'We’re Not Backing Down': LI Unites At Rally Against ICE Raids

BRENTWOOD, NY — Over 250 people gathered in Brentwood on Sunday for a rally against ICE raids in the wake of numerous immigrants getting detained and deported around the nation and on Long Island since President Donald Trump took office.

In what rally organizers from the community empowerment organization Islip Forward called a "fight to keep families together," people of all ages from all walks of life, diverse in background, color, and age, united to "demand dignity, protection and accountability in the face of fear."

The rally, which IF said was intended to be peaceful, brought together community leaders, youth organizers, families impacted by ICE and elected officials, including New York State Deputy Speaker Phil Ramos and Islip Town Councilman Jorge Guadron.

IF's Director of Media, Christian Colón, told Patch the rally called for "greater transparency and accountability in federal enforcement practices."

According to the organization, Brentwood "holds deep symbolic weight" for Long Island’s immigrant communities.

"It was here—on January 23, 2025—that the very first ICE sighting of the Trump Vance Administration in Suffolk County was documented. Since that day, Brentwood and other immigrant communities in Suffolk County have become both a ground zero for unjust enforcement and a beacon of resistance," IF said in a statement.

At the rally, speakers shared personal stories of what IF representatives said was "harassment and intimidation," including the detention and deportation of several former residents of the area. Many called for immediate public oversight and the passage of statewide protections for immigrant families.

The rally followed the June 11 detention of Nuvia Martinez Ventura, a mother of five living in Brentwood who was detained at a routine immigration check-in at 26 Federal Plaza in New York City and sent to a Houston detention center where she faces deportation, her attorney, Ala Amoachi, told Patch last week.

Amoachi said Martinez Ventura has no criminal record and came to the United States from El Salvador seeking asylum to escape violence in her home country after gangs killed the father of her children, Amoachi said.

According to the ICE website, Martinez Ventura is currently in custody at the Houston Contract Detention Facility, one of three detention centers in Houston.

Her children, ages 3, 4, 7, 10 and 11, are now staying with extended family. Amoachi said that one child is currently hospitalized due to Type 1 diabetes complications, something the attorney alleged hospital staff have been unable to stabilize and that Amoachi said Martinez Ventura managed with precision.

In January, after they said several ICE raids were confirmed on Long Island, IF launched its ICE tracker, a community-driven platform created to address both verified and false reports of ICE sightings around Islip. Six months and what they maintain are 28 verified ICE sightings later, IF said the tracker has "surged past 60,000 uses since its launch," and the rally announcement has reached over 250,000 people.

But Sunday was about a peaceful rally to "call on elected officials to move beyond rhetoric and show compassion for the real people impacted by our immigration system," Colón told Patch.

"We didn’t show up because we’re afraid—we showed up because we’re fed up," IF founder Ahmad Perez said in a statement. "Our neighbors are being pulled over, questioned and taken—without warning and without cause. This rally was a reminder that Long Island isn’t going to look the other way. We’re standing up and we’re not backing down."