Brentwood Residents Demand ICE Out of Firehouses

Deputy Speaker Phil Ramos and Islip Forward Founder and Executive Director Ahmad Perez lock arms with residents outside Brentwood’s auxiliary fire station during a July 6 rally; subsequent images show protesters extending the line across the station apron, demanding ICE be barred from fire-district grounds. Photos: Christopher Acebo

BRENTWOOD, NY - On July 3, multiple ICE agents brazenly turned a Brentwood Fire Department sub-station—steps from Roberto Clemente Park—into their personal staging ground.

Our local firefighters are heroes—volunteers, 70 percent of whom are Latino—who run toward danger so the rest of us can run to safety. Their stations should be sanctuaries of trust, not launchpads for fear. Yet ICE agents have been using Brentwood firehouses as staging grounds for raids that rip families apart. None of our firefighters signed up to help federal agents hunt down their own neighbors.

The Brentwood Board of Fire Commissioners has both the authority and the obligation to end this. Under N.Y. Town Law § 176(19), commissioners hold exclusive management and control of all fire-district property. If an activity isn’t tied to firefighting, training, or emergency response, they can—and must—deny access.

Islip Forward reached out to department leadership for dialogue. They hung up on us. That silence speaks volumes.

Leadership is stonewalling while rank-and-file firefighters—many from the very communities ICE is targeting—are left to shoulder the fallout.

We therefore demand that the Board immediately:

1. Issue a formal directive prohibiting any non-emergency federal use of Brentwood Fire District facilities and parking lots.

2. Publicly confirm compliance with that directive so residents can regain confidence in their stations.

3. Engage the community at the next Board meeting to explain how they will prevent future misuse of district property.

Inaction is complicity. Brentwood’s firehouses must return to what they were built for: rescue, refuge, and relentless solidarity—not the machinery of deportation.

These demands were delivered in person during the July 6 rally outside of the main Brentwood Fire Station, where Deputy Speaker of the New York State Assembly Phil Ramos joined residents in urging swift action.