Thread: SOB-Event recalls immigration raid in Greenport

Event recalls immigration raid in GreenportBY MITCHELL FREEDMAN | mitchell.freedman@newsday.com
September 26, 2008
A year ago, federal immigration officials and local police swept through the small North Fork village of Greenport on an early morning raid they said was aimed at picking up violent gang members.

Today, the one-year anniversary of that raid will be observed in a community convergence that, philosophically at least, will be a little like Woodstock without the music.

Sponsored by a group called the Book of Ruth, community artists, poets and others are calling for a demonstration of support for immigrants by building an imaginary eruv - a symbolic wall on the borders of the village. It would, they say, represent a sanctuary.

Unlike the eruvs maintained by Orthodox Jews, which are marked by symbolic but physical lines - utility wires are commonly used - the Greenport eruv will be defined by creative expression.



"Form teams, bring your families, bring your companion animals," one flier reads, urging residents and nonresidents alike to sprinkle bread crumbs or flower seeds, or just dance along a village street to mark the eruv.

There is no start time, and a deliberate effort is being made not to organize the event. "If 40 people show up on a corner, then we'll see what happens when 40 people show up on a corner at the same time," said Arden Scott, a sculptor and a member of the Book of Ruth.

It is to end with everyone meeting at the Fifth Street park for a pot luck dinner between 5 p.m. and sunset.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested a dozen men in the raid, part of an initiative that targets people involved in gang activity, Michael Gilhooly, a spokesman for the northeast regional office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said yesterday.

Nine of those arrested were "MS-13 gang associates" and three were immigration violators, Gilhooly said.

An immigration judge ordered eight of them deported, two were allowed to voluntarily leave the country, and the cases of two are still pending.

Gilhooly could not immediately provide names, but said the raids were planned "with officer safety and the safety of the targets and the public in mind."

But locals said the raid left behind crying women and children and frustrated residents.

"The aftermath was horrendous. Families were split apart. Nobody knew where anybody was," said Scott, who lives and works in Greenport.

In keeping with the informal spirit of the event, the Book of Ruth did not seek a permit for its celebration. Village Mayor David Nyce said most of those picked up in the raid seemed to vanish. Local business owners who tried to post bond for their workers couldn't find them.

"It did some damage to the rapport between the police and the Hispanic community," Nyce said. "The Latin community has not forgotten it."


http://www.newsday.com/news/local/crime ... 3791.story

Bread crumbs? is that the best they can come up with?