Community groups in Great Neck have come together to support the family of Tomas Orellana, a resident detained by ICE earlier this month.
Tomas Orellana’s wife, Claudia Orellana, said several local organizations have rallied to help her and the couple’s eight children.
Around $28,000 has been raised on the family’s GoFundMe page to support them.
“It’s heartbreaking to see the whole family crying,” Claudia Orellana said. She and a few of their children were able to visit her husband in a detention center last week.
“Families are torn apart. It’s unjustified.”
Claudia Orellana also said that when she was able to speak with her husband, he said ICE detained him inside the courthouse where he was attending his mandated probation hearing.
“They’re breaking the rules.” She also said that her husband was not shown a warrant.
The Protect Our Courts Act in New York State prohibits ICE officials from detaining people in courthouses for civil immigration violations without a warrant.
Efforts to reach ICE were unavailing, and the probation department chose not to make a comment.
Centro Cristiano Restauracion Internacional Church in Great Neck, which the Orellanas attend, has offered support and contributed to the family’s GoFundMe.
Temple Beth El in Great Neck sent a newsletter asking its congregants to contribute to the page as well.
In the newsletter, Rabbi Brian Stoller wrote, “Tomas is one of our neighbors. I don’t know him, but his 11-year-old son is my son Zach’s friend. They used to play basketball together during recess at JFK, and they’re both now in sixth grade at North Middle School.”
“Zach said he’s scared for [Tomas’] family, and he’s scared about all the racism in the country. That hits hard when it comes from your kid. I’m proud of him.”
Great Neck resident Gloria Cohen is one of 900 signatories of a petition to release Tomas Orellana.
Cohen knows Tomas Orellana because he did her landscaping and shoveled her snow. “He is a very, very hardworking man,” Cohen said. “I just hope the judge takes mercy on him.”
“Him and his wife were so well known in Great Neck,” said Eileen Curley, another Great Neck resident.
Tomas Orellana was attending a mandatory probation visit at the courthouse for a DWI conviction from 2023 before he was detained by ICE. This was Orellana’s second DWI.
Tomas Orellana has since been transferred to a New Jersey detention center and is waiting for his hearing on Thursday, Jan. 22.
His attorney, Byron Quintanilla, says the Department of Homeland Security is using the recently passed Lakin Riley Act as justification for his detention.
The act mandated DHS to arrest non-citizens if they have committed certain crimes, such as burglary, theft, petit larceny, or shoplifting.
Tomas Orellana has not been indicted for any of these crimes, but Quintanilla says he thinks DHS will use his second DWI in 2023 as cause for his removal.
Quintanilla says he received bad legal advice after his temporary protected status was denied in 2024 and that he would have advised Tomas Orellana to adjust his status since he has a wife and eight children who are all citizens.
“If you look Hispanic, if you look like another race, [they say] ‘oh, you’re illegal,’” Claudia Orellana said, “It’s so tough nowadays.”
She said she had been told about hateful comments people have said about her husband online, but she replied, “I don’t read that.”
Claudia Orellana said the best response is to bless those who spread hate. “At the end of the day, God is watching your actions.”
