Raids in broad daylight by US immigration police have become a daily reality for the Portuguese community in the State of New Jersey, which several Portuguese nationals have described to the Lusa news agency as shocking.
The method is always the same: at various times of the day, unmarked cars appear in pairs on Ferry Street in Newark – also known as Portugal Avenue – stop suddenly, and armed, masked men emerge from inside to detain passers-by without asking any questions.
Stories of ICE raids are spreading throughout the community and fear is mounting, Pedro Pires, who runs a sports shop with his mother, told Lusa.
Although there are undocumented Portuguese nationals in Newark, no one has yet fallen into the clutches of the immigration and border police.
“The other day, I had to open the door to a lady who asked me to let her hide in the shop because she’d forgotten her passport and ICE had turned up,” he said.
People detained outside the hospital, a man who fled into a barber’s but was unable to escape the officers who pursued him, and raids that appear to target South Americans are spreading the reputation of a police force that President Trump’s administration has strengthened in its hunt for illegal immigrants.
“It was the first time we’d seen anything like this here. I’m not happy with the atmosphere they’ve left behind. The street has come to a standstill; lots of people aren’t going out. Shops that were usually full of customers now have practically no one in them,” reported jeweller Vítor Vinhas, who runs Vinhas Jewelry with his sister; the business was founded in 1981 by his parents.
“This isn’t good; they should stop. When the administration took office, I thought they were going after criminals, but now I don’t know what rules they’re following. We’re talking about immigrants who work two or three jobs to make ends meet and raise their children. Suddenly, the father goes out onto the street and disappears!,” he criticised.
Manuel «Manny» Lopes, owner of Lopes & Sons Hardware, a hub of the Ferry Street community, questioned who these masked men are who are arresting his neighbours and customers.
“What were these blokes doing before? We’re not just talking about 20 or 30 in Newark. They’re all over America, there are thousands of them… what were they doing before?
“The way they arrest people makes me think they’re the sort of people who only have any value because they’ve got a gun on their belt,” he said.
For Joaquim «Jack» Costa, the director at the Sport Club Português de Newark, a “clean-up” was needed after the US southern border had been practically open to illegal entries during the Biden administration.
“Things had reached a point where something had to be done, because too many people were coming in unchecked. I just don’t know if it had to be so radical. We live in a country that is a target for radicals all over the world. We live near New York and sometimes we’re on the train thinking about what might happen.
“What really worries me is that neither Trump, nor Bush, nor Obama kept their promises to resolve the situation for those who want to regularise their status.
“Up until 2001, if someone ran a restaurant and needed a chef, they’d become that person’s ‘sponsor’; the person would come over, work, and within two years become legal with a green card, pay taxes and bring their family over. That process always worked. Then it stopped,” he lamented.
For Jack Costa, who arrived in the United States in 1990 at the age of 14, “the country needs immigrants. Anyone who says we don’t can forget it”.
Vítor Vinhas agrees: “In the building trade, when you need to lay roof tiles in 40-degree heat, it’s the foreigners who do it. And they do it happily without complaining”.
Reflecting on the issue of immigration in the run-up to the November 3 mid-term elections, Pedro Pires states that ICE’s actions “not only lead people to form a different view of the Trump administration but may also lead them to change their minds about the Republican Party in general.
“I think that’s the worst part; we all know he can’t serve another term of office, but if there was anyone capable of voting for a Republican, they might change their mind because of what’s happening with immigration,” he noted, pointing out that «Newark, for example, is a community where 65% of the people are immigrants – people who have come from Brazil, Ecuador and Portugal”.
The Democratic Party, which stands a chance of “turning” the House of Representatives and even the Senate, “is taking a more wait-and-see approach”, Pires assessed.
The impact of the crackdown on immigrants is felt particularly keenly amongst shopkeepers – the majority of whom “vote Republican” (or at least, used to…)
Source: LUSA