Queens pols want ICE out of Bulova Corporate Center lot

Queens pols are calling on an East Elmhurst office building to stop allowing ICE to use its parking lot as a staging area. Screenshot via Google Maps

By Ryan Schwach

Queens officials want an East Elmhurst office complex to stop immigration agents from using its parking lot as a staging area.

A group of Western Queens elected officials want the owner of the Bulova Corporate Center on Astoria Boulevard to stop Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents from using the building’s parking lot as a staging area for their operations in the borough.

“The presence of ICE vehicles in our neighborhoods has a profound chilling effect on our community members,” the officials wrote in a letter. “When federal immigration agents stage their vehicles in a highly visible location like the Bulova parking lot, it sends a message to immigrant New Yorkers that they are being watched and that they cannot feel safe in their own community.”

On Wednesday, a spokesperson for the corporate center, which is run by Blumenfeld Development Corp, denied having any evidence or knowledge that ICE has used the parking lot as a staging area during the time period the elected officials said there have been sightings.

“If people are looking for ICE, they are going to have to look somewhere else,” spokesperson Gary Lewi said.

The Sept. 1 letter seeking information from Bulova was drafted by Assemblymember and State Senate candidate Jessica González-Rojas, and signed by Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Grace Meng, Assemblymember Catalina Cruz, Assembly candidate Brian Romero and Councilmembers Tiffany Cabán, Shekar Krishnan and Julie Won.

The letter comes as ICE operations have seen a spike in Queens’ immigrant-heavy neighborhoods like Jackson Heights, Elmhurst, Corona and Woodside.

According to González-Rojas’ office, ICE has been seen at the Bulova lot at least seven different times, dating back to March. They were most recently spotted Aug. 26, according to the lawmaker. Witnesses have said they spotted anywhere from a trio of agents to over 20 at any given time.

González-Rojas’ office said that they have confirmed that vehicles spotted in the lot belong to the controversial agency via license plate checks.

“Families are afraid to go to work, send their children to school, seek medical care, access essential services, and go about their daily lives,” the officials said in their letter. “No family should have to live with the fear that a routine trip to work or a local business could result in separation from their loved ones.”