Immigration police raids shock New Jersey Portuguese community

Rusgas in the middle of the day of the U.S. immigration police became a daily reality of the Portuguese community of the state of New Jersey, which several Portuguese describe Lusa agency as shocking.

The method is always the same: at different times of the day, uncharacterized cars appear in pairs on Ferry Street, in the city of Newark, also known as Portugal Avenue, stop suddenly and from the interior arise armed and masked men who hold no questions people who passed on the street.

The stories of ICE raids multiply between the community and fear is spreading, told Lusa Pedro Pires, who runs a sports store with her mother.

Although there are illegal Portuguese in Newark, no one has yet fallen into the meshes of immigration and border police.

“ The other day, I had to open the door to a lady who asked me to hide in the store because she had forgotten her passport and the ICE appeared ", told.

People arrested outside the hospital, a man who fled into a barbershop but failed to escape the agents who pursued him and interventions that appear to be directed at South American people are spreading the reputation of the police that the administration of President Donald Trump strengthened in his hunt for illegal immigrants.

“ It was the first time we saw this here. I'm not satisfied with the weather you left. The street just stood there, a lot of people don't leave. Trades that were usually full of customers have practically no one,” said the goldsmith Vítor Vinhas, who with her sister runs Jewelry Vineyards, founded in 1981 by her parents.

“ This isn't good. You should stop. When the administration came in, I thought they were going after criminals, but now I don't know what rules they follow. We are talking about immigrants who work two or three jobs to bear expenses and raise their children. Suddenly, the father goes out and disappears!”, he criticized.

Manuel “Manny” Lopes, owner of Lopes & Sons Hardware, a nerve point of the Ferry Street community, questioned who the masked men are arresting his neighbors and clients.

“What did these guys do before? We're not just talking 20 or 30 in Newark. They walk all over America, there are thousands... what did they do before? Trump did not go to the troops ", questioned.

“The way they arrest people, it gives me the idea that they are people who only have value because they have a gun to the belt”, he condemned.

For Joaquim “Jack” Costa, leader of the Newark Portuguese Sport Club, it was necessary to “clean up” after during the Biden administration the southern border of the United States was practically open to illegal entrances.

“ Things had come to a point where something had to be done, because a lot of people came in out of control. I just don't know if I had to be that radical. We live in a country that is a target of radicals all over the world. We live near New York and sometimes we go on the train thinking about what can happen,” he admitted.

“What really worries me is that neither Trump, nor Bush, nor Obama have fulfilled their promises to resolve the situation of those who want to legalize.”.

“ Until 2001, if a person had a restaurant and needed a cook, he became ‘sponsor’, sponsor of this person, he came, worked, in two years he was cool with the green card, paid taxes and brought the family. This process has always worked. Then it stopped”, lamented.

For Jack Costa, who arrived in the United States in 1990, aged 14, “the country needs immigrants.”.

“ Whoever says immigrants do not miss, forget ", summarized.

Vítor Vinhas supported the idea, stressing that living among the Portuguese community established in Newark, immigrants from Latin American countries such as Brazil or Ecuador “do certain jobs that nobody else does”.

“ In construction, when it is necessary to settle tiles when they are 40 degrees, it is foreigners. And they make it happy and without complaining ", said.

Reflecting on the issue of immigration in the campaign for the mid-term elections of November 3, Pedro Pires states that ICE’s action “not only leads people to have a different idea of Trump administration but can also lead them to have another idea about the Republican Party in general”.

“ I think that's the worst, we all know that he can't stay a term anymore, but if there was anyone able to vote for a Republican, he can change his mind because of what's happening with immigration," he said, pointing out that “Newark, for example, is a community in which 65% of people are immigrants, people who came from Brazil, Ecuador, Portugal”.

The Democratic Party, which has a chance to ‘turn’ the House of Representatives and even the Senate, “are more still and waiting for what will happen,” he assessed.

The impact of the persecution of immigrants is particularly felt among traders, whose majority “republic vote”.

“It’s normal, we know, but this is changing. The Democrats are, as is said, quiet waiting for this to change”, he said.