ICE agents attempt raid of local Lowell business

On Feb. 6, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers were seen in Lowell.

A representative from Sabor Mexicano confirmed that restaurant employees and patrons were confronted by ICE agents.

Shortly after the initial conflict, Pastor Shannon Jammal-Hollemans, of First Congregational UCC of Lowell, drove to Sabor to help.

She told The Lowell Ledger that ICE agents attempted to enter but were turned away because they did not have a judicial warrant. She said ICE’s alleged target was a Lowell resident who went for a routine immigration check-in on their work visa only to have it taken away by federal authorities.

“They (the resident who went for a check-in) were doing it right,” Jammal-Hollemans commented, “but the government was not following the law.”

Community members knew to contact Jammal-Hollemans at the first sign of concern because of her connection with a broad movement of immigration rapid responders that has coalesced in the wake of the ICE deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia in 2025, the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti earlier this year, and other similar high-profile incidents.

“For the past few months, I have been part of a team of people organizing to protect people in our community who are being threatened by our government’s illegal activities of targeting immigrants and people of color,” Jammal-Hollemans said. “We’ve been learning, training, and sharing information, but there has been no sense of urgency, since ICE had not yet made a public appearance in Lowell. One of our members reached out to us last week about meeting again, so we met Thursday (Feb. 5) and made more plans. We had no idea that we would need to act the next day.”

The Lowell Ledger reached out to the ICE Office of Public Affairs for comment but has not received any response.

Shortly after ICE attempted a raid on Sabor Mexicano, an unnamed officer working for the Lowell Police Department reported that they could not confirm ICE’s presence, which led to the spread of misinformation that the ICE incident never happened in the first place. The Lowell Ledger reached out to Chief Dennis Albert for comment:

“I just wanted to clarify a few things,” Chief Albert said. “Our officer was not dispatched to, or involved in, any incident involving federal agents that day. We have no knowledge if they (federal agents) were in town that day or any investigation they may have been involved in. We were not contacted at any point by any law enforcement agency regarding this incident.”

Nor did Albert reach out to ICE or Homeland Security to confirm or deny what happened. Sergeant Scott Dietrich is the Public Information Officer with the Kent County Sheriff’s Office (KCSO), and he clarified that it is not unheard of for an ICE raid to take place without local law enforcement knowing.

“We rarely get notification from federal agencies when they have an operations in our county,” Sergeant Dietrich said, “unless it’s involving one of our Task Force Officers who are attached to the FBI or DEA.”

City Manager Mike Burns said the city was also out of the loop about ICE’s presence in Lowell.

“I’m not saying they didn’t show up. They probably did. I don’t know,” Burns said. “The city is not aware of anything to where they came on site and took action. I’m not saying they didn’t, but they never notified us that they were doing anything, if they did. I was out there that day, but I don’t know whether there were ICE agents out there or not. I don’t know.”

The immigration response group that Jammal-Hollemans belongs to issued the following statement to The Lowell Ledger: “We are not convinced it is to the benefit of those who are threatened, or to the public in general, what the city’s position is or who believes it happened. Members of our community who were being threatened notified us, and we believed them, and we responded. We will continue to respond, to support, and to focus on minimizing harm to those in our community who are at risk from unlawful seizures and detentions.”

Sabor Mexicano released the following statement on its Facebook page on Feb. 9: “Since the first day we set up our tent on Main Street, four years ago, we have been blessed by an amazing outpouring of love from the Lowell community. Never has that love been more evident than on Friday. From the bottom of all of our hearts, thank you. Thank you for your concern, thank you for showing up, and thank you for your amazing support.”