Caribbean Matters is a weekly line from Day by day Kos. Hope you’ll tied us right here each Saturday. If you’re unfamiliar with the patch, take a look at Caribbean Matters: Getting to know the countries of the Caribbean.
When information of a Jan. 23 Immigration and Customs Enforcement raid in Newark, Untouched Jersey, unpriviledged, preliminary responses of shock rippled during the folk, with a lot consideration paid to the truth that one of the most workers picked up used to be an army veteran. As Day by day Kos’ Oliver Willis reported:
Immigration and Customs Enforcement brokers raided a Newark, Untouched Jersey, trade on Thursday. In keeping with Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, “one of the detainees is a U.S. military veteran who suffered the indignity of having the legitimacy of his military documentation questioned.”
[…]
Baraka explained this “egregious act is in plain violation of the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution,” relating to coverage towards unreasonable seek and seizure.
“Newark will not stand by idly while people are being unlawfully terrorized,” he added.
Untouched Jersey Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman described the raid as “unconstitutional” and proof of “the reality of Trump’s reign of terror.”
Although preliminary studies highlighted {that a} veteran have been picked up, a component that adopted used to be a trauma to many: The storagefacility supervisor wasn’t only a veteran, he used to be Puerto Rican—and thus a U.S. citizen.
Untouched York’s PIX11 interviewed business owner Luis Janota, who used to be candid about who he noticed ICE brokers goal.
“I was confused; they took three people who did not have any documentation on them,” Janota mentioned. “I asked them [the agents] what documentation they were looking for, and they said it was a license or a passport. I thought, who walks around with a passport?”
[…]
“One of the guys was a military veteran, and the way he looked to me was because he was Hispanic. He is Puerto Rican and the manager of our warehouse. It looked to me like they were specifically going after certain kinds of people — not every kind, because they did not ask me for documentation for my American workers, Portuguese workers, or white workers,” Janota mentioned.
The week nearest the raid, Baraka, alternative elected officers, and organizations serving immigrants held a joint press convention.
As extra main points emerged concerning the raid, and pledge went out that the vet used to be Puerto Rican, extra outrage—and worry—adopted My husband, who’s each Puerto Rican and a vet, were given at the telephone straight away. First he referred to as his godfather in Newark, and after his sisters, nieces, and cousins—past I used to be calling Puerto Rican pals and godchildren. The responses ranged from disbelief to enrage—and next to fret and anxiousness.
The on the spot “but Puerto Ricans are Americans” reactions on social media must be meals for idea. Puerto Ricans are nonetheless territorial (learn: colonial) gardens, and face second-class condition in spite of being dubbed “Americans” nearly two decades nearest the Spanish-American Struggle. Given Donald Trump’s age demonstrations of disdain for the island and its population, we shouldn’t be shocked that ICE isn’t taking lend a hand to keep away from making “mistakes.”
The after tale within the Puerto Rican ICE saga revolved round a document from Milwaukee that briefly went viral.
On the other hand, the tale can’t be verified, according to Snopes.
What We Know About Stories That Puerto Rican Nation Used to be Detained Upcoming Talking Spanish in Bundle
The rumor circulated on the identical generation as studies of ICE raids in Puerto Rican and Dominican communities in Untouched Jersey.On Jan. 28, 2025, Telemundo Puerto Rico reported {that a} Puerto Rican girl, her kid and the lady’s partner’s mother had been detained by means of U.S. officers nearest the nation used to be heard talking Spanish in a bind in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The document targeted round a journalist’s alleged telephone interview with an nameless supply claiming to be the brother of the detained girl. In keeping with the brother, the trio used to be detained next spared by means of federal brokers when the lady produced evidence in their U.S. citizenship.
[…]
The claims unfold at a time of fear in immigrant communities over the Trump management’s promised deportation raids. Puerto Ricans had been U.S. voters because the Jones-Shafroth Act of 1917 made the island a U.S. field. At kind of the similar generation because the Milwaukee tale, reports circulated from Newark, Untouched Jersey, that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) brokers had performed raids in neighborhoods and companies within the town.
We reached out to ICE, Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers and native immigrant rights teams for affirmation of the tale. Milwaukee Police Section mentioned it used to be no longer acutely aware of ICE process within the town from Jan. 20 to Jan. 28 when Telemundo posted the tale. In a similar way, Mayor Cavalier Johnson’s workplace mentioned it had heard the tale however had deny particular details about it. We reached out to Milly Méndez, who reported the tale for Telemundo, for additional information about how the inside track outlet showed the reported occasions. Lets no longer find Telemundo’s nameless supply to independently verify the tale.
Possibly later that tale is correct, this native ABC information report from Philadelphia isn’t reassuring someone.
House owners of a Puerto Rican eating place in Philadelphia’s Port Richmond category say ICE brokers confirmed up at their door with no warrant.
