A province in the suburbs of Long Island in New York City will collaborate with federal authorities in the harsh action of President Donald Trump against immigrants who are illegal in the US.
Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, an ally of the Republican and Trump, announced on Tuesday that 10 district police investigators will get the same authority as federal immigration agents and work with them to hold immigrants who are illegally in the country after being accused From other crimes.
Although dozens of other police services in the US have comparable regulations with American immigration and the enforcement of customs, the move makes the county of nearly 1.4 million inhabitants a Bijter in New York, where the Stational Act is limited when police agencies can collaborate with federal immigration officers .
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Blakeman said that the police will check the immigration status of people in charge of crimes and will inform ice cream if they are illegal. The regulation also includes insulting officers with ice and the provision of prison cells for short -term determination until detestants can be transferred to the federal authorities.
“I want to emphasize that this program is about illegal migrants who have committed crimes,” said Blakeman. “This is not about raids. This is aimed at maintaining our laws that are located here in the state of New York – people who have committed crimes here and have violated the federal laws by being illegal in the United States.”
A federal law, the illegal reform of immigration and the immigrant responsibility Act of 1996, authorizes ICE to delegate the authority of the state and the local police to perform certain immigration officer tasks under the supervision of ICE. But some states and communities have limited how the law enforcement officers can collaborate with immigration authorities.
New York’s law generally allows the police to arrest and hold people if there is reason to assume that a person has committed a crime. They are not allowed to arrest someone just because that person is not or has been ordered in the US legal. County prisons are also not allowed to hold someone who has finished serving a punishment, or has been ordered to have been released by the courts, simply because that person is sought for non -criminal immigration law violations.
Recent guidelines of the attorney -general Letitia James advises local law enforcement against entering into agreements with ICE and say that they remain “restless” in the law of New York.
Advocacy groups quickly criticized Nassau County’s plan.
Susan Gottehrer, the regional director of the Nassau County of the New York Civilies Union, called it “a dangerous decision that undermines public safety and makes the cruelty of Ice unnecessarily possible.” She called on Blakeman to withdraw the partnership with Ice, or at least gave it more details.
“Most provinces in New York do not work with ICE for a reason: when local law enforcement acts as ICE agents, they take on the reputation of ICE and sow deeply distrust within the community,” Gottehrer said in a statement . “Immigrants are afraid to speak to speaking local police and sub-report Crimes due to fear of deportation value it is more difficult for officers to do their work and make everyone less safe.”
Bryan Flanagan, the acting deputy director of ICE’s Field Office in New York City, said that the collaboration with Nassau County is aimed at protecting public safety and the arresting and deporting of ‘gross alien perpetrators’.
Nassau County has become more conservative in recent years and has opted republicans for important leadership posts, including the congress and the provincial government. The number of immigrants has also increased.
More than half a million immigrants live on Long Island, about one fifth of the population, according to an estimate of 2023 by Immigration Research Initiative, which describes itself as a non -profit, non -party -related think tank. They include immigrants there legally and illegal.
In 2019, Nassau County was the home base of around 50,000 migrants who were illegal in the country, according to another non -party -bound think tank, the Migration Policy Institute., That said that the estimate was based on American census data.
Blakeman, the provincial director, criticized the guarantee laws in New York because they have been accused of many people of non -violent crimes to go free, while their affairs are being treated without paying money to stay out of prison.
“With this program, Ice can pick up illegal migrants who have committed crimes … who may run around as we have seen many times and they are able to commit crime after crime without being held in a constitutional court or without removing ice, “He said.