Taking Stock of the Summer Season and ICE Concerns Continue
Summer for local businesses was a mixed bag, with July a bit slow and August on fire. And concerns about an immigration crackdown led organizers to again postpone a Brazilian festival.
Summer for local businesses was a mixed bag, with July a bit slow and August on fire.
After being postponed back in May, the organizers of Brazil Fest decided this week that the new tentative date of Oct. 12 wasn't feasible due to concerns about Immigration officials returning to the Vineyard.
Several Island immigrants said members of their community are full of fear, and, whether they have the proper documentation or not, some are opting to stay home instead of going to work and school.
ICE raids on the Island led to arrests and spread fear through the largely Brazilian immigrant community.
Highly-publicized federal immigration arrests and deportations in U.S. cities have sown widespread anxiety in the Island’s Brazilian community.
Forty Brazilian Catholics from the St. Augustine Church in Vineyard Haven traveled to Washington, D.C. last weekend for a celebration of Nossa Senhora Conceição Aparecida, the patron saint of Brazil.