Concerned by dwindling customers at local restaurants due to United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) activity, Hofstra University alumni Heidi Sanft began dining at Spanish restaurants on Long Island this past February to show support.
Controversy has swirled around ICE since its inception. Criticism of the organization has grown louder, though, since the start of President Donald Trump’s second term, due to the administration’s promotion of a “mass deportation” policy and multiple violent incidents involving ICE agents, including two fatal shootings that occurred in Minneapolis earlier this year.
Sanft, 69, is a longtime resident of Uniondale, whose parents moved to Long Island from Brooklyn when she was a small child in 1967. Sanft’s deep ties to her community make her feel skeptical of ICE and what they could do to Uniondale’s immigrant population.
Since February, Sanft has visited Uniondale restaurants every Monday for a meal. The businesses told her they have noticed a decrease in customers since the ICE sightings.
Sanft, who is the vice president of the Nostrand Gardens Civic Association in Uniondale, read a Newsday article late last year about restaurants in Uniondale and Hempstead that historically serve Hispanic customers and are struggling financially due to ICE’s presence on Long Island.
She wanted to financially support restaurants by eating meals at their locations. Sanft believes that everyone should be treated equally. From her experience living in a diverse neighborhood, she believes that America is the land of opportunity that should promote equal and fair treatment.
“I just think it’s so wrong on so many levels, the way this thing is being handled,” Sanft said of the unlawful arrests and detention of immigrants by ICE.
While helping run the Civic Association’s monthly meetings at the Van Ness Fire Station in Uniondale, she has heard many stories of ICE sightings. Community members say that they are afraid to leave their homes in fear of encountering officers. According to Sanft, the number of Uniondale students has decreased due to families choosing to self-deport to other countries.
Sanft wanted to take initiative – so she announced at the February Civic Association meeting that she would begin to attend local restaurants and invited anyone who wanted to support the cause to join. Every Monday around 5:15 p.m., she visits a local Uniondale restaurant for dinner. Her first stop was The Dominican Restaurant on Front Street. She plans to pick up and move locations when the initiative builds momentum and gains more support.
So far, three people have shown interest in the cause since she started. Valentina Goris, Uniondale High School student board member representative, and her sister attended the first dinner with Sanft. At the second dinner, Sanft caught a community member heading inside to meet her as she was heading out with takeout from the restaurant.
“I’m doing this on my own,” Sanft said. “If people come, great; if no one comes, I just get takeout. It’s just my way of saying that I care and I want these restaurants to survive.”
No one who Sanft knows personally has been detained by ICE, but she compares the wrongful discrimination and injustices against people to the Holocaust and recognizes how her family suffered during World War II. Her concern comes from keeping up with the news and “seeing people being ripped off the streets.”
Communities have been very aware of ICE’s presence. According to News 12 Long Island, the advocacy group Islip Forward expressed their concern by sharing photos of masked immigration officers appearing near schools. Similar sightings were reported in Hempstead near a middle school as well.
Long Island Advocate also reported on the large makeup of labor that undocumented immigrants perform on the island. Long Island relies heavily on labor, taxes and consumer spending from immigrants, with an estimate of 100,000 undocumented immigrants calling Long Island home.
Long Island ICE Tracker, an Instagram page dedicated to posting ICE sightings on Long Island, has amassed over 28,000 followers. This page is a campaign of Islip Forward, an activist group focused on justice, community and action, according to their website. The Instagram page also advertises their ICE tracker app, which is a free and anonymous place to report sightings. As of late April, the app reports 769 confirmed sightings, with pictures, time, date and location of all things relating to ICE, whether it’s a labeled or undercover car, officer or an active detaining.
Sanft does not necessarily see what she is doing as activism, but as a way to support businesses who may be in need.
Disclosure:
The author attends the monthly Nostrand Gardens Civic Association meetings.
