Of the roughly 400 people stopped and questioned by federal agents at the St. John car ferry Sunday, only one remains in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody, officials said Thursday.
Immigration agents briefly detained approximately 49 other people, verifying their government-issued documents before letting them leave, said Homeland Security Investigations Public Affairs Officer Sandra Colón.
The one person remaining in custody was being held at an ICE detention facility, Colón said without specifying which one. ICE has two facilities in Puerto Rico, the San Juan Staging Facility and the ICE Immigration Detention Center in Maleza Baja, on the island’s extreme west end.
News of the immigration action sent shock waves through the community with rumors of raids on hotels and hardware store parking lots. Immigration and criminal defense attorney Robert A. Leycock said Thursday his office had received many calls from worried people — some too frightened to even leave their homes.
Colón declined to say where ICE agents were active but the Source called five hotels on St. Thomas and St. John Sunday and no one answering the phone had seen or heard of any immigration enforcement activity.
At the car barge dock, ICE agents were checking for required government identification, Colón said. People in the U.S. Virgin Islands are not normally required to carry identification unless they are operating a motor vehicle.
The Virgin Islands does issue limited driver’s licenses and identification cards without proof of citizenship.
A limited driver’s license can be applied for at this link to the Bureau of Motor Vehicles’ website.
In December 2023, the Legislature passed Bill No. 35-0013, amending the Virgin Islands Code to allow applicants to obtain limited local-purpose identification cards and operators’ licenses without providing certain federally required documentation. Gov. Albert Bryan Jr. signed it into law.
The driver’s licenses and identification cards do not require Social Security number validation but do ask for proof of residence via utility bill, homeowners insurance, or other documentation unrelated to immigration status.
The forms also ask for an unexpired passport from the applicant’s home country or work authorization form. That stipulation would be difficult for so-called Dreamers — people brought to the United States as children.
Bryan spoke about the Dreamers’ situation with the Source Thursday, saying the territory was home to “a lot” of them.
“We have students and adults that came here when they were small, undocumented, went through our entire high school, our school, entire system, graduated from high school, live in the Virgin Islands, but have no documentation. You know, I feel a responsibility to protect those people too, because they don’t know any other place except the Virgin Islands,” Bryan said. “So we’re not assisting with any of the immigration efforts that are presently going on and we want to make sure that the federal government is able to do what they do according to the law and what rights are afforded to us as citizens and residents of the Virgin Islands, to do our best to protect those.”
