A crowd of Southold Town residents came to the Southold Town Board’s meeting Tuesday evening urging the board to make a strong public statement against ICE, in the face of the increasingly dangerous federal immigration enforcement actions here and around the country.
Resident after resident came to the podium begging the Town Board to take a bold stand, in the wake of the second killing of a person documenting ICE activity in Minneapolis, Alex Pretti, this weekend.
Pictured Above: Residents who came in support of a statement from the town against ICE stood up at the request of Samantha Payne-Markel
Greenport resident Seth Egan kicked off the discussion, bringing with him a petition signed by 800 residents, objecting to “federal immigration and customs authorities deploying masked and otherwise unidentified agents in Southold Town,” urging the board, as the town’s police commissioners, to “ensure public safety” and issue a public statement condemning ICE activities.
“This is not law enforcement. This is state-sponsored terrorism,” he said. “We need to know — will you protect and serve your community?”
Though immigration enforcement has been quiet out on the North Fork in recent months after two well-documented raids in Greenport in the summer of 2025, ICE agents have blanketed the streets of Riverhead, Riverside, Hampton Bays and Westhampton Beach in recent months, leaving many on the North Fork wondering when the agents will return.
“These raids have also escalated in our own backyards. I don’t want people to think this is so far divorced from us,” said Sandy Benedetto of Greenport. “The level of brutality and aggression documented in our neighboring towns is escalating as well. It would be naive to think the local government and community could stop them from coming. But it would also be naive to think they’re not planning to come back here and to say there’s nothing we can do.”
One young woman, a senior at Greenport High School who didn’t identify herself, showed up in her Navy Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps uniform and apologized for having to leave for an NJROTC event.
“I want to thank you for the people speaking up about ICE. I’m an immigrant, and I’m planning to attend Villanova University this fall and join the U.S. Navy after four years,” she said. “We are not criminals. We are not aliens. We are not animals, like we are referred to by our president.”
“If we could stay in our countries, we would. They’re beautiful countries, but our governments are way too corrupt,” she added. “If it wasn’t for immigrants here who send money back to our families, our countries would be destroyed.”
Jeremy Garretson, a local photojournalist who documented the Aug. 3, 2025 ICE raid in Greenport, said he witnessed a man being detained by ICE while his two young sons were standing in the parking lot behind the Greenport laundromat, crying.
“Someone needed to be responsible for their safety,” he said. He added that after he left the scene he was “followed throughout Greenport by an unmarked Dodge Charger with tinted windows,” which pulled up behind him when he came to a stop.
“No one exited the vehicle. I cannot know their intent, but being followed by an unknown vehicle with unknown occupants was unsettling,” he said. “If local law enforcement has no role in public safety during federal operations, this should be made plainly clear…. Who is responsible for public safety when something frightening is happening in our community?”
“What is happening there does not stay there,” said Greenport resident Sarah Phillips Loth of the ICE actions and killings in Minneapolis. “It travels. It arrives quietly, until it doesn’t. Us citizens expect when we walk out our front door that our constitutional rights are intact.”
“I ask the local police department and fire department leadership — do you support this erosion of rights? Because I do not,” she added. “We live here together. We are neighbors. We are a community. And we should not allow outside political forces, driven by power and profit, to divide us from one another.”
Greenport resident Dinni Gordon, who teaches English to young immigrants, said she believes a statement from the town will be meaningful to the people she knows.
“It’s incumbent on you to think seriously about this,” she said. “Show you care enough to make your police department a force for positive public safety that will protect our immigrants.”
“I think it would go a long way to make sure our community strengthens, and the peacefulness we experience here continues,” said Greenport resident Kristie Lutz, who also serves as an EMT and firefighter with the Greenport Fire Department. “I also want to ensure the fire department I serve isn’t used as a staging ground for ICE operations.”
“We have an agreement with the town for policing, for 31 years now,” said Greenport Mayor Kevin Stuessi. Southold Town Police provide policing services for the Village of Greenport. “I have amazing faith in our chief, our police officers and our local fire departments, but we need some direction from all of you. Set that direction and stand with us. One of those SUVs with blackened windows has more federal officers than we have police on the street in that moment [in Greenport]. I don’t want children up here crying because they’re afraid their family is going to be taken away. Make sure the Constitution is upheld.”
Diana Moscoso, a counselor in East Marion, said she is a proud first generation Ecuadorian American, and “what has been happening lately is scary, not only for my family, but for the families I serve…. I ask you to please support our people…. Assure our kids they shouldn’t be afraid to look to the police for protection.”
