Immigration

UPDATE Fear Palpable among Immigrant Community as Feds Converge on Bronx amid ICE Raids

By DAVID GREENE
Federal agents from a host of different law enforcement agencies converged last month on at least three locations in The Bronx, one in Manhattan, and another in Queens in efforts to detain undocumented migrants. The raids came days after Republican U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Jan. 22, suspending “the physical entry of aliens engaged in an invasion of the United States through the southern border.” This order had, in turn, followed a prior Jan. 20 executive order authorizing the detention of “unregistered aliens,” among other immigration-related actions.

Former Bronx Professor Gets Over 8 Years for Human Trafficking & Sex Crimes

By SÍLE MOLONEY
A 45-year-old Bronx man, Jorge Alberto Ramos, was sentenced on Thursday, Feb. 6, to over 8 years in prison for smuggling three female victims from El Salvador to the U.S., where he sexually abused them, federal prosecutors said. The man’s sentence was also for possessing child pornography. Danielle R. Sassoon, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, said the sentence was imposed by U.S. District Judge John G. Koeltl, who also presided over the defendant’s guilty plea.

Michael Blake Launches Candidacy for Mayor

By SÍLE MOLONEY
The Hon. Rev. Michael Blake, a former Bronx assemblyman for Assembly District 79, announced his campaign for Mayor of New York City at Sankofa Haus in the South Bronx on Tuesday, Nov. 26, under the theme “Tomorrow Begins Today.”

Op-Ed: What Went Wrong? Everything

By SILVIA BLUMENFELD
Americans have voted for Donald Trump again. Forty-five will become forty-seven come January and Donald Trump will again have the most powerful job on the planet. It’s a sobering, heartbreaking, but undeniable fact. The billionaires who enabled and engineered his campaign are celebrating.

Olinville: Marcus Garvey Square Unveiled

By SÍLE MOLONEY
Huddled under raingear, tents, and umbrellas, a proud group of Bronx residents gathered in Olinville under the East Gun Hill Road elevated subway tracks and the day’s drizzle on Friday, Nov. 22, to see a long campaign by community activists come to fruition with the renaming of Williamsbridge Square as Marcus Garvey Square.   

Former Bronx Resident Arrested for Attempting to Provide Material Support to ISIS & Sharing Info on Homemade Explosives

By SÍLE MOLONEY
Federal prosecutors announced on Friday, Nov. 22, that a former 33-year-old Bronx resident, Erald Alimehmeti, was arrested in connection with a complaint charging him with allegedly attempting to provide material support to ISIS (the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham) and allegedly distributing instructional information regarding the making of explosives. Alimehmeti appeared in federal court Friday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Stewart D. Aaron and was ordered detained.