A Dominican woman identified only as Carmen told NotiCentro her anguish two weeks after US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents detained her husband as he left work in Puerto Rico. Carmen has lived on the island for 30 years, holds legal status and works as a domestic employee; she has been married for nine years to a Dominican man who was in the final stages of obtaining his legal documents.
After the arrest, he was sent to a detention center in the United States, and Carmen says she has little communication with him. While she waits for a call from her husband, Dominicans and Haitians in Puerto Rico are afraid to leave home, alleging that agents intimidate people with firearms, tasers and pepper spray, and that arrests are carried out without judicial warrants.
Dominican and Haitian community leaders on the island hold the government responsible for handing immigrants’ information to federal agencies. The recent operations have brought the Dominican community into the streets to protest the raids, which have also resulted in the arrest of more than 50 people this month.