U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents placed multiple people in custody in Glen Cove on Wednesday morning near a train station parking lot, according to Det. Lt. John Nagle of the city's police department.

City police officers responded near the LIRR station at 8:30 a.m. on Cedar Swamp Road after a business owner reported an assault in progress there, Nagle said.

When police officers arrived, ICE agents “had a few individuals in custody,” Nagle said in a phone interview. He said the department wasn't told in advance about ICE's plans.

ICE agents “have been here before, and there’s times we know that they’re here,” Nagle said. “There’s other times, like this instance, where we don’t know that they’re here.” Nagle and Mayor Pamela Panzenbeck said they did not know how many individuals were placed in custody, they said.

ICE's presence in Glen Cove comes as immigration advocates continue to document what they say is the federal government's unprecedented crackdown on illegal immigration, including in Freeport, Hempstead, Westbury and Brentwood.

On Tuesday, about 100 people demonstrated in Westbury near an elementary school after a federal agent was involved in a car crash, Newsday reported. About 100 people surrounded the scene to urge federal agents to leave their community.

An ICE spokeswoman told Newsday on Tuesday: "ICE Homeland Security Investigations Long Island personnel were conducting an operation associated to an ongoing federal investigation."

The Trump administration has said it wants to arrests more than 3,000 people daily for illegal immigration. The escalation of enforcement tactics has sparked clashes between police and protesters, most notably in Los Angeles and New York City. Trump has sent troops from the National Guard to Los Angeles in response to the protests.

Glen Cove has a sizable Hispanic and Latino population, with 34% of residents falling under that demographic, according to U.S. Census data.

Panzenbeck told Newsday in a phone interview that she “absolutely” supports having ICE agents in her city.

“They’re not taking people’s babysitters; they’re looking for very bad people,” Panzenbeck, a Republican, said in a phone interview. “It’s not your mother’s cleaning lady.”

Spokespeople for ICE did not immediately respond to questions about its presence in Glen Cove on Wednesday.

Democratic elected officials and immigration advocates were quick to condemn ICE operations in Glen Cove on Wednesday and elsewhere in Nassau County.

Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-Glen Cove) said in an interview: "I fully support the deportation of violent criminals. But I'm concerned about the rising fear in the communities, and we don't want innocent families swept up in poorly coordinated raids."

Danielle Fugazy-Scagliola, a Democrat on the Glen Cove City Council, said she “doesn’t like that our own police aren’t given a heads-up.”

“For me, personally, it’s not if they’re bad people or good people,” she said in a phone interview. “I don’t have dossiers on these people.”

On Wednesday, a worker said a group of about 10 to 15 people typically waits near the train station for work every day.

“I am nervous,” the worker, who requested anonymity for fear of reprisal, told Newsday. “I am scared."

Assemb. Chuck Lavine (D-Glen Cove) said in a statement that ICE was in Glen Cove earlier today, "as they were yesterday in Westbury."

"Trump and ICE’s ham-handed approach, purportedly designed to rid us of criminals, has instead turned into an unjustified show of brute force," Lavine said. "The resulting intimidation and threat to the peace and safety of our communities and the resultant frightening of our children is crudely un-American."

He said he emailed Panzenbeck to express his "grave concern."

Melanie Creps, executive director of the Central American Refugee Center in Hempstead, said the Trump administration has "tried to build a rhetoric that was convincing everyone they're only going after bad guys."

"That's absolutely not true. They are picking up people with no criminal record; they are picking up people who have been in the country for years paying their taxes," Creps said in a phone interview.

The "fear" the ongoing enforcement is creating "is harmful to the community," she told Newsday.