‘When You Take the Mom Away, You Take the Whole Family Away’: Peekskill Rally Condemns ICE Tactics 

By Abby Luby

A local Ecuadorian immigrant and her young son are set to leave the United States today after allegedly facing the possibility of being separated by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

The circumstances sparked local outrage and brought urgency to a rally in Peekskill yesterday, as about 100 people gathered to protest ICE tactics and raise concerns about due process.

“She had no choice,” Mark Lieberman, co-lead of Yorktown Indivisible NY, remarked in an interview. “Self deport, or they would separate her from her child and deport them. Do you believe that?…It’s just beyond belief.” 

Since mid-July, local anger has mounted over ICE raids after six agents in four unmarked cars reportedly followed 24-year-old Ecuadorian immigrant Amy Lituma and her four-year-old son from their Peekskill home to BJ’s Wholesale Club in Yorktown Heights. Lituma said officers then ordered her and her son out of their car and questioned her about her husband. ICE detained Lituma but later released her with an ankle monitor; she was ordered to return to court at the end of July.

Shortly after the July 16 incident, which gained attention after a video circulated on social media, The Examiner interviewed Lituma, who worked as a local housecleaner.

“My son started crying, he was so scared,” she recalled at the time, her voice trembling. “I did not know what to do. I just kept thinking, ‘What’s going on?’”

A media advisory distributed before the Peekskill rally noted how Lituma wants to “help other mothers before she is deported by ICE on Tuesday.”

“She wants to tell them how ICE separates mothers from their children to get them to capitulate without due process for residents,” the message also stated.

Monday’s event, “Protect Our Neighbors and Mothers,” drew about 100 people to the Peekskill Gazebo. Local representatives included state Sen. Peter Harckham (D-Lewisboro), Assemblywoman Dana Levenberg (D-Ossining), Peekskill Mayor Vivian McKenzie and Peekskill Council Member Ramon Fernandez.

“There is something very sick and broken about America right now,” Harckham told the crowd. “The president’s stated goal was to get violent criminals off the streets. But The New York Times reported that half of the immigrants arrested by ICE have no criminal history.”

ICE arrests have undermined years of trust and bridge-building by local police, Harckham also maintained.

“The tactics that are being used in our neighborhoods, in Peekskill, Ossining, Mount Kisco and Brewster by those in unmarked vehicles and by unidentifiable officers whose faces are covered with masks – this is terrifying our immigrant community,” he said.

Levenberg praised immigrants for their importance to the economy and as an essential part of area communities.

“What we need is a process to make it legal for people to be here and not throw people in jail, deporting people and making it harder for our communities to exist,” Levenberg said.

Peekskill resident Lorna Gonsalves held a handmade sign that said “Peekskill Cares About the Safety of Our Newer Immigrant Neighbors.” 

“I’m sad and angry at how they are rounding up people without permits or warrants,” Gonsalves said. “ICE can do whatever they want without any accountability. That creates anguish and hopelessness among people.”

Ignacio Acevado, a Hudson Valley organizer from the New York Civil Liberties Union, said Amy Lituma’s arrest was personal.

“When I see a mom taken away it feels like it’s my mom. It’s my sister. It’s my cousin,” Acevado said. “When you take the mom away, you take the whole family away. I’m dealing with multiple cases of moms being taken away from their children.”

A current case Acevado is working on involves a mother detained by ICE.

“Her baby is in the city of Newburgh and she is somewhere in the south. She can’t nurse her one-year-old baby. All we can do is give the baby a hug and tell him we will do the best we can.”

Jhefres Reyes, an organizer with Make the Road New York, a group that supports community organizing, legal survival services and education, spoke passionately about the importance of due process.

“I’ve knocked on doors throughout the Hudson Valley and the entire 17th Congressional District and everywhere people feel threatened by ICE,” Reyes said. “If ICE sees that you look Hispanic they will take you into custody. Stop profiling.”

At the rally was Mohegan Lake resident Elaine Chapnik, a retired lawyer who actively volunteers her legal expertise with the Safe Passage Project, an organization providing free lawyers to immigrant and refugee children who are being deported.

Chapnik shared her experience of escorting a male immigrant last week who appeared in one of the two New York City immigration courtrooms. Immigrants are often detained by ICE when leaving court. Chapnik was trained to be an “observer” – someone who accompanies immigrants to and from court. The training was provided by PSC-CUNY, a faculty and staff union at the City University of New York.

“The training strongly emphasized against being disrupters,” Chapnik explained. “You don’t want to get in the way of an official act by the government because it would be a felony.”

While waiting for cases to be heard, volunteers like Chapnik ask immigrants to fill out a card with their name, phone number and an emergency contact in order to communicate the detainee’s status if they are arrested. Last Friday, after Chapnik escorted the man out of the courtroom, they were immediately met by ICE agents.

“There were at least six men and one woman who were ICE agents, all masked. They grabbed the man I was with in a strong, assertive way and told me to get out of the way,” Chapnik recalled. “It wasn’t abusive or violent but they meant business.”