ICE ‘shockingly’ takes over firehouse lot in major Long Island immigrant hub

It’s fire and ICE in one Long Island town.

Tensions are burning in Brentwood after ICE agents were spotted using the local firehouse parking lot as a makeshift base of operations just weeks after Suffolk County doubled down on its anti-sanctuary stance. 

Unmarked ICE vehicles and agents were confirmed to be operating out of the lot, according to several Long Island pols representing the immigrant-heavy community where more than 70% of residents are Latino.

“In a town built and protected by a Latino majority, ICE was shockingly allowed to use a Brentwood firehouse to launch enforcement operations against that very community,” state Assemblyman Phil Ramos raged on Facebook on Monday. 

Ramos slammed Brentwood’s fire department, but its officials told The Post they had no prior knowledge of ICE using the fire station’s parking lot as a base, adding that as a state entity, it can’t stop a federal agency from using the site, which they also said is public property. 

“At no time did the Brentwood Fire District or Brentwood Fire Department have any knowledge or allow any Law enforcement Agency to use the fire house parking lot,” the fire district told The Post in a statement. “We were never contacted by any federal, state or local law enforcement agency or any other branch of government regarding the use of any parking lot at any fire district location.”

But Ramos is not convinced, and activists from the group Islip Forward claim to have seen firefighters on the property at the same time. 

“It happened with the knowledge and approval of local fire department leadership — leadership chosen by the very community now being targeted,” Ramos claimed.

“All while some elected officials stood by, making excuses instead of defending those they were elected to serve.”

But firefighters who asked to remain anonymous thanks to a gag order placed over the department by leadership, debunked Ramos’ claim.

“All local fire departments are public buildings and public property,” a firefighter told The Post+.

“Anyone is allowed to utilize the parking lots for any reason that doesn’t interfere with the ability to respond to emergencies and conduct day to day operations. You can literally walk right into any fire department building right now.” 

He said there are some mixed opinions among first responders on ICE using department parking lots as mini-bases, with Huntington and Riverhead stations also being recently roped in by the federal agency. 

“Trust me when I say there are definitely many mixed opinions, even though many assume that firefighters are entirely right-leaning,” the first responder said. 

Suffolk County declined to comment on the matter.

But last month, elected officials there pledged that the county would not be used as a sanctuary for undocumented immigrants — and vowed to work alongside ICE when called upon.

Still, they also pledged not to question victims or witnesses of crimes on their immigration status and promised that ICE would not be conducting any raids at schools, hospitals or churches.

“Long Island is not a sanctuary county and will not become one,” a Suffolk County rep said in June. 

Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman told The Post last month, “There is no reason to be afraid because they’re only going after criminals –- people who have committed rapes and burglaries.”

But critics, including many residents in Brentwood, have slammed the Trump administration’s ICE raids.

“Yeah, we have an MS-13 problem here — but I don’t see them raiding drug houses and gang spots — I see them taking mothers, arresting people at their jobs, and even at legal immigration hearings, not actual criminals like they should be targeting,” said a resident who declined to share his name because he has undocumented family members. 

He said his community has been on edge since Brentwood resident Elzon Lemus, a 23-year-old US citizen, was briefly detained by ICE agents during a caught-on-video traffic stop in Westbury in June.

The resident added that the recent arrest of 30-year-old Martinez Ventura — a Brentwood mother of five with no criminal record detained during a scheduled immigration check-in and moved to a facility in Texas — has only put more people in fear. 

Ventura, a native of El Salvador, entered the US illegally, then applied twice for asylum and was denied but is continuing to try to make her case in the courts.

“If she got detained at a check-in, what does that tell my family members who came here the right way and have been, for years, trying to do it by the book? It tells them not to anymore,” he said. 

But not all Long Islanders were in agreement. 

“ICE is allowed to do their job,” Kay Emmer said. “People ‘scared’ can opt to self-deport.”