Worcester councilor deposits large donation haul after confronting police at ICE raid
Three days after she confronted Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents arresting a Brazilian mother of three on Eureka Street, District 5 Councilor Etel Haxhiaj recorded some of her best fundraising numbers for her re-election campaign.
A deposit report recorded May 11, posted on the Office of Campaign and Political Finance of Massachusetts's website, finds that Haxhiaj's campaign deposited $3,691 in total donations — about three times what she had brought in the entire previous month. Donations ranged as low as $5 to as high as $250, the report reads.
From April 1 to April 30, Haxhiaj only raised $1,161.00. Her best fundraising month in 2025 was February, when she raised $4,799.00.
The nearly $4,000 in donations comes three days after she and other members of her district confronted ICE for their arrest of Rosane Ferreira-De Oliveira as well as local Worcester police at the scene.
Kevin Ksen, Haxhiaj's campaign manager, told MassLive he wasn't sure whether a majority of the donations were made before or after the events on Eureka Street. He told MassLive that the last time the campaign sent a fundraising email out was on May 7.
On May 8, a Facebook post by Worcester resident Chrissi Bates expressing support for Haxhiaj received 13 shares.
'Thank you for your bravery & service during the Immigration And Customs Enforcement (ICE) raid in today, Etel!' Bates writes.
Another Worcester resident, Yenni Desroches, posted a 'Donate To Haxhiaj' link on Facebook on May 11, encouraging others to donate to the councilor on Mother's Day.
It's unclear how many people used the donation link shared by Desroches or Bates to donate to Haxhiaj.
In body camera footage released by the Worcester Police Department on May 16, Haxhiaj can be seen yelling at ICE officers not to take Ferreira-De Oliveria, and telling them she had a right to be at the scene to help her constituents.
Haxhiaj also confronted members of the Worcester Police Department who arrived at the scene and arrested Ferreira-De Oliveria's daughter and now disqualified school committee candidate, Ashley Spring.
Officer Juan Vallejo, whose body camera footage and audio were released to the public by the department, was one of the officers responsible for arresting the daughter.
In the footage, Haxhiaj walks up to Vallejo and tells him, 'she's my constituent!'
'People who are under arrest are under arrest,' Vallejo replied.
'She is not, she hasn't done anything,' Haxhiaj replied. 'Let her go, she's traumatized. Why are you holding her? Let her go.'
'Well, you can go to the station when she gets her bail, OK?' Vallejo said.
'She's done nothing, why are you arresting her?' Haxhiaj yelled back.
Vallejo then grabs Haxhiaj's shoulders and arms to move her back, telling her to back away before turning her around. The councilor asked other officers, 'Are you threatening me?'
'Back away, get your hands off of us,' Vallejo told her before he stepped away, as another officer can be heard saying to Vallejo, 'Jesus, Juan.'
The New England Police Benevolent Association Local 911 and the International Brotherhood of Police Officers Local 504 released two statements on May 9 and May 10, respectively, both blasting Haxhiaj for 'physically interfering and physically assaulting' Worcester police officers.
'We stand with our fellow Worcester Police Patrol Officers Union Local 911 and demand an ethics investigation into the egregious actions and behavior of Councilor Haxhiaj,' the letter from Local 504 reads.
Jose Rivera, who is running against Haxhiaj in the November election, said he was disappointed with his opponent.
'In the video I heard the councilor say her job as a city councilor is to protect her constituent,' Rivera said in a statement on Facebook. 'That is not a city councilor's job. City councilors are not public safety officials and it is certainly not their job to interfere with an ICE arrest, whether they believe it was legal or not.'
Supporters of Haxhiaj, however, said the councilor's actions were a display of leadership.
'Shoutout to Etel Haxhiaj who showed REAL leadership and bravery,' Lindiana Flores Semidei of Worcester wrote on Facebook, May 8. 'No family should be ripped apart like this.'
City Councilor-at-Large and Council Vice Chair Khrystian King said in a statement on May 11 that even if people disagree with her response, Haxhiaj 'rose to the moment.'
'She acted urgently to defend a fellow mother, a woman in crisis, a young teen girl, and constituents she was elected to serve,' King wrote. 'In doing so, she stood up against a system that has too often trampled due process and constitutional rights—especially under the Trump administration. That's not grandstanding. That's moral leadership.'
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Read the original article on MassLive.
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