By LILLIAN GLAROS and JALEN WADE
When faced with the possibility of a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raid, the community of Brentwood and other allies mobilized to protect their neighbors.
On June 14, the morning of Brentwood Day — the City of Brentwood’s annual celebration — the mayor and city council learned of a possible ICE raid. The city council mobilized before the event to form a plan of action.
“It’s always alarming and scary, right?” said Juan Arango Millan, a member of the Brentwood City Council. “We actually gathered community leaders and volunteers … to make sure that this plan was executed properly and make sure that people feel safe, and let people know about their rights in case something were to happen.”
Alex Vazquez, CASA’s Maryland organizing director, said around 40 members of CASA, other organizations and allies came out to the Brentwood Community Park in support of their community members’ safety and well-being.
Vazquez said they wanted to make sure that bystanders and allies were around in case ICE showed up.
“What worries me is that ICE basically has unlimited power to do whatever they want,” Vazquez said. “They are unlawfully detaining people, not just undocumented people, but people who are residents, people who are U.S. citizens, and that’s what’s very scary about this whole situation.”
U.S. Rep. Glenn Ivey (D-Md.), County Councilmember Jolene Ivey (At-large), and State Del. Julian Ivey (District 47A) also attended the event.
Del. Ivey said he had planned on going to Brentwood’s celebration anyway, but after hearing about potential ICE raids, he wanted to show solidarity as a legislator.
He added that everyone needs to stand with their neighbors and do what they can to not assist ICE in their raids.
“This is a time where everyone in the community is going to have to stand up and step up and show solidarity,” Ivey said. “I wish there was something that I could say to take the fear from those families’ hearts, but the reality is very … dark.”
Vendors and more than 300 members of the community partied at Brentwood Community Park, while police from Brentwood and surrounding municipalities remained parked around the event.
Brentwood Mayor Rocio Treminio-Lopez said the city had been on alert since June 12, when ICE came to take members of a local family.
To prepare the community for the possibility of a raid, Lopez said the city has been offering information to residents about resources they can use to protect themselves.
“We’ve been providing information about know your rights, about organizations that work with immigrant families, access to attorneys, or any other resources that exist for the immigrant community,” Lopez said.
Brentwood’s chief of police, Marcus Jones, said the city first became aware of the possibility of an ice raid on Brentwood Day, at 10 a.m. Jones said the city had considered closing the event down; however, support from the community encouraged them to continue, with contingencies in place that he said he could not share at the time.
Jones said the message that he wanted the Brentwood police to send with their presence at the event was that, while they will not interfere with federal immigration efforts, they will protect their residents.
“We will make sure that their rights are upheld regardless of their immigration status,” Jones said.
Congressman Ivey said that the most they could do at the event was wait and see what was going to happen.
“So you know you hate to kind of speculate about it,” Ivey said. “But the key thing is that we want to be present and make sure we’re doing everything we can to support people who are just kind of minding their own business, going to work, sending their kids to school, doing all the right stuff.”
Jason Avila, a Riverdale Park resident, said he came in response to a potential ICE presence.
Avila, who said he comes from an immigrant background, said immigrants are what keeps the community going.
“They’re not criminals; they’re not hateful people,” Avila said. “We’re all neighbors; we all love each other.”