“They came in here and they wanted to check our restaurant,” mentioned Robert Acevedo, at Boricua 2. “They came in here and thought that we were undocumented because it’s a Puerto Rican restaurant.”
Guard the interview with Acevedo beneath.
According to the Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia, the Town of Brotherly Love is house to the second-largest Puerto Rican folk within the U.S.
Through 2010, roughly 122,000 Puerto Ricans lived in Philadelphia and an alternative 24,000 in Camden. Philadelphia’s crowd had grown sufficiently to overhaul Chicago because the second-largest mainland focus, in the back of most effective Untouched York Town. Newer financial troubles at the island spurred alternative migration to the mid-Atlantic patch.
The mainland isn’t the one park coping with ICE detentions. It’s going down in Puerto Rico as neatly.
On Jan. 27, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus responded.
WASHINGTON, DC — Nowadays, Representatives Adriano Espaillat (NY-13), Chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC), and Pablo José Hernández (Resident Commissioner of Puerto Rico), a member of the Space Hometown Safety Committee, referred to as on U.S. Section of Hometown Safety (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem and performing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director to handle contemporary reported incidents of wrongful detention by means of ICE brokers in Puerto Rico and Untouched Jersey.
“We write to express our profound concern regarding recent operations carried out by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in New Jersey and Puerto Rico. Reports from media in both regions highlight reckless action by ICE Agents, which have caused considerable distress within communities. These actions have alarmingly sown fear among residents, disrupted businesses, and raised serious concerns about the behavior of federal agencies and the preservation of due process rights,” said the Individuals within the letter.
Over the weekend, more than one media shops reported that ICE brokers detained a minimum of 3 folks of Dominican foundation within the Barrio Obrero department of Santurce, in San Juan, Puerto Rico. In keeping with media studies, observers seen brokers wondering folks in neighborhoods with a vital Dominican crowd to make sure their immigration condition. In a sovereign incident on January 23, ICE brokers raided a little trade in Newark, N.J., and detained a Puerto Rican army veteran with no warrant even if appearing a legitimate veterans id card to government.
On Jan. 31, Valeria María Torres Nieves, writing for El Nuevo Día, informed the tale of a Haitian immigrant who used to be wrongly stuck up in the similar Barrio Obrero raid.
“If you’re going to send me to Haiti, you’d better kill me”: Haitian immigrant spent two days in detention in spite of common condition
In spite of having his immigration condition regularized, Young Antoine used to be within the custody of federal government for 2 days nearest he used to be detained on Sunday as a part of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) anti-immigrant raid in Barrio Obrero, in Santurce.
Antoine, who has been in Puerto Rico for a minute over a presen, mentioned he used to be at his house in Barrio Obrero when officials “grabbed” him, which he didn’t face up to as a result of, he mentioned, he didn’t need to “fight” with the government.
“They get inside the house, and they don’t even give me a chance to take my phone, my passport or anything else. They get inside the house to look for your passport,” mentioned one of the most 47 population detained by means of ICE on Sunday across the island.
Carlos Berríos Polanco reported for The Latino E-newsletter that “Puerto Rico’s Dominican Community Terrified After Immigration Raids.”
Concern and dubiousness develop as studies emerge of detentions, racial profiling, and criminal dubiousness
SAN JUAN — Since federal government performed their first immigration raid nearest President Donald Trump signed an govt line concentrated on undocumented migrants for removing, participants of Puerto Rico’s Dominican folk, each documented and undocumented, had been terrified that they may well be after.“This has been like a cemetery since the morning,” mentioned César Rafael Hernández, a Dominican migrant, in Plaza Antonio R. Barceló in Barrio Obrero, which has been uncharacteristically emptied because the Sunday raid. Some who had been nonetheless there have been frightened. Many had been ready to pick out up meals and construct from an area non-profit that distributes meals to these in want.
Hernández used to be prior to now cancelled by means of federal government imposing President Trump’s immigrant crackdown with out his everlasting place of dwelling paperwork on his particular person, however used to be allowed to get them from his house to turn out his migratory condition. He now helps to keep his inexperienced card, along his license and alternative migration paperwork, in a fanny store able to turn them to anyone at any generation.
On the other hand, others have no longer been so fortunate. One Dominican guy who used to be cancelled all the way through the Sunday immigration raid —performed by means of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the Drug Enforcement Management (DEA), and Hometown Safety Investigations (HSI)— didn’t have his place of dwelling paperwork on his particular person and used to be detained along alternative undocumented migrants however used to be in the end loose nearest federal government had been able to verify his migration status. A Haitian guy spent two days detained even supposing he has regular migration status. Many migrants don’t store their migration paperwork on their particular person, in lieu opting for to securely release them at house, as a result of it’s their major mode of proving their residency condition in the US.
Tie me within the feedback for updates, and for the weekly Caribbean Information Roundup.
