Community members in Islip are up in arms about an upcoming contract renewal between the town government and ICE that allows the agency to use a local firing range for target practice.
While the contract is set to expire June 30, the Republican-dominated town board is expected to renew it. The anticipated move has upset locals who do not feel that the agreement reflects the community’s relationship with ICE.
At an Islip town board meeting earlier this week, many locals spoke out against the contract renewal. Among them was the founder of the local activism group Islip Forward, Ahmad Perez.
“While parents are afraid to drop their kids off at schools and workers are looking over their shoulders just to get through the day, you have maintained a partnership with the very agency that's driving that fear,” he said. “It means the town of Islip is not a bystander. You are complicit. You have created the conditions for this level of enforcement to exist here, and you have benefited from it. You have profited from it, and history will remember that.”
During the town hall meeting, he also took the opportunity to question Islip Town Supervisor Angie Carpenter.
“Supervisor Carpenter, one day your time in office will end, and when it does, you will not be judged by press releases or procedural explanations,” he said. “You are going to be judged by the people whose lives were shaped by your decisions. You will have to explain to your community, your family and your grandkids why you stood by and did nothing while families were torn apart, why you chose a contract over human lives and why you chose silence over courage.”
Tensions surrounding ICE’s presence in the area have been brewing since last July, following the arrests of immigrants with no criminal records.
Islip and Brentwood have been the most targeted communities on Long Island for ICE operations since arrests from the agency ramped up in the region in June, 2025.
Local native Joshua Chan said he agrees with the contract involving local law enforcement — but not ICE.
“The issue is the specific contract with the Department of Homeland Security to use our public gun range,” Chan said. “Because for a lot of people, especially in communities like mine, that name carries weight, it's not just another agency. It's something people associate with fear, with families being separated and with not knowing if someone you love is going to come home, and when you hear they’re training right in your own town, it doesn't feel distant. It feels close.”
Controversy surrounding ICE has been prominent across the United States, but it came to the national forefront following the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis in January 2026.
While ICE is currently holding 60,000 individuals under arrest, 71% have reportedly had no criminal convictions.
A reported 442,637 people were deported from the United States between October 2024 and September 2025, with less than 14% of immigrants arrested by ICE being convicted or charged for violent crimes by February, 2026, according to CBS News.
