-- Theodore Roosevelt
By Alex P. Vidal
NEW YORK CITY -- I sent text messages to warn several Pinoy TNTs (Tago Ng Tago) here after I noticed a "commotion" on the 74th Street (Jackson Heights-Roosevelt Avenue) New York City Broadway Subway-Station before the Valentine's Day.
"Avoid the 74th subway station. Massive arrest ongoing," was the text message I first sent to Inday Blackeye (not her real name), who works as house-cleaner in Manhattan and lives some four blocks away from the 74th Street in Woodside, Queens.
I told Inday Blackeye to also alert her fellow TNTs, including her nemesis, Inday Pandak, and Inday Gurang (not their real names).
Indays Blackeye, Pandak, and Gurang are all in their 60s.
If they come from Manhattan, they should disembark on the 69th Street station and "never make a mistake of getting off on the 74th Station," I later told Inday Blackeye who nervously called me up to get additional details of the incident.
OPERATIVES
Plain clothed Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operatives reportedly made a surprise arrest of suspected illegal immigrants who were coming out from the train.
Most of those caught were Latinos, it was reported.
A certain Luisa and Darius, both Filipinos, were reportedly among those "invited" for questioning. Luisa, a baby-sitter, reportedly screamed when she learned those who accosted her were from the ICE.
They were all brought to New Jersey. Some of them were detained, including the 40 who were mostly Spanish-speaking, it was reported.
"If you were in the wrong place at the wrong time, you're finished because it was a random raid," quipped Jonathan of Cagayan De Oro City in Mindanao.
Jonathan said he's not yet a TNT, but "I didn't want to be mistaken as one." When an ICE agent reportedly gestured to Jonathan to come to him, Jonathan fled to the nearby Dunkin Donuts.
COALITION
The New York Immigration Coalition said that these arrests were part of “routine, daily targeted operations” and noted that additional persons encountered during these operations would, “when appropriated (sic), arrested by ICE.” ICE has already confirmed operations in five other states last week.
“We are horrified and angered by the ICE raids and activity in the greater New York area that has led to the arrest and detainment of 40 people,” Steve Choi, executive director of the New York Immigration Coalition said in a statement. “Shame on ICE for putting New York’s immigrant communities--four million strong--in a state of panic. These arrests do nothing but tear families apart, hobble our economies, and corrode the bonds of trust that tie our communities together--all under the false pretense of “public safety.”
President Donald J. Trump tweeted that "the crackdown on illegal criminals is merely the keeping of my campaign promise. Gang members, drug dealers & others are being removed!"
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio condemned the arrests which started in the Staten Island. He tweeted: "We will use all of the tools at our disposal to protect them from any federal overreach."
Forty percent of New Yorkers are reportedly foreign-born and about four million are illegal immigrants.
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