When the Agents Came to the Island: Civil Courage in the Face of ICE
When the Agents Came to the Island: Civil Courage in the Face of ICE
By Rick Blaine
Published in The American Mirror
“Everyone says they would’ve stood up to the Nazis back in the day. This is your chance.”
— Charlie Giordano, West Tisbury resident
On a sunny Tuesday on Martha’s Vineyard, democracy didn’t come from a courtroom, a Capitol, or a campaign rally. It came from a man with a phone and a conscience.
Charlie Giordano, a 58-year-old motorcycle parts dealer and former boxer, did something simple and radical. He bore witness. When masked ICE agents appeared on the Island, arresting people under veils of secrecy, Giordano confronted them with the force of one question: “Who are you, and what are you doing here?”
This story, originally reported by Sarah Shaw Dawson for The Martha’s Vineyard Times (May 28, 2025), documents not just a moment of confrontation, but a rising tide of civic resistance. Full article here.
For months, Vineyard residents had protested the Trump administration’s deportation campaigns. But this week, when federal agents in masks refused to identify themselves and conducted arrests on a quiet island, Islanders answered with new resolve. Cameras were raised. Signs were lifted. And in a moment that has since gone viral, Giordano followed agents across the Island, demanding transparency and accountability.
In his own words: “I don’t care for injustice. I don’t care for bullies. Words are who you want to be, and actions are who you are.”
The video Giordano posted shows him asserting his rights in real time — standing close to the officers, questioning their secrecy, and refusing to be intimidated by veiled threats. At one point, a presumed ICE agent warned that the FBI would get involved if Giordano didn’t back off. His response was pure clarity: “This is your official warning. I know what my rights are.”
Let’s pause on that: a citizen warning a government agent that the rule of law applies to them, too.
That’s not radicalism. That’s constitutionalism.
But Giordano wasn’t alone. Others — like Roberta Kirn, Jane Katch, and Batya Diamond — stood outside the Steamship Authority with hand-painted signs reading “ICE is on the Island,” quietly alerting immigrant neighbors to the threat overhead. These weren’t activists in the traditional sense. They were neighbors. Teachers. Artists. Mothers. Elderly women who, in Katch’s words, “can do what I want.”
They didn’t resist with rage. They resisted with presence. And their presence meant everything to the undocumented Brazilians and other immigrants on the Island who later reached out in tearful gratitude.
As Kirn later reflected, “People who are privileged and who aren’t at risk in certain ways need to do our part.”
It’s not just a sentiment — it’s a call to moral action.
The presence of ICE agents — masked, unnamed, unaccountable — echoes authoritarian tactics we’ve seen elsewhere in the world. Disappearances. Secret policing. Rule by fear. These practices have no place in a functioning democracy.
What’s worse: the agents’ refusal to identify themselves not only violates long-standing expectations of transparency in law enforcement — it also sends a message that their power exists above the law. But it doesn’t. Not here. Not yet.
As Giordano put it: “There seems to be a total disregard for the rule of law. And once we don’t have that, the country — the democracy, the republic — slides into oblivion.”
And he’s right. When the state hides behind masks and silence, the citizen must speak. That is the essence of civic duty.
To those who say “this isn’t the time” or “it’s too dangerous,” Giordano offers one final reminder: “You cannot have courage without fear. If you don’t have fear, what are you being courageous about?”
So this is your chance — our chance — to stand up. To say “not here.” To hold the line.
If you ever wondered what you would have done in the face of creeping fascism, this is what you can do:
Show up.
Speak out.
Bear witness.
Defend your neighbors.
Because as long as there are people like Charlie Giordano and the women holding signs in the sun, democracy still has a pulse.
Let’s keep it beating.
Full credit to Sarah Shaw Dawson for original reporting. Read her article, “Islanders push back on ICE detentions,” published May 28, 2025 in The MV Times.
Read it here.