Within the Island’s Brazilian community of more than 2,000, the panic that followed Thursday morning’s raid by federal immigration officers turned to watchfulness and worry this weekend.

Ten Brazilian workers arrested on the Vineyard last week and taken to the mainland will be deported within the next 25 days.

The raid shook the Vineyard’s largest immigrant community — scattering the foreign workers to hiding places across the Island and the mainland. Some Brazilians ducked into the woods Thursday, hiding in the forest’s thickets. Several Island shops and restaurants closed, unable to start the business day without the labor on which they have come to depend.

Paulo Enorio, pastor of The Growing Church Ministry in Tisbury, speaking of his 220 parishioners, said: “They were really scared. The kids were afraid to go to school.”

More than five days after the pre-dawn search, many Brazilians refuse to believe that officers of the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, formerly the Immigration and Naturalization Service, have actually left the Island.

Even yesterday, many Brazilian laborers have not yet reported to work.

“Everybody fears [the immigration agents] will come back. People are afraid to go to work, and some haven’t come back to their houses yet. They’ve left the Island and may never come back,” said Ezequel Lacerda, a house-painter who has been on the Vineyard for eight years, and who has a coveted green card.

“Everybody is talking about how the dust hasn’t settled yet,” said Carlos DeOliveira of Oak Bluffs, whose brother was among those arrested.

Celso DeOliveira and nine other foreign workers were seized by teams of Boston immigration agents and local law enforcement officials in raids that began at 4 a.m. Thursday. With the help of the Dukes County Sheriff’s Department, the agents had established a list of 18 immigrants on the Island in violation of prior deportation orders by federal immigration courts, authorities said.

Taken to the mainland on a United States Coast Guard vessel, the 10 were transported to the Suffolk County House of Corrections. The Department of Homeland Security will deport them within the month, either aboard government aircraft or through a reservation on a commercial airline.

Immigration court proceedings have already concluded. Each of the immigrants has received final deportation orders. “My honest opinion of the situation is there’s nothing to be done for them,” said Seth Miller, an immigration attorney with the law office of Ralph Donabed in Boston, who has been contacted by friends and family members of several of the Brazilians picked up Thursday.

In a related development, two persons were arrested in similar raids on Nantucket Friday morning.

Immigration officials in Boston said they could not release the names of those picked up because of privacy protections; immigration law is administrative, not criminal.

Fragments of personal stories of some seized last week emerged soon after their departure.

Cleubimar Melo Paizante, 37, landscaped by day and worked at the Black Dog Cafe by night. Mr. Paizante had sneaked into America across the Mexican border.

Ricardo Oliveira left behind a wife.

And when Oak Bluffs police and immigration officials came to the DeOliveiras’ Syracuse avenue home at 5:30 Thursday morning, they lined up nine family members and friends, and one by one asked each to produce visa and passport.

Celso DeOliveira, 36, had slipped across the Mexican border two years ago, having been denied a request for a nonimmigrant work visa, Carlos and Perlla DeOliveira said. His first attempt to cross the border led to a three-month stay in a Mexican jail. Family members already living in the United States then scraped together $15,000 to pay fines and hire a “coyote” or guide to get him to the American side.

Mr. DeOliveira, a salesman with three children back home in Brazil, found his way to the Vineyard via Connecticut and joined his brother repairing air conditioners and heating units. Wages came as cash under the table.

“It’s sad because he never really got started,” said Carlos DeOliveira, noting that his brother had just settled his $15,000 family debt.

“They sent him a letter and said he had to go to court, and when he didn’t appear, they issued an arrest warrant. But he knew of he went they would send him away anyway,” Carlos DeOliveira said.

Now Celso DeOliveira will be removed from the country, and banned from returning for at least 10 years — penalties that result from illegal entry or overstaying the limits of a temporary work visa.

Last week’s raid also shook the Island business community; it provided an eye-opening brush with immigration laws that are cumbersome to navigate.

Some business owners are questioning whether the Social Security cards their Brazilian employees handed them when applying for a job are valid. But many of them — in a resort community that has come to depend on immigrant laborers to carry it through the summer — are too anxious to ask.

“Most employers don’t check the validity of the cards. They’re literally paying taxes on a false Social Security number. A lot of people simply acquiesce to this, and I can understand why,” said Marilyn Vukota, an immigration attorney at the law office of Marcia Cini in Edgartown.

Four government agencies are involved in issuing dozens of different types of temporary work visas.

For employers, the process — particularly following shakedowns in immigration law since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 — can be lengthy and costly. So-called “premium” processing, which carries a fee of $1,000 per application, is now essential to secure a common temporary work visa — the H2B — in time for the summer season. H2Bs are valid for about eight months, ideal for the Island’s shoulder and summer season.

Permanent status — the green card — can automatically be achieved through marriage to an American citizen.

Employers and family members can also petition the government for a foreign worker to be granted a green card, but the process can take years and is never guaranteed. During this wait, foreign workers must follow immigration rules to the letter.

“In order to change your temporary status to permanent status, you must never have overstayed the limit on your visa, you must never have worked illegally, and you must never have committed any crimes. If you entered the country illegally, you’re dead,” said Mr. Miller, who over the past two years has built up a client base of about 15 employers on the Island.

Scores of foreign workers wait for an amnesty program that may never come. Amnesty programs — the latest of which began under President Clinton and ended in the wake of terrorist attacks two years ago — wipe the slate clean of violations that would otherwise make a worker ineligible for permanent status.

“We all would like to be legal,” said Mr. DeOliveira. “We want to pay taxes, to do things right. Everyone wants the chance to be legal. But there’s no law to help us with that. There’s no amnesty or anything that can help.”

Many of those who applied for permanent status under the amnesty program more than two years ago have yet to receive their green cards — the inevitable backlog that emerges when the government opens the doors wide for those who have overstayed their time here.

Since 2001, “We’ve created a whole lot of people in this country who are here illegally and not accounted for,” said Mr. Miller.

Without an amnesty program in place, there is no means by which an illegal immigrant can correct his situation without facing steep penalties. If an illegal immigrant tries to secure the right paperwork, he enters the government system and is known to have overstayed his visa. Lingering stays for six months to a year can bar the worker from the United States for three years. If a worker violates his time limit by more than a year, the ban stretches to 10 years.

“If you are or have an illegal employee, there’s a lot of risk in trying to correct it,” said Ms. Vukota.

So most don’t try.

They simply hope for a reinstatement of the amnesty program. They lie low — and that leads to hiding out when immigration officials visit the Island.

“If you look at the economies of a lot of these countries, it’s worth the risk. If they get caught after two or three years, they go back with as much money as they could have made in 10 years in their home country. They weigh the risk, and this usually wins,” said Mr. Miller.

Reporter Mark Alan Lovewell also contributed to this story.