Roksana Amid
On a cold Monday night in Glen Cove, more than 100 residents, advocates, faith leaders and immigrants gathered for the second time this year to call attention to what organizers described as the escalating fear gripping local immigrant communities. The vigil, led by Assemblyman Charles Lavine, featured personal testimony, moral appeals and a renewed push for community-based support networks, as speakers detailed the human impact of immigration enforcement by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents across Long Island.
Lavine opened the program by emphasizing the human toll his office has witnessed. Local immigrant families, he said, should not be “fearful about going into a store to get a cup of coffee … or fearful to wait at a school bus with their children.” His office, he noted, has seen “firsthand the devastating impact that these policies are having on people who are innocent, people who are hardworking … their mothers and their fathers.”
Lavine also highlighted the Glen Cove Rapid Response Network, a newly formed volunteer group created to support vulnerable residents. “These are such good people,” he said, directing attendees to the group’s sign-up sheet. The network, Lavine explained, is “dedicated to protecting our community, including our neighbors who happen to be here and happen to be immigrants.” Volunteers, he said, help connect families with resources and mobilize quickly when community members feel unsafe.
Faith leaders from across the North Shore followed with powerful accounts from their own work. The Rev. Kimberly Wilson, of Our Savior’s Lutheran Church, in Glen Head, shared stories of immigrant families she has worked with over decades — Hmong children who escaped war and entered school for the first time as teenagers; a Polish family fleeing violent persecution; and an Iranian refugee, a child who grew up to become a decorated Marine helicopter pilot and commander of SpaceX’s Crew-7 mission.
Each story, Wilson said, underscored the resilience and contributions of immigrants. “Immigrants are what make our country great,” she said, adding that they “pay billions in taxes, create new businesses, and contribute significantly to our economic growth.” Framing the issue through scripture, Wilson reminded the crowd that “every person is created in the image of God and deserves to be treated with dignity and respect.”
Rabbi Michael Chagall, of North Country Reform Temple, in Glen Cove read a national Reform Jewish statement condemning policies that “demonize immigrants,” undermine due process and endanger houses of worship that support vulnerable people. Recalling the restrictive U.S. immigration laws of the 1920s — which barred many Jews fleeing the Holocaust — Chagall emphasized the community’s moral obligation to act.
“The demonization of immigrants as criminals must stop,” the statement reads. “Mass roundups … and deportation without due process must halt.”
The Rev. Roger Williams, of First Baptist Church of Glen Cove, gave one of the night’s most impassioned speeches, connecting current fears in immigrant communities to the historic oppression of Black Americans in the Jim Crow South. Sharing stories from his grandfathers — one was denied the right to vote after being ordered to recite the Declaration of Independence, and the other was chased by white children throwing rocks — Williams said that the same dehumanizing forces are now aimed at immigrants. “What our immigrant community is facing right now are threats to their humanity,” he said, urging residents and elected officials alike to show “righteous indignation” in defense of their neighbors.
On the advocacy front, Locust Valley resident Eric Villalobos described his work traveling across Long Island to teach immigrants about their constitutional rights. Many undocumented residents, he said, wrongly believe they have none. “It’s important that people understand that they have basic rights regardless of their immigration status,” Villalobos said.
But, he added, knowledge alone is not protection. “Knowing your rights is not going to stop you from getting detained or from getting violently persecuted …,” he said. “That’s the reality we face right now.” Real progress, Villalobos told the crowd, comes from connection: “The most powerful weapon … is human connection. It’s love. It’s community.”
Some attendees expressed frustration with Glen Cove Mayor Pamela Panzenbeck regarding the activity of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in the area, noting that neighbors are afraid to leave their homes. In a call with the Herald after the vigil, Panzenbeck emphasized that the city has no authority over federal operations.
“ICE is a federal agency,” she said. “It operates outside of whatever it is that we actually do. While acknowledging community concern, she added that “there have really been no removals of people … for quite some time,” to her knowledge. “I can’t stop them from coming into Glen Cove,” she said. “People think you can do all that stuff. You really can’t.”
Lavine closed the vigil with a call for continued solidarity — both moral and practical. “In a multitude of allies there is strength,” he said. “Let us continue to stand together to fight for, to demand and to receive justice.”
