Immigration arrests on Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket on Tuesday have rattled the island communities.

Federal agents of U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) were operating on both islands, detaining individuals. Special agents from the FBI, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the Drug Enforcement Administration assisted in the effort.

In photographs, and per eyewitness statements, many of the agents wore masks during the enforcement action.
 
According to a statement from ICE, among those arrested were people described as a “documented member of the notorious MS-13 street gang and at least one child sex offender.”

No names of those taken into custody were given. Nor were supporting details of these allegations supplied.

According to reporting from the Martha’s Vineyard newspapers—both the MV Timesand the Vineyard Gazette—agents in unmarked vehicles were stopping work vans and asking occupants to show documentation of residency status.

Nantucket Current reported that agents were pulling over cars on the road and removing occupants.

The Current posted a video to social media showing what it identified as 12 detainees being transported off-island on a Coast Guard boat. 

Coast Guard officials confirmed to CAI that their boats were used to transport agents and detainees to the mainland. A Coast Guard official told CAI that plans for the enforcement action had been in place since “at least a week ago.”

Nantucket police confirmed to CAI that they had been notified Monday of federal agents’ intention to come on Tuesday. Local police did not participate in the arrests.

In a statement, State Senator Julian Cyr said, “I am saddened and alarmed by large-scale immigration enforcement actions carried out by ICE and other federal agencies on both Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket on May 27. The operation appears to have gone far beyond any targeted effort. Multiple work vans were profiled and pulled over across the islands, individuals were questioned without clear cause, and forty people were taken into federal custody and dramatically removed from the islands aboard Coast Guard vessels.”

Congressman Bill Keating’s office issued a statement urging the Trump administration and ICE agents to give anyone detained due process.

This is a developing story. Check back for details.
 

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