"Wave Of Fear" On Nantucket As Immigration Enforcement Tightens Under Trump Administration

The Trump administration's promise of mass deportations and its sharp shift in federal immigration policy has set off a "wave of fear" among Nantucket's immigrant community.

Carla Zenis, who came to Nantucket from Chile in 2004 and has two children in the public school system, said some parents are even keeping their children home and staying indoors themselves over their concerns about getting arrested and deported.

"I'm seeing the wave of fear - my clients don't want to go to their sessions because they don't know if they'll be picked up by ICE," said Zenis, who works at A Safe Place, Nantucket's sexual assault and domestic violence prevention agency. "There are parents who are undocumented who are afraid to send their children to school. Who is going to pick them up and drop them off? I know a lot of people close to me, they do have that fear now. They decide to stay in their house and not go outside, and they’re not sending their children to school. They're afraid they’re going to take their children."

On Monday, those fears manifested in unfounded rumors that Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents were already on the island and making arrests. Nantucket Police Lt. Angus MacVicar said Tuesday his department had "no knowledge" of ICE being on the island, and that the federal agency has always informed local law enforcement if and when they conduct an operation.

Along with the Trump administration's pledge to conduct mass deportations, the Department of Homeland Security announced last Tuesday that it was scrapping policies that had previously prohibited ICE and Border Patrol agents from carrying out immigration enforcement actions in sensitive locations such as schools and churches. 

“This action empowers the brave men and women in CBP and ICE to enforce our immigration laws and catch criminal aliens—including murderers and rapists—who have illegally come into our country," DHS stated in its announcement. "Criminals will no longer be able to hide in America’s schools and churches to avoid arrest. The Trump Administration will not tie the hands of our brave law enforcement, and instead trusts them to use common sense."

On Monday, Nantucket Public Schools superintendent Beth Hallett sent a letter to all parents in English, Spanish, and Portuguese outlining how the district will be "protecting immigrant students' rights" and the procedures it will implement if an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent sought entry to one of the island's public schools.

"School staff have been directed not to permit the agent to enter the building but instead to send the agent to the Central Office," Hallett's letter states. "School staff will then notify the Superintendent immediately, who will discuss next steps with legal counsel; the student’s parents/guardians will also be notified immediately...We would allow ICE agents into our facilities only if they possess a criminal judicial warrant signed by a federal or state judge with the appropriate legal authority."

Hallett added that the schools' contracted bus company - Cape Cod Collaborative - will ensure that students will be returned to their school "if they cannot safely return home due to the interference of ICE agents." She said the district had not had any contact with ICE, but the letter was intended to assure families that Nantucket's public schools "will always be a safe place for their children" and to help inform them of their rights under the existing laws. 

"The tenor in our schools is very tough right now," Hallett told the Current on Tuesday. "It’s not that they don’t feel safe in school, it’s that they don't feel safe outside. They’re concerned about their parents and loved ones. We really want to put their minds at ease in school, but also recognize the fear is real. We can’t brush it off." 

Nantucket Public Schools have been majority-minority since 2021, and "Hispanic or Latino" students now make up the largest demographic group in the district at 44.2 percent of the student body. Some of those students themselves are undocumented, and while many others were born on Nantucket and are United States citizens, their parents remain undocumented.

Esmeralda 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, said that reality is why many of Nantucket's immigrants are scared and concerned about the shift in federal immigration policy. The letter from Hallett sent to parents on Monday helped to alleviate some of their concerns, but their fears remain. 

"No one has reached out to me that they don’t feel safe, but I’ve heard from others that they’re scared," Martinez said, whose parents immigrated to the United States from El Salvador. "This is very alarming. I’m all for (ICE) taking the rapists, the people who have committed multiple crimes, but now it feels like if you’re at the wrong time and wrong place and you don’t have papers, you’re getting picked up. I have not heard that parents are not sending their kids to school, but I try to put myself in that situation and I wouldn't want my kids to go to school not knowing if I can pick them up. But people are scared and it's only been a week. I don't know what the long-term effect of all this will be. This is our community and we care for it and care for our people. This whole situation is very upsetting and unfortunate."

Page Martineau, the president of the Nantucket Teachers' Association, said she was glad to see the message go out from superintendent Hallett on Monday reinforcing that the schools are a safe place for students.

"The change in immigration policy has definitely affected our students, and they are asking teachers questions about what is going to happen," Martineau said. "Bottom line, they want to know if they are safe at school and in this community. While we really can't answer that question outside of school, at least we have a definitive protocol for what happens when they are at school."

Last September, ICE agents conducted a week-long operation on Nantucket and arrested five people for immigration offenses who had also been charged with a range of violent crimes and sexual assaults on the island.

For Martinez and Zenis, those arrests were appropriate and necessary. But they fear the new administration of President Donald Trump will go beyond seeking to deport those who have committed crimes in the U.S.

"Because of the Trump situation, there is a lot of misinformation and it's the unknown," said Zenis, who worked on Nantucket for 10 years as an undocumented immigrant before earning citizenship. "If someone has a criminal record, when ICE came last year, they targeted the real criminals. And so we applaud that. Please take them out of the country for everyone's safety. But now it’s a deportation issue. If someone has been living here for 10 years and working and keeping a low profile and not getting into trouble, if ICE gets them now they have to go. The dynamic here is different now."

Zenis mentioned Nantucket's large population of Salvadoran residents, many of whom are in the United States with Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, a designation granted by the Secretary of Homeland Security to foreign countries enduring an ongoing armed conflict, an environmental disaster or epidemic, or "other extraordinary and temporary conditions." Individuals from those countries granted TPS status can obtain an employment authorization document, are not removable from the United States, and can be granted travel authorization.

During the final days of the Biden administration earlier this month, outgoing Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas announced an extension of the TPS status for El Salvador for 18 months.

"On Nantucket, a lot of people from El Salvador have TPS status, but if they don't and they get deported, it's going to cause a lot of economic and social consequences on the island," Zenis said. "I was undocumented for 10 years and now I'm a citizen. But the path was so hard, and every year it gets harder and harder."