BY TED SHOCKLEY, Eastern Shore Post —
ICE agents have been on the Eastern Shore of Virginia Sept. 1 and 2, with sightings in Onley and Cheriton.
Accomack County Sheriff Todd Wessells confirmed that agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement told him that they were conducting operations in Accomack and Northampton counties.
Wessells said his office has nothing to do with the ICE operations and that the federal agents contacted him as a courtesy.
He did not know how long ICE would be in the area.
The federal agency in recent years has been arresting and detaining unauthorized immigrants in the United States.
Its agents also have been criticized for stopping legal U.S. citizens and for a heavy-handed approach.
According to social media accounts and interviews, the federal agents have been seen on U.S. Route 13 in Onley and near two Hispanic food trucks in Cheriton.
In one instance, the agents pulled over a vehicle near the Walmart store in Onley “for apparently no other reason than they happened to be brown,” said the Rev. Rick Willis, of Accomack County, in a telephone interview.
The people were U.S. citizens and were not detained.
“Apparently they’re doing random stops,” Willis said.
Social media photos showed a black Ford F-150 pickup truck in the Onley area and a black Chevrolet sport utility vehicle in Cheriton. Both unmarked vehicles had police lights.
Carmelitas, a Cheriton store and food truck, posted on Facebook that the same Chevrolet SUV that was seen near its store also had been seen near the Cheriton fire hall and El Ranchito Taqueria and Store.
“As a business and as part of this community, it hurts us to see the fear and the sadness that many families are living with because of the presence of ICE in our community,” read a post in Spanish on the Carmelitas Facebook page on Wednesday morning.
The post asked readers to “be alert and take precautions.”
“To our customers, neighbors, and friends, we know that these times can be very difficult and full of uncertainty. You are not alone,” the post read.
