Dear Editor,
Fear, uncertainty, anxiety, and misinformation. These abound in the immigrant communities in Queens, New York, and other places. The fear was perceptible even before Donald Trump won the elections. President Joe Biden deported more than 271,000 persons during the fiscal year 2023 to 2024. This is a record that President Trump wants to surpass. He ran on a campaign of “mass deportations, the like of which you have never seen before.” The Immigration and Customs Enforce-ment (ICE) stated that the Biden Adminis-tration deported 311 undocumented persons daily.
The Trump administration, in its first three weeks, had doubled this number, but the White House is saying that ICE can do better. It wants the raids to be stepped up and more people deported. There have been raids in Chicago, Newark and Miami. Mayor Ras Baraka said that in Newark, undocumented persons, and citizens, were arrested without warrants. According to reports, ICE bulldozed their way into business places and made those arrests. New York braced itself for a raid and this came toward the end of January when persons were picked up in the Bronx. Tom Homan, the deportation czar, has stated that the undocumented, even without criminal records, are also subject to be deported. He calls them “collaterals.”
By mid-February 2025, the numbers of arrests had dropped significantly, much to the chagrin of President Trump. An NBC report quotes him as being “angry” that the numbers are not higher. This message has been passed on to ICE and Tom Homan. The problem is that to deport ‘millions and millions’ as Trump had promised, ICE needs to deport at least 1,200 persons daily. They are nowhere near this number as the average arrests is around 300 currently.
But the reduction of the numbers has brought little comfort to the immigrant communities in New York. There is an information overload on the activities of ICE and the recent deportations. There are lurid pictures of deportees shackled in a plane bound for India, of beds being prepared in Guantanamo Bay, of migrants crying out for help at a hotel in Panama, and of Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, making a deal with El Salvador to house prisoners from third countries.
A good many undocumented persons are caught in a limbo. They entered the United States illegally over thirty years ago, have committed no crimes since, but are forced to go into the shadows. The Mexican cooks moved from the side streets and now makes tortillas at home. This has resulted in a seventy percent reduction in sales and the same applies to vendors from Guatemala and Senegal. Many live in fear that ICE would remove them from their families and deport them to countries that they could hardly recognize.
In the absence of information from the political mainstream, the immigrant community has had to rely on help from the not-for-profit organizations. People are told to keep doors closed, remain silent if confronted by ICE, to sign documents only if verified by an attorney, and to learn the difference between a judicial and administrative warrant. A judicial warrant is signed by a judge while an administrative warrant is issued by the Department of Homeland Security and cannot be used to enter one’s premises. These sound well in conference rooms but ICE has been given sweeping powers to conduct raids and detain people.
In early February 2025, this writer was contacted by Japneeth Singh, a member of the Sikh community, and together they organized a public rally to draw attention to the immigration problems facing New Yorkers. It was the first rally of its kind, and since then, other rallies have occurred. The Queens rally took place in Liberty Avenue and attracted fifty persons from a cross-section of the community. The idea was to ask President Trump, and ICE, to use their discretion in the enforcement of the laws, especially for the undocumented who are in the United States for over five years, or more, with no criminal records. The rally gained national attention when it was broadcast on CBS Channel 2 NEWS, but no perceptible change has occurred to date in the welfare of the undocumented. In the following weeks, New York became the centre of attention that reached the inner sanctum of City Hall.
There were statements that the Depart-ment of Justice (DOJ) would suspend its corruption charges against New York’s Mayor Eric Adams so that the mayor could, ‘identify and round up migrants living in the U.S. without legal status.’ It is estimated that the undocumented population in New York could be between one and four million. The suspension of the charges by the DOJ has placed Mayor Adams in a weak and compromised position. Is he beholden to the Trump Administration, or to the people of New York, and should he be fired?
New York Governor Kathy Hochul said that she wouldn’t remove the mayor ‘for the time being’ but that she will limit mayoral authority by giving oversight to a special inspector general, the state comptroller, the speaker of the city council, public advocate, and city comptroller to take ‘possible legal action against the federal government.’
How is all of this playing out in migrant communities? There are reports that the three major avenues in South Queens have been less busy than usual. Jamaica Avenue and 101 Avenue have seen a reduction in human traffic and business, but the greatest impact is felt in Liberty Avenue. Some say that Liberty Avenue is a ghost town while others argue that the cold weather has driven people indoors. There is little doubt that the fear of ICE, and deportation, have kept people away. Such fears have hit the business community hard. A number of local restaurants and supermarkets report that the long lines are missing while sales for construction materials have dropped at the Home Depot. The van that signs up persons for insurance on Liberty Avenue states that daily applications have dropped from eight persons to zero on some days.
The impact of ICE is felt in other ways too. A good number of undocumented rent basements, and without jobs, there would be hardships to pay the rents, and other expenses. It is no wonder then that some undocumented persons are contemplating to return voluntarily to their native countries. By doing so, the feeling is that they may stand the chance to re-enter the United States legally, sometime in the future.
Governor Hochul recently met with President Trump to discuss congestion pricing. Immigration reform was also on the agenda but no details were forthcoming. Deporting ‘millions and millions’ is bad public policy. Smart economics suggests that there should be a pathway for the undocumented to regularize their status. The Trump administration should consider placing the undocumented, who have between five and forty years of residence in the U.S, on probation. Each person should be required to pay a fine of $10.000 and permanent residence status, without citizenship, should be granted after five years, with good conduct. The payment of the fines will boost the U.S economy in the billions and the housing, automobile, and aviation industries could see unprecedented growth.
Is Liberty Avenue a ghost town? The best answer will come on March 23, 2025 when the annual Phagwah Parade takes place. This parade attracts hundreds on Liberty Avenue and the adjoining streets.
Yours faithfully,
Dhanpaul Narine
