Rumors have been circulating for months on the docks of New Bedford. Workers have been hearing that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents are coming.
Jon Mitchell, New Bedford’s Harvard-educated mayor, told WGBH News, “It’s hard to tell whether some of those reports are apocryphal or whether they reflect an actual enforcement initiative, but either way it's putting individuals on edge.”
And those rumors have gained greater currency with reported sightings of official Homeland Security vehicles in the area. Denise Porché, Executive Director of the Island Foundation, said, “I saw a Homeland Security command center on Route 24. It was as tall as an 18-wheeler. And it was brand-spanking new and white with the big Homeland Security seal on it.”
“Well, I have seen the vans also,” said Helena DaSilva Hughes in a separate interview. She heads New Bedford’s Immigrant’s Assistance Center. “They’re around New Bedford. They’re calling me and saying they [saw] two big vans. The fear is very much alive about what can happen in New Bedford.”
The dock on this overcast day is lined with fishing boats. A young fisherman named Tony, wearing bright overalls and a broad smile, had just come to port. Tony, who’s from the Azores, said the boats here are from various parts of the world, and so are the crews.
“There’s Polish, there’s Azoreans, and there’s Mexican vessels," he said. "There’s Vietnamese vessels, too.”
Tony said some fishermen may be in the country illegally, but undocumented immigrants work mostly in the fish houses.
“Everyone knows that the fish houses, you know, there are a lot of undocumented populations that are working in New Bedford,” said DaSilva-Hughes. “They are doing jobs that no one else would do.”
DaSilva-Hughes adds that the work is hard — really hard. She said fish processing relies heavily on undocumented immigrants like a woman from El Salvador, who asked that we call her Lupe.
“Yes, I work in a fish processing plant and I do various kinds of work there," she said in Spanish. "I work with codfish and I work with salmon and I sometimes have to filet the codfish or take out the bones in the salmon, so, you know, I do all sorts of different things at the company.”
Lupe nervously rubbed her calloused hands together and spoke about an immigration raid 10 years ago, when she was one of the more than 300 mainly Central American workers swept up in a mass apprehension by ICE agents on a local factory.
"Yes of course, of course, I'm feeling the same kind of fear, especially when I talk to my son," she said. "My son was born here and he had asked me about life back in El Salvador: ‘Do they have some schools that you can study at in English?’ So it's just a level of fear of thinking about these kinds of things, and it's affecting my son this time also.”
Lupe said she was anxious about the ICE vehicles that many here have seen, and said she’s worried especially about her son, and what might happen if she’s picked up again. He was born here, she said, and has no idea about life back in El Salvador.
Walking along the docks, Denise Porché said fish processing workers like Lupe have every reason to have fear, given the size of Homeland Security vehicle she spotted on Route 24.
“No one's going to have a vehicle that big and take on that presence if they're not going to utilize this Command Center," she said.
Corinn Williams runs the Community Economic Development Center, located right smack in the middle of New Bedford’s largest Central American neighborhood. She said she gets why the ICE vans are so scary to immigrants here, but she cautioned against jumping to conclusions.
“I think it's important to separate between the rumors and the day-to-day activity of law enforcement," she said. "I think there's more aggressive enforcement, but at the same time you know there's federal agencies that regulate the ports, there has been some issue with human trafficking. Seeing ICE vehicles could have to do with customs enforcement, as well some of those vehicles are around in the vicinity anyway."
In an emailed response to a query from WGBH News, an ICE official said the agency never uses marked vehicles and would never comment about future operational activity. So, “whatever is going on in New Bedford is likely another agency and not ICE.”
Regardless of what ICE says, Corinn Williams hopes Trump Administration officials understand the impact targeted arrests on fish processing houses would have on the local economy.
“We're the No. 1 Seaport in the United States today in terms of dollar value," said Williams. "It’s a billion-dollar industry that has a multiplier effect throughout the community from the person who's working at a processing plant to people working on the vessels, so the repercussions in such an important industry in New Bedford would be catastrophic."
New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell sees less dire consequences for the city — it’s the residents he’s worried about.
“I'm not terribly concerned about the economic disruption as I am about the families who might be involved in any enforcement action," he said. "There are some scared folks in our community as there are in virtually every community in the United States that has a large immigrant population.”
The emptiness of an area along the dock near a fish plant seems to exemplify that fear. Until recently, one worker told me, some of the guys from Guatemala and El Salvador would linger, smoke and talk at the end of the day, while glancing out on the harbor. But today, the space was empty. Few seemed to be taking a chance that the rumors and vehicle sightings are untrue.
