On a sunny Friday morning toward the end of April, Erin B was sitting at home when she heard some unusual noises outside. A group of armed and masked men had stopped a construction van outside her house, and were questioning the three workers inside it.

ICE was making itself known in Winthrop.

Erin went out and found a couple of neighbors who also had come to investigate. They started filming and asking the armed men questions: Who are you? Do you have a warrant? Who are you looking for?

The men claiming to be from ICE – US Immigration and Customs Enforcement – took away two of the Winthrop residents, despite them not matching the names or photos of the men that ICE was hunting for.

It was one moment in a story that’s been unfolding across Massachusetts and the nation. The Trump administration returned to office this year with promises to deport immigrants it alleges to be fueling crime – even though statistics and analyses repeatedly show that criminals in the US are more likely to be US-born.

And then, having promised to deport 1 million migrants a year, while operating at a pace less than half that rate, the administration has been found to be detaining people in sweeps. Many of those detained had no known criminal records and had been acting in compliance with government-ordered immigration processes.

Erin B said she was so distraught by what she witnessed that April morning in Winthrop that she couldn’t sleep or concentrate on work, and knew that she needed to do something. She spoke with the affected families and discovered that both detained men are fathers, one with a newborn. Neither had any legal issues, and both were following immigration rules. And both families depended on the fathers’ income.

More Than A Stand-Out

That incident, and at least two others in town, motivated a group of residents to come together every Saturday morning from 10 am to noon at the Belle Isle Bridge, a common protest location on Winthrop’s border with East Boston, for what they call a “standout in support of human rights.” What started as a one-off event has continued every weekend, rain or shine, for 15 weeks, with at least 20 to 30 people attending each time.

Lisa, a Winthrop resident and regular attendee, said that responses from the public have been overwhelmingly positive. Many people have stopped to donate items like water, and asked how to join the group. A few people with their own immigration issues have stopped to thank the group or ask for help, with some passers-by asking the group to come to Lynn, Chelsea and other communities. “The best part for me is watching people’s faces light up when they realize why we are standing out,” she says. “It’s been the highlight of my week.”

Irina, originally from Russia, first saw the standout a few weeks ago and came over to find out what was going on. “I moved to the US from Russia, and recognized what I saw there as happening in the US now. This worries me and I knew I had to stand out. I became a US citizen so I could live in a country where I could have more rights.”

Winthrop Community Support, as the group calls itself, has collected donations to help people being targeted, accompanied them at immigration hearings, connected them with legal resources, and helped pay for one man’s work permit to help prevent his deportation. Some even attended the graduation of the daughter of one of the arrested men, which he missed while being incarcerated.

The police chief in Winthrop, John Goodwin, has made clear that while his officers monitor ICE activity in town, he doesn’t see either ICE or immigrants as a persistent concern from a law-enforcement perspective.

In general, Chief Goodwin said in a recent appearance on the WCAT program Winthrop and the World, town police keep track of ICE activity because they want to know about anyone who is operating in Winthrop with firearms and bulletproof vests. “I think we need to be there to represent the town” when such events happen, he said.

Questionable cases in Massachusetts

And while Winthrop police don’t directly assist ICE operations, they do communicate with federal officials to help ensure that immigration officers aren’t pursuing the wrong people, Chief Goodwin said.

Cases in Massachusetts that have attracted wide condemnation include those of Marcelo Gomes Da Silva, a high school student in Milford detained by ICE agents on his way to volleyball practice, and Rumeysa Ozturk, a Tufts University graduate student detained near her home in Somerville and held for several weeks after she wrote an article critical of Israeli actions in Gaza.

Two months prior to the detention of the two construction workers in Winthrop, ICE agents in town did arrest a 38-year-old Guatemalan national, Carlos Horacio Suarez Monroy, who ICE described as being wanted in his home nation on charges of rape and aggravated sexual assault against two minor girls.

Chief Goodwin nevertheless said that he has not seen any evidence that immigrants are any more likely to commit crimes. “We haven’t really had any real specific issues with our immigrant population,” he said on the WCAT program.

That may have been a problem in the past, particularly with regard to narcotics, said Chief Goodwin, the head of Winthrop police since July 2024. But rising real estate values in Winthrop and East Boston, Chief Goodwin said in reference to drug-related crime generally, have “kind of pushed that population out and dispersed it amongst other North Shore communities.”

Some Winthrop residents have asked the Town Council to issue a statement expressing concern over ICE’s behavior and voicing support for Winthrop’s immigrant population, but the council has not yet acted on the idea. But one member of the Town Council, Suzanne Swope, has joined the citizens group at both the standout and court hearings, expressing a desire that due process be respected.

One of the men taken by ICE in April in Winthrop – who asked not to be identified by his full name – was moved to tears by the support shown by the standout participants. “It means so much to us to know that people in Winthrop care,” he said. “I had no idea.”

Alle, another organizer, said: “We feel encouraged and excited by the words of our immigrant neighbors, who feel like they are part of the Winthrop community when they see our standout. It is clear how important it continues to be for us to keep showing up. Our voices are strong together and our values are clear: immigrants are welcome here, and hate is not.”