Nassau County’s top elected official promised to move forward with plans to deputize 10 detectives to work with ICE, brushing off a new lawsuit that claims the move is illegal under the state’s sanctuary policies.
County Executive Bruce Blakeman (R) said he is “not concerned at all” about the new litigation from the New York Civil Liberties Union and defiantly said the team will move forward regardless of who tries to get in the way.
“We will vigorously defend our right to partner with ICE,” Blakeman said outside of the county legislature Wednesday.
“We’re confident that all measures taken to protect communities in Nassau County are legal and properly authorized.”
The NYCLU and several immigrant rights groups argue in the suit that the agreement between Nassau police and ICE violates state orders by allowing local officers to act as federal immigration agents.
The lawsuit is the first of its kind in New York State, and attacks the agreement between the county and the federal government — saying it undermines protections against unreasonable searches and seizures.
The litigation also argues that allowing detectives to target, arrest, and help deport undocumented immigrants not only violates state law, but will lead to racial profiling by allowing cops to “stop, question, and arrest Nassau County residents — anywhere in the community — based solely on the officer’s ‘belief’ that they may be in the United States in violation of law.”
A 2018 state court ruling, cited in the suit, ruled that it is illegal under current state law for local cops anywhere in the state to make immigration arrests at the request of ICE or any other federal agencies.
Despite the ruling, two weeks after President Trump re-claimed the White House this year, Blakeman announced that Nassau would be one of the first counties in the country to have a partnership between local police and ICE to conduct immigration arrests.
Blakeman and other Long Island leaders later doubled-down on working with ICE as protests that drew tens of thousands from across both counties called for an end to that cooperation.
The deputy partnership with ICE is still being finalized but police in both Nassau and Suffolk said they would only assist federal immigration officers when directly called upon — which has not happened yet.
Officials said officers wouldn’t hesitate to help, while vowing not to question victims or witnesses on their immigration status and promised ICE would not be conducting any raids at schools, hospitals or churches.
Blakeman said that unless someone is a danger to society, then they have nothing to worry about.
“There is no reason to be afraid because they’re only going after criminals –- people who have committed rapes and burglaries,” Blakeman said Wednesday.
But critics have claimed the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement has crossed the line.
US Rep. Tom Suozzi has issued a letter to Trump calling for the release of 40-year-old Port Washington bagel store owner Fernando Mejia, who was arrested in the parking lot of his storefront last week for allegedly overstaying his visa by over 20 years. Mejia has no criminal record and is beloved in the community, Suozzi said.
In another case in the area, 23-year-old US citizen Elzon Lemus was briefly detained by ICE agents during a caught-on-video traffic stop in Westbury.
