From South Florida, a community of migrants received free turkeys for Thanksgiving and expressed living in fear of ICE raids.
By Alberto Daniel Barboza
Los Angeles, November 26 (LaOpinión).- With agents of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service (ICEfor its acronym in English) strategically deployed in the streets, the migrants They have something very clear for Thanksgiving Day: he November 27 is celebrated at home. in a community agriculturallocated south of Floridathey are afraid of barely going out.
“We can’t go out, because they can catch us as if we were criminals, which is not the case,” he told Telemundo News a migrant who, for security reasons, did not offer her identity or address. She is a farm worker and her husband is in the construction sector. Both live “semi-hidden”.
“We come home from work, we lock ourselves in, we don’t go out. That’s how it is all week, if there is no reason to go out, we don’t go out,” reiterated the 15-year-old mother of three; five and one year and seven months.
“I have told them that if something happens not to be scared, not to cry (…) And they ask me: ‘but what did you do’, and I tell them: ‘nothing, I didn’t do anything,’” he said.
Nora Sandigo Foundation gives you free turkeys for Thanksgiving
In order to brighten up the Thanksgiving holiday, and prevent them from frequenting the supermarkets, the Nora Sandigo Children Foundation delivered free turkeys.
Every year they hold a celebration with the community, but in 2025 they had to make an exception due to immigration operations.
“They are harassed all the time, they are afraid to visit us. And since they can’t get to our house, we have decided to come,” said Nora Sandigo, of Nicaraguan origin and director of the foundation.
Another immigrant from the community said that his greatest fear is that his children will be left alone, in a hypothetical scenario of being arrested by ICE. “Because they depend on me and that’s how sad it is,” he added.
One of his sons, named Diego (13 years old), commented that he was worried about his father. “Let one of them (ICE agents) come, detain him and go away.”
A third immigrant who agreed to speak with the media, also a mother, said: “You can go out, with your children, but you don’t know if you are going to return. We are always afraid, but we ask God every day. The most difficult thing is the children.”
Her 16-year-old daughter cried in the middle of the talk, claiming to be afraid that her mother would be deported, having to take care of her little brothers, a responsibility for which she admits she does not feel prepared.
Despite immigration raids and constant fear, this community of immigrants in Florida hopes to enjoy Thanksgiving together, as a family, a reason enough to give thanks.