Diaspora organizations are denouncing recent operations by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Puerto Rico, particularly last week’s raid at the San Antonio de Padua church in Río Piedras. The coalition Power4PuertoRico called on President Donald Trump and the US Congress to respect the Latin American character of Puerto Rico and stop the ICE raids against Caribbean brothers and sisters and immigrants from other countries.
The group also urged mayors, the Legislature, and Governor Jenniffer González to immediately adopt public policy and sanctuary protocols, as countless cities and states in the United States do, to bar state and local officers from collaborating with ICE agents, arguing that the governor, a Trump ally, has betrayed immigrants. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said information the González government released about people with irregular immigration status holding provisional driver’s licenses helps ICE track down immigrants.
The group La Brega y Fuerza called for ICE agents to leave Puerto Rico, citing the case of a father of two US citizen daughters, married to a permanent resident and with no criminal record, who was detained at a gas station while buying ice before going to work. The group also criticized border czar Tom Homan, saying he visited the island this week, met with ICE, and that the raids worsened afterward.