Federal ICE Agents Arrest "Violent Offenders" On Nantucket In Multi-Day Operation

Agents from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency have been active on Nantucket this week, making several arrests of "violent offenders" around the island in unmarked vehicles.

It’s unclear how many people have been arrested during the multi-day operation or what charges they are facing. Photos and videos sent to the Current by island residents this week showed arrests being made at Park Circle on Wednesday, another on Surfside Road Thursday morning, as well as on Bartlett Road and Essex Road. 

According to a press release issued by the Nantucket Police Department, the ICE agents were on Nantucket "to serve administrative arrest warrants for immigration violations. The arrest warrants were specifically for ‘violent offenders’. The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency, not unlike many local, state, or federal agencies, requested our assistance with local knowledge of geographical areas of our town. The Nantucket Police Department, specifically the Detective Unit did assist with identifying requested addresses provided to them by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency."

On Friday, the ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) Boston field office issued the following statement about the Nantucket arrests through its spokesperson James Covington: “ERO Boston can confirm that we have been conducting targeted enforcement actions in coordination with Nantucket Police in Nantucket, Massachusetts. The actions, which targeted several egregious noncitizen offenders, have been going on for the last few days and wrapped up this morning. ERO Boston would like to thank the Nantucket Police for their cooperation and support throughout this process. As many aspects of the analysis remain ongoing, ERO will not comment further at this time. ERO Boston will release further details in the coming days.”

Among Nantucket’s large immigrant community, word of the arrests and presence of ICE spread quickly this week, and “caused panic for many,” according to island resident Esmeralda Martinez, whose parents immigrated to the United States from El Salvador.

“It’s frightening for so many,” said Martinez, who is serving her second term on the Nantucket School Committee and is the island’s first and only Latina candidate to hold elected office. “People are hiding in fear that they might be here for them even though most don’t have a criminal record, but for the mere fact that they are not legally here. It has caused panic for many.”

While ICE operations on Nantucket were relatively common in the mid-to late-2000s, they had been infrequent in recent years. Recent ICE operations on Nantucket include one in 2012 when agents arrested three individuals who were processed for removal from the United States, and another in 2017 when four people were taken into custody.