ICE OUT OF LONG ISLAND: MARCH FOR HUMANITYFriday, May 1st, 3:00 PM
DEMANDS
Put Humanity First.
Stop mass deportations, detention, and forced disappearances.Our Dignity Is Not Negotiable.
Protect the dignity of workers, unions, and immigrants—we are the backbone of society.No Child Detention. Ever.
There is no humane way to detain a child. Period.Not One Detention Center.
Not in our Village. Not on Long Island.ICE Out of Long Island.
End all collaboration with ICE: Here in Hempstead, across Nassau County, and throughout Long Island.
WHY NOW?
The Heart of Long Island is Under Attack.This International Workers’ Day— a day rooted as much in global struggle as it is in solidarity, the Village of Hempstead is calling on communities from Long Island to New York City and beyond to join the ICE Out of Long Island: March for Humanity mobilization.May Day is about workers, immigrants, organizers, and everyday people coming together to demand dignity, safety, and fair treatment. That history is not separate from this moment, but rather a continuation. Today, the same forces that exploit labor and divide communities are fueling fear and enforcement in places like Hempstead.Stand with us— be it for the general strike, a day of no shopping, in defense of democracy, the end of ceaseless detentions, deportations, and U.S. instigated wars, the demand for dignity of our workers, unions, and immigrants—the very backbone of our society, resonates across our interconnected struggles. International Worker's Day reminds us that this fight belongs to all of us.
WHY HEMPSTEAD?
For the uninitiated: The Village of Hempstead is home to nearly 60,000 people and is located within the Town of Hempstead, in Nassau County on Long Island, New York. If you’ve never heard of us, please allow us to explain:The Village of Hempstead, often called the "Heart of Long Island," and located in Nassau County on Long Island, New York, is one of the most segregated regions in the country. Last year, Nassau County was described as being “on track” to detain as many as 3,000 people in a single year. By the summer of 2025, more than 1,400 people had been detained by ICE at a Nassau County jail in East Meadow over a mere five-month period, with data suggesting that a significant portion of the Island's total detainee count had no prior criminal record. Despite the scale of this activity, official, localized arrest data remains largely unavailable, however, local, community-based tracking efforts have documented over 100 verified ICE sightings in Hempstead alone. We are witnessing ICE activity among the highest concentrations on Long Island, and the highest reported within Nassau County.Families are being separated. Community members are afraid to go to work, to school, and to move freely through their own neighborhoods. Throughout history and as we’ve seen in recent events, when one community is treated as disposable, it puts us all at risk. We have also learned that when people come together across race, background, and struggle, we become a problem that cannot be ignored.
OUR GOAL
Our collective power shapes the just and equitable world we deserve. Not someday, but now. Let us be the story of what happens when people rise against grave and rampant injustice. Let us be the example of what it means to stand bravely, even before the allies came, and how powerful we became when we stood together. Because we know and believe that only the people can save the people.We are sending a message: The Village of Hempstead and Long Island residents broadly, will not stand for the forced disappearance, detention, or deportation of our families, friends, colleagues, and neighbors. We will not stand for the elimination of our community. We will not tolerate fear in our streets, or accept silence in the face of harm. In Hempstead, community means all of us—from Indigenous, Black, and Latino peoples to immigrants and working class, to every neighbor and ally around and in-between.Hempstead is home. Hempstead is all of us. We are the pulse—the heart—of Long Island.To stand with us on May 1st is to stand against ICE expansion and the inhumane detention and deportation of our communities. It is a declaration, ten toes down and from the chest that we demand ICE out of Hempstead, ICE out of Long Island, ICE out everywhere.
EXAMPLES OF HARM
Illegal Abductions: Racial profiling, legally statused residents, and neighbors with no criminal records kidnapped and deported.Fabricated Warrants: Documentation of warrants being faked after abductions to justify illegal detentions.Village Cooperation: These violations are happening with the active protection and cooperation of our own village officials.
Documented* police collaboration.
Documented use of our local police armory. Known cases of temporary detentions at the armory.
ICE has staked out at our bus stops and bus terminals to racial profile and detain all people of Hispanic appearance.
Documented ICE arrests and people detained at early as 6:30 AM on Christmas Eve morning.
Numerous documented cases of ICE arriving in unmarked vehicles and detaining people simply walking down the street.
Local Hempstead Police issuing unnecessary traffic tickets to legal observers.
Documented crackdown on known locations of our day labor community, most notably in the Home Depot parking lot.
Targeting arrests in areas central to latino such as Latino owned delis, grocers, restaurants and businesses.
Escalation of violence at grocery store frequented by latino community against a 32 year old Hondoran resident of Unidale, smashing his head into a brick wall upon arrest. (January 5, Newsday)
Case of man with SIJS at the armory
Video footage available of documented cases where ICE detained the stopped person regardless of status and readily available documentation.
* Cases and examples described as “documented” above often indicate ICE sightings, arrests, and detentions that have been corroborated by our trusted local ICE Watch committee. These incidents are most often cross referenced and confirmed by way of impacted family outreach and needed support, as well as detention status updates made available within ICE’s own data system. News links are not available for each case but public testimony and collected images and video are available upon request.
JOIN THE MOBILIZATION
Stand with the Heart of Long Island!
We march for humanity. We march to keep our families together.
We march to drive ICE out Hempstead, out of Long Island, out of everywhere.
SPREAD THE WORD
Bring your people!
Encourage your friends, family, colleagues and community to register and participate!
Share this page with your networks.
Explore our tool-kit.
Post on social media.
PARTNER WITH US
As a partner, you are part of a greater push to visibilize a community that has for too long been underestimated, overlooked, profiled and targeted. But we will not stay silent, not as they increase their efforts to divide and eliminate this community.
This mobilization has been made stronger through the support of our partners.
We thank each of them for standing with our community!