Over 40 residents demonstrated in front of U.S. Rep. Tom Suozzi’s office in Glen Cove on Monday, Feb. 2, calling for an end to Immigration and Customs Enforcement after Suozzi previously crossed party lines and voted in favor of a $64 billion Department of Homeland Security appropriations bill that backed ICE in January.
Co-founder of Show Up LI and organizer of Monday’s protest, Halle Brenner, said it is hard not to be upset with what is going on with ICE and Suozzi did not act “Democratic” with his vote.
“How could you vote for ICE?” she said. “They are zip-tying children; they are pulling grandfathers out of their houses. Human beings should not be able to see that and vote for this agency to have more power.”
Suozzi (D-Glen Cove) and U.S. Rep. Laura Gillen (D-Rockville Centre) were two of seven House Democrats to vote for the $64 billion Department of Homeland Security bill on Thursday, Jan. 22.
But two days later, Suozzi issued a new statement distancing himself from the vote after a federal agent shot and killed Alex Jeffrey Pretti, 37, an intensive care nurse, in Minneapolis. Pretti’s death marked the second fatal shooting of a U.S. citizen by a federal immigration agent in the city in January, following the killing of Renee Nicole Good, 37.
“I failed to view the DHS funding vote as a referendum on the illegal and immoral conduct of ICE in Minneapolis. I hear the anger from my constituents and I take responsibility for that,” he said.
An employee of Suozzi’s Glen Cove office met with protesters, handing them a letter that had the same statement and the previous letter sent from Suozzi’s office condemning ICE. The employee also handed out inquiry slips for residents to write their complaints and for Suozzi to respond directly to them.
“ICE’s illegal and immoral actions have dramatically affected all Americans and protestors today represent all of us who are demanding change,” Suozzi said in an additional statement after the protest on Monday. “The Trump administration is right to secure the border and deport violent criminals, but masked agents breaking car windows and dragging people out of their cars, assaulting protestors, conducting violent warrantless raids and killing people is outrageously wrong, un-American, and I will fight to stop them.”
Brenner said the purpose of Monday’s protest was to show people that there are ways to stand up for what they believe in and to show Suozzi that people are angry with his decision.
A Great Neck resident named Harvey said he attended the protest because he sees “our democracy going down the tubes.”
“This is not what we stand for as a country, as people, as society,” he said.
Maureen Tracy, an 82-year resident of Glen Cove, said she believes ICE needs to be defunded and that not enough people are standing up against the federal government’s implementation of agents.
“I hope he follows through and he votes with the rest of the Democrats to defund ICE,” Tracy said about Suozzi.
One person driving by yelled, “Get a job,” in the direction of protestors, to which one protester exclaimed, “Get a conscience.”
