Dozens of Worcester residents, enraged by a recent federal immigration operation, joined Tuesday’s City Council meeting to denounce municipal leaders and the police department’s response to the incident.
The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement operation last week turned chaotic when nearly 30 neighbors and activists tried to prevent agents from taking Rosane Ferreira De Oliveira into custody. Worcester police responded to the scene and ended up arresting Ferreira De Oliveira’s 16-year-old daughter as well as Worcester School Committee candidate Ashley Spring.
The police department has said officers were trying to deal with crowd concerns, not help with the immigration operation. But during a City Council meeting Tuesday, speakers accused Worcester officers of aiding the federal agents, even though the city has repeatedly said in recent months that police wouldn’t participate in ICE operations.
Instead of de-escalating the situation, residents added that officers used excessive force when they pinned the 16-year-old to the ground, continuing a pattern highlighted in a recent investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice.
“We have to get rid of police cooperation with ICE,” Ginny Ryan told councilors. “We need you to be accountable to us, to be responsible to us, to protect us — and we need the Worcester police to do the same.”
Right before the meeting, more than 200 protestors gathered outside City Hall, calling on municipal leaders to protect residents and hold the police department more accountable. It was the third such protest since the raid on Eureka Street Thursday.
Rob Tisdell, who attended the rally, noted that he grew up on Eureka Street and called it a peaceful neighborhood. To see masked agents take a mother away, and then watch Worcester police respond so aggressively was infuriating and disheartening, he said.
“I’ve never felt so motivated to go out and say something,” Tisdell said. “It’s insane. People shouldn’t be kidnapping people off of residential neighborhoods.”
In response to the public scrutiny, the Department of Homeland Security said Ferreira De Oliveira faces charges of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon stemming from an incident in February. In court records, police say she used a phone cord to assault her daughter.
The City Council meeting Tuesday was held virtually in response to threats councilors said they’ve received in recent days.
Worcester Police Chief Paul Saucier and City Manager Eric Batista, who supervises the police department, didn’t speak during the City Council meeting Tuesday. Mayor Joseph Petty said police faced a difficult situation when federal agents were arresting Ferreira De Oliveira, especially when some people “moved on law enforcement.” He reiterated that officers did not show up to help ICE but rather defuse the tense scene.
Still, Petty said the optics of police forcibly arresting a 16-year-old weren’t good, and added that the ICE operation has devastated the community.
“I’ve really taken a lot of pride in Worcester being a welcoming city. But what ICE did has changed that,” Petty said. “People who just want to live here in Worcester and be safe, and then they show up in masks.”
Khrystian King was the only other councilor who commented on the immigration operation. He said the federal government is trying to scare people with what he described as “terror tactics that have far-reaching consequences.”
He made a handful of motions, including asking the police department to release all body camera footage from officers who responded to the Eureka Street incident. He also requested that social workers and clinicians accompany Worcester police whenever they respond to ICE activity and other traumatic situations involving children.
Separately, Petty asked the city administration and police department to create protocols for how to respond to future ICE operations.
