in Western Massachusetts.
"We have a rapid-response hotline and more and more people are using it to inform us of [immigrants] being detained by federal agents," Gabriella della Croce of the Pioneer Valley Workers Center told MassLive on Wednesday.
Croce said the detentions were likely the result of racial profiling.
The first two happened Monday in Holyoke, when ICE agents raided a factory to take in Springfield immigration activist Anival Gomez and a friend, both of whom immigrated from Guatemala without legal permission.
Workers center organizer Rose Bookbinder said Gomez and his friend had been in the U.S. for roughly a decade and were making no effort to hide.
Gomez has previously given public speeches and done organizing in Springfield and elsewhere concerning immigration issues.
"It's hard for us not to suspect that there was some targeting based on the work he's done to educate the immigrant and worker communities about their rights," said Bookbinder.
"Why now?" added Croce. "It seems vindictive and random."
"The two of them were involved in a motor vehicle accident in 2013 that wasn't their fault, but we believe information concerning the accident was one avenue used by ICE to acquire information about them," Bookbinder said.
Then, yesterday on Elm Street in Hatfield, a van full of up to 10 immigrant farmworkers was stopped by federal agents in unmarked vehicles late in the afternoon.
The events were reported by onlookers to Pioneer Valley Workers Center, who sent representatives to the scene.
When they arrived, said Croce, ICE was gone and had taken three of the 10.
"There's definitely been a huge upswing in people being stopped around the country," said Croce. "Our economy could not run without these people, who frequently do the jobs Americans don't want to do."
She added, "Ideally, we'd like to see all of them have a path to legalization."
The workers center has put all five of the detainees into contact with American Civil Liberties Union lawyers, said Bookbinder.
A call placed to ICE by MassLive was not immediately returned.
All five await trials in immigration court in Hartford, Conn., which the workers center expects will happen next week.
http://www.masslive.com/news/index.s...kers_in_h.html
