Fear and uncertainty prevail in San Juan’s Barrio Obrero in Santurce, where U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents detained several people from the Dominican community over the weekend. The Antonio R. Barceló plaza, historically a space for defending workers’ and immigrants’ rights, is now deserted, and community members say the operations have been unusually aggressive and uncontrolled.
Resident Francia Pimenteri, part of the Dominican community, said people are hiding and not even going to church. José Rodríguez, spokesperson for the Dominican Human Rights Committee of Puerto Rico, called the recent operations "more aggressive," saying he has seen agents with long guns, knocking down doors and mistreating people. He said agents pointed a gas gun in a woman’s face.
He called the operations "a racial purge" and noted that on Sunday agents detained Víctor Manuel Rosario Matos, a Black Puerto Rican citizen stopped as he left work. Rodríguez said ICE’s presence has grown since January 2025 and the increase was most noticeable after President Donald Trump’s anti-immigration policy, which Governor Jenniffer González Colón has backed several times.
Pimenteri blamed the governor and described a man detained on Sunday while leaving a delivery, leaving a wife and three small children. Rodríguez also suspects ICE lets migrants arrive by yola boats to detain them and take them to "La Neverita," a temporary ICE detention center. Resident Ramón Sánchez Santos said agents are working but are beating those detained.
ICE has also operated in Villa Palmeras, Capetillo and Río Piedras. On Monday, San Juan Mayor Miguel Romero Lugo ordered the Municipal Police not to participate in or support ICE operations.