Amid an increase in immigration enforcement activity on Long Island, more than 150 residents packed First Baptist Church, in Glen Cove, on Jan. 15 for a community meeting, organized by Assemblyman Charles Lavine, focused on how residents can support immigrant neighbors and respond to what speakers described as escalating fear and uncertainty.
The gathering brought together civil liberties advocates, faith leaders and members of local rapid-response networks, following two recent vigils in Glen Cove led by Lavine, who said that more opportunities for community action are planned.
Leslie Dwyer, a member of the Glen Cove Rapid Response Network and Director of Public Affairs for Lavine, set an urgent tone. “Does everyone agree that enough is enough?” she asked the crowd. “We are here to promote good over evil.”
Roger Street Friedman, a Sea Cliff resident and RRN volunteer who helped organize the event, explained that community members wanted to learn more following escalating tensions between ICE agents and protesters across the country.
“I think people are upset and want to do something, but don’t know what their rights are,” he said. “We have so much interest from the community and there’s so much misinformation that it felt like a very important time to do an information session.”
Recent events have unfolded so quickly, Dwyer said, that many residents feel overwhelmed, adding that distraction itself can be a strategy. “Tonight we’re going to focus on one place we can make a difference, and that is how we support our immigrant neighbors,” she said. “Although we’re limited in what we can do, we don’t have to sit idly by and watch.”
Lavine, addressing the packed sanctuary, framed the meeting as a moral and civic response to federal immigration policies under President Trump. “There is such a thing as political science,” he said. “Political science requires important governmental decisions to be made based on truth, honesty, empirical studies and good faith — not on whim, not on personal grievance, hatred, racism or financial self-dealing.”
Susan Gottehrer, director of the Nassau County chapter of the New York Civil Liberties Union, offered what she described as “the nuts and bolts” of immigration law to address widespread misconceptions. She emphasized that immigration enforcement falls under civil, not criminal law.
Gottehrer outlined various forms of legal immigration status, including Temporary Protected Status, work visas, school visas and asylum, stressing that they are “all legal processes.” Many immigrants, she said, are actively complying with the system, attending hearings and maintaining paperwork, yet they face sudden changes. “Trump is doing everything he can to remove the legal status,” she said, “because they’re doing the right thing,” and are detained.
Gottehrer explained that the county allows U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to train and deputize local police officers and corrections officers to perform certain immigration enforcement functions.
She questioned how residents could determine whether an officer is acting as a local official or an ICE agent, reminded attendees that the agency generally needs a judicial warrant to detain someone, and distinguished judicial warrants from administrative warrants, which she described as lacking due process.
Sonia Arora, of the Port Washington Rapid Response Network, described how community-organizing efforts dating back to 2016 have evolved into more formal support systems.
Those early efforts, she said, focused on building trust with community leaders such as educators, librarians, clergy and an immigration attorney.
She explained that rapid-response networks now use tools to confirm ICE sightings, and stressed the importance of verification to avoid spreading panic.
Beyond monitoring, Arora outlined a wide range of support services, including food coordination through houses of worship, legal and “know your rights” clinics, guardianship planning in case a parent is detained, and translation services. “You are witnesses,” she told the gathering. “You are observers.”
Tracy Bacher, a constituant liasion for Lavine involved with the Glen Cove Rapid Response Network, urging attendees to “be a witness,” saying, “we cannot let them operate in the shadows.”
The Rev. Roger C. Williams, pastor of First Baptist Church, closed the program by linking the meeting to the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. “We’re caught up in this inescapable mutuality in a single garment of destiny — we are all together,” he said, paraphrasing King. “You cannot lift up yourself while debasing someone else.”
