Protest held outside Huntington Hospital after family says ICE detained man

Protesters gathered outside Huntington Hospital on Sunday to demonstrate after family members said a relative was injured while federal immigration agents arrested him outside a convenience store, then brought him there for treatment.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not respond to Newsday's requests for comment. Suffolk County police said they were called to the hospital to ask protesters to stay on the sidewalk rather than enter hospital property, but they did not provide any additional information about the arrest.

According to family members, Jonathan Interiano, 30, was arrested as he was walking outside a 7-Eleven store next to the Huntington Public Library on New York Avenue in Huntington Station around 10:30 a.m.

Newsday viewed cellphone video shot by community activist Mariela Rivas, taken from inside her car at a distance.

In the video, eight law enforcement officers, one of whom is wearing a hoodie with "Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent" printed on its back, huddle around a figure as they appear to cuff him on the ground outside the store. Other agents are wearing vests marked with "police"; one of them is masked but others are not.

The manager of the 7-Eleven declined to be interviewed but told Newsday the spot where the arrest happened is not captured by the store's cameras.

Rivas said she thought the officers "attacked [Interiano] brutally."

A hospital spokesperson would not confirm whether Interiano was at the hospital.

Interiano's brother William Coreas, 19, a graduate of Huntington High School, said Interiano did not have any criminal record and that he was just out on a walk when he was arrested.

"He doesn't get into trouble. It's crazy, the fact that they had to do that — it's unjustifiable," he said. Newsday was unable to find a criminal record for Interiano in digital databases to which it subscribes.

Interiano was born in El Salvador and came to the United States when he was around 19, according to Coreas. Unlike his siblings, who were born in the United States and grew up in Huntington, Interiano did not have legal status but was trying to become a citizen, Coreas said.

Coreas said he rushed to Huntington Hospital after hearing his brother had been arrested and taken there. He said hospital staff initially refused to provide any updates on his brother, and so he waited with a group of around a half-dozen activists and live-streamers on the sidewalk outside the emergency room.

Eventually, he said, he spoke with a Suffolk County police officer who confirmed his brother had been treated at the hospital but was later taken into detention elsewhere.

A Newsday reporter and a photographer observed a white van with a Department of Homeland Security logo on its license plate parked outside the emergency room in the afternoon. At one point, when several masked agents wearing badges came out of the hospital, protesters filmed them and chanted, "No more ICE! Get out of Huntington!"

Newsday's James Carbone and Bahar Ostadan contributed to this story.