Nick Deegan of Mattituck, an immigrant from Ireland, said “these guys in Minnesota don’t seem that much different to me” from the Black and Tans, a British paramilitary force against Irish independence. “Small towns in America have to stand up for what’s right and decent.”
“Honestly, why haven’t you done this yet? Why do we even have to ask you?” asked Samantha Payne Markel. “The petition is not going away. We want a statement, and we want it clear. We are not going to stop. We will continue collecting them [signatures].”
The crowd was unimpressed with a statement read by Town Supervisor Al Krupski, who said it was drafted during a lengthy discussion with the town’s police chief about public safety earlier that day.
Mr. Krupski’s statement discussed the town police department’s commitment to fair enforcement of the law, “treating all individuals with dignity” and ensuring that everyone in town feels comfortable interacting with town police.
“We pledge to work proactively to ensure all community members, regardless of background or immigration status, feel safe calling 911, participating in school, shopping for needs and accessing health care without fear,” he said, adding that the town plans to follow up on a letter it sent to federal immigration officials in early December “expressing concerns about public safety with immigration enforcement.”
“It’s a little fluffy. We don’t feel safe,” said Samantha Payne Markel. “We want ICE out of the community. We want to feel safe. We don’t want them here. I didn’t get that, at all.”
“I agree with Sam. I think we’re looking for a stronger statement,” said Ms. Benedetto. “It’s important to make sure all members of our community, not just my Latino family, friends and neighbors, feel safe. When those armed gunmen were in the Greenport parking lot wreaking chaos, we were all at risk.”
“Let’s start with ‘we condemn the Gestapo tactics of ICE agents in this country,'” said David Markel. “There needs to be a law that law officers must not be allowed to wear masks, and they must be required to show identification.”
“We need that here before our community members start dying,” said Greenport High School Senior Nicholas Dowling near the close of the meeting. “We need a statement that says we condemn ICE. If you can’t do that, you’re not protecting the people who put you in those chairs, and you don’t deserve to be in them.”
Vigils Across East End Friday, ICE Out rally in Riverhead Saturday
In addition to the nine vigils for people killed by federal agents in Minneapolis planned across the East End this Friday evening, ICE OUT will be bringing community, coffee and donuts to the Riverhead Staples parking lot on Saturday morning, Jan. 31, gathering at 10 a.m and marching at 11 a.m.
“Our call to action is to engage community members to join action groups, to demand accountability for ICE agents who are acting outside of the law, and to get our community leaders and all government officials to step up in meaningful ways to protect public safety,” says Anita Boyer, an organizer of the the effort. “This is a coordinated response of concerned local advocacy groups and community members working together to defend our democracy and uphold our constitutional rights. Both actions are peaceful gatherings within our First Amendment rights to gather and protest.”
Friday’s vigils will be held from 6 to 7 p.m. at the Hook Mill in East Hampton, the Sag Harbor windmill on Long Wharf, the Macy’s parking lot in Hampton Bays, the Gazebo in Westhampton Beach, at Riverhead Town Hall, at the Cutchogue Village Green, at Greenport’s Mitchell Park and at Shelter Island Town Hall. Organizers are asking attendees to bring a flashlight or a candle.
East Hampton Town Supervisor Kathee Burke-Gonzalez Issues Statement on ICE Shooting
East Hampton Town Supervisor Kathee Burke-Gonzalez also issued a statement Tuesday in the wake of the killing of Alex Pretti by ICE agents in Minneapolis. The text of the statement follows:
“An American exercising his First Amendment rights was killed by his own government. A son. A friend. A nurse who cared for our veterans. A person who spent his life helping other people survive their hardest moments, and he did not make it home.
When the Trump administration decided that fear and intimidation is a governing strategy, the result is not safety. The result is a parent grieving the loss of their child, and a country where more and more people feel like one encounter with the federal government could shatter their lives forever.
The harm does not stop at one street or one city. It spreads. It changes how families live. It changes who feels safe asking for help. It changes whether a witness speaks up. It changes whether a child can breathe easy when their parents walk out the door for work in the morning.
Here in East Hampton, we are a community that shows up for one another. We treat people like neighbors. We believe that when your neighbors are hurting, you show up for them. Should you want to show up for your neighbors in this moment, you can shine a light and attend the vigil for the victims of ICE at Hook Mill this Friday at 6:00 PM. Or consider signing up for OLA’s Rapid Response program, a community effort where volunteers act as peaceful observers to ensure our neighbors are treated fairly.
We will not accept a future where people must prove they deserve dignity and fear is the price of living your life.”
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