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Nassau County Teams Up with Federal Agencies for Immigration Enforcement

A New York suburban county in the vicinity of Long Island is poised to join forces with federal agencies in an initiative upheld by the former President, Donald Trump, aimed at addressing immigration issues. Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, an affiliated Republican and an erstwhile supporter of Trump, unveiled the plan recently. The scheme bolsters local law enforcement capabilities by enforcing immigration laws, designating 10 of the county’s police detectives with the powers conferred to federal immigration agents.

These allotted officers will collaborate with national agencies to process detainees who have migrated illegally and are implicated in diverse criminal activities. This appears to be a strategic move reflecting a trend among numerous police departments nationwide; collaborating closely with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), but Nassau County’s initiative stands out in New York due to the state’s laws restricting cooperation between the police and federal immigration officials.

Home to nearly 1.4 million inhabitants, Nassau County now has an unusually proactive stance towards federal immigration enforcement within a state known for its legal constraints on such cooperation. The arrangement goes a step further by integrating local law enforcement officers into ICE, offering holding facilities for detainees who await transfer to federal custody.

Blakeman emphasized that the initiative is not about undirected immigration sweeps. According to him, it targets those ‘who have committed crimes here and have violated federal laws by being in the United States illegally.’ The focus largely remains on those who allegedly committed crimes within New York State, indicating a purposeful law enforcement approach rather than arbitrary checks.

The Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996, a federal legislation, empowers ICE to delegate particular immigration officer duties to state and local law enforcement, under its surveillance. However, certain states and communities have limited the interaction between law enforcement officers and immigration authorities, setting the stage for different procedural practices.

New York’s laws generally permit police to arrest and detain individuals only under suspicion of criminal activity. Law enforcement is not authorized to apprehend individuals solely on account of their illegal immigration status or on the basis of a deportation order. Similarly, citizenship status can’t be the lone justification for detention in county jails post a sentence completion, or if an individual has been acquitted by the court.

The state also prevents any non-criminal immigration law violations from being the sole reason for detaining someone who is otherwise eligible for release. Reinforcing this standpoint, the state’s Attorney General, Letitia James, has recently advised local law enforcement to refrain from forming alliances with ICE, describing such agreements as legally ‘unsettled’ within New York.

However, Nassau County’s intentions to unite with ICE haven’t been met with universal approval. In fact, powerful advocacy groups were swift to voice their objections to the county’s direction. Susan Gottehrer, the Nassau County Regional Director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, has condemned the move as ‘imperilling public safety whilst needlessly abetting ICE’s stringency.’

Gottehrer urges Blakeman to retract this partnership with ICE, or, at the minimum, calls for greater transparency by making further details about the association accessible. She contends that such collaborations essentially recast local law enforcement as ICE representatives, causing a ripple of fear and mistrust among the immigrant population.

Gottehrer asserts that such practices instill fear in immigrants, leading them to withhold valuable reporting on criminal activity to evade potential deportation. The consequence of this is an impediment to the work of local law enforcement, undermining community safety for all. She states explicitly that ICE’s image issues are transposed to local forces, generating a significant obstacle to effective policing.

Over the recent years, Nassau County has been morphing towards conservatism, with Republicans winning several high-ranking positions in the regional Congress and county administration. There’s also been a simultaneous increase in immigration, further deepening the state’s demographic complexity.

Long Island, where Nassau County is located, is a destination for over half a million immigrants – legal and otherwise – constituting roughly a fifth of its population. This estimate was provided by the Immigration Research Initiative, a non-partisan, non-profit think tank committed to studying migration patterns and impacts.

Back in 2019, Nassau County hosted about 50,000 immigrants living without official legality, as inferred from data released by the Migration Policy Institute. This esteemed organization, also a nonpartisan think tank, sourced the estimate from U.S. Census data, highlighting the critical dimensions of Nassau County’s current move.

County Executive Blakeman criticizes New York’s bail laws, arguing that many individuals accused of nonviolent crimes manage to elude detention while their trials are ongoing. These individuals are free from jail without the prerequisite of bail, he points out, leading to a gap in effective law enforcement.

Blakeman believes the ICE partnership can help bridge this law enforcement gap, allowing for the detention of those illegal immigrants who continue to engage in criminal activities. As a result, serial offenders could not continue their illegal actions without the risk of being apprehended by ICE or appearing before a state court.