ICE sightings on Long Island spark worries among farm, winery workers
There are some workforce worries at Long Island farm stands and wineries after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were recently spotted in East End towns.
As operations ratchet up this month at farm stands, on fields and in greenhouses, farmers worry about ICE's ripple effects into the summer growing season.
Farm worker sent back to Guatemala
Ed Densieski's family has been farming in East Quogue for more than 100 years.
"I'm working 200 acres. You gotta have some kind of labor force," he said.
He considers his immigrant labor force, like Hugo Verliz, part of his family.
"Twenty-five years, I work on the farm, never have problem here," Verliz said.
That is until February, Verliz said, when his nephew Freddy, who had also worked on the farm for two decades, was coming back from a short visit to Guatemala.
"When he came through, came back, ICE grabbed him at the border and sent him back," Densieski said.
"He's very good guy. [Densieski] loved him," Verliz said.
ICE told CBS News New York cases like Freddy's are for incomplete paperwork or visa issues.
"He had permit job. He had good paperwork," Verliz said.
70% of workforce is immigrant-based
So far, no ICE agents have appeared on any East End farms, but during an ICE raid outside a Greenport coffee shop in March, agents picked up two Pindar winery workers.
They were also long-time employees, said the Latino advocacy group OLA of Eastern Long Island.
"We are part of an ecosystem out here on the East End of Long Island, and when one section of that gets broken irreparably, it affects all of us," OLA Executive Director Minerva Perez said.
Homeland Security confirms it has an open dialogue with the Long Island Farm Bureau. Its quest is to have agricultural workers separated from overall immigration reform.
"Seventy percent of our workforce is an immigrant-based workforce, and the people in Washington do know and do realize," Long Island Farm Bureau Director Bill Zalakar said. "So, they're watching also on, you know, how they proceed."
