Town: Police Will Not Act as ICE Agents
The fears of undocumented immigrants on the East End because of the increasing federal focus on enforcement under President Trump were thrown into sharp relief at East Hampton Town Hall last Thursday, when dozens of residents concerned about neighbors and friends described how uncertainty is taking a toll on individuals and families, who are afraid of being deported in immigration sweeps or after being arrested for even minor infractions.
President Trump on Tuesday announced an aggressive crackdown on all undocumented immigrants, but their advocates were happy last week to hear that East Hampton does not intend to participate in a program through which local law enforcement officers would be granted federal powers. The president signed an executive order last month encouraging police to participate in the longstanding program, which was again emphasized this week in policy memos issued by the Department of Homeland Security.
Supervisor Larry Cantwell’s word last Thursday that the town would not enter into an agreement through which its officers could be trained and deputized drew applause from the crowded meeting room. East Hampton Town is not going to change its approach to residents from other countries who may or may not be documented immigrants, Supervisor Cantwell said. “We do not seek out illegal immigrants in the process of law enforcement,” he said. In a follow-up on Friday, he noted, “We do cooperate with all other jurisdictions and will continue to do so under the law.”
The new immigration policies unveiled by the White House this week could have an impact on that scenario, however. While it is still unclear how the president’s tougher policies would be enforced, they would lower the bar for deportation, subjecting any undocumented immigrant to removal from the country regardless of whether a serious crime had been committed and allowing immigration authorities to initiate deportation proceedings based on their own judgment that an immigrant represents a risk to public safety or national security.
“I’m worried about the atmosphere that is sweeping the country,” a speaker told the town board last week.
The East Hampton Town Police Department does not take a person’s immigration status into account when someone is arrested and charged with a crime unless their name is found on an Immigration and Customs Enforcement list of those for whom deportation orders have been issued, Chief Michael Sarlo said in emails this week. He also had said ICE only places holds on illegal immigrants if they have been convicted of a crime or face “serious criminal charges for which they have failed to appear in court.” Otherwise, defendants are processed according to standard procedures.
The immigration status of those who report or are witnesses to crimes is not a factor, the chief said, addressing local concerns. He recently told The Star that “reporting a crime, being involved in an accident, being the victim of theft, etc., does not trigger our agency checking immigration status or running a person through the federal database.” The East Hampton Village Police Department operates the same way.
In the weeks since Mr. Trump’s inauguration, and particularly after new steps to crack down on illegal immigration were announced and a ban on immigrants and visitors from several Muslim-majority countries was put in place, at least temporarily, there has been a “palpable increase” in anxiety among her patients, Julia Chachere, a midwife practitioner at the Hudson River Health Care clinic in Southampton, said at the board meeting. Two patients were suicidal and others are afraid to come in for care, she said. “You’re going to start seeing mass fear and panic very quickly,” she told the board.
Speaking in both Spanish and English, Dan Hartnett, a social worker in the East Hampton schools, said at the meeting that students who are American citizens but have parents who may have entered the country illegally are arriving “with ever-increasing anxiety and sadness to school because they are afraid to leave their homes in the morning.” He said they were unsure their parents would be there when they got home.
Mr. Hartnett said he is helping families put together “family preparedness packets” with plans for children should their parents be deported and with information about designating powers of attorney.
John Leonard, a Sag Harbor attorney, is helping clients make similar plans. “I’ve had mothers cry in my office,” he said last Thursday, “concerned about what will happen to their American children should they be deported, or their husbands deported.”
“A family asked me to be their point person,” Christine Sciuli of Amagansett said. Their daughter had been told what she might expect, “and now this girl’s afraid to go to school. And it affects the other kids in the classroom.”
According to a social worker at the Southampton clinic, who also spoke at the meeting, a client who had been repeatedly traumatized and targeted in her home country and had applied for political asylum was so distraught about being called in to meet with immigration officials, and being told to bring her passport, that she apparently thought of drinking poison before the appointment.
Robert Brody, who teaches English as a Second Language classes in Wainscott, said his students were “too frightened to come” to speak directly to the town board.
“I am concerned when I hear that people who are living here are afraid to participate,” Mr. Cantwell said. There is a “significant downside” for the community and for law enforcement when people “go underground,” he said.
A number of people asked the town board to be proactive in providing information to the immigrant population. “Help us to bring down the levels of fear,” said Minerva Perez of the advocacy group Organizacion Latino-Americana, “that your good, hardworking, family-loving, faith-abiding residents of East Hampton are being crushed by. These are documented, not-yet documented, and natural-born citizens. These good people of our community want only to get back to their lives — which mostly consist of helping to make sure this resort town runs smoothly in the summer.“
“The rupture of trust that vulnerable members of this community could have with law enforcement and the town is a breach of trust for us all,” Ms. Perez said. “When victims and witnesses begin to fear calling for help, we are all living in a community that doesn’t resemble the diverse, imperfect but peaceful community we knew only a few months ago.”
Mr. Cantwell responded, saying the town was “evaluating impacts on people who live and work here.” He noted that his own family had been Italian immigrants. “I think all of us feel an obligation to the community. All of us as individuals have a responsibility to reassure people that we know that it’s going to be okay, that we’re going to help them. . . . We understand how the immigrant community is an important part of our economy and our culture, and we intend to respect that.”
Along with his pledge to deport undocumented immigrants, President Trump has vowed to strip federal funding from so-called “sanctuary cities,” those that refuse to cooperate with federal immigration authorities.
“East Hampton has always been a town of good neighbors,” said Betty Mazur, an Amagansett resident, last Thursday. “Perhaps we can call this, in an official way, a ‘good neighbor town,’ ” she said. She suggested the town board issue a statement “to indicate to our good neighbors what it is they can expect from the town and from all of us as good neighbors.”
At least one nearby municipality is considering such a step. At a meeting this week, the Greenport Village Board is expected to discuss a symbolic resolution declaring it a “Welcoming City.” The resolution was sponsored by two trustees, Doug Roberts and Jack Martilotta.
Meanwhile, although the Suffolk County sheriff recently announced that he would, even without a warrant, detain immigrants who may be subject to deportation for up to 48 hours so that ICE could take them into custody, New York’s governor, Andrew M. Cuomo, has spoken out against the president’s policies targeting immigrants and unrolled a “We Are All Immigrants” initiative. “. . . If there is a move to deport immigrants, I say then start with me,” he wrote on Twitter.
The Democratic majority in the State Assembly recently passed legislation that, among other protections, would prohibit local law enforcement agencies from questioning or arresting a person based on immigration status.
Mr. Cantwell said that town officials were consulting federal and state officials, including Eric Schneiderman, the New York attorney general, about immigration policy. Mr. Schneiderman has said his office had issued guidelines for local governments, explaining how to resist federal immigration enforcement.
“We ask for a separation of immigration enforcement from local law enforcement in all ways possible based on current practices,” Ms. Perez of OLA told the town board last week. That would include, she said, avoiding taking fingerprints when possible, and not acting on 48-hour hold requests from federal authorities without a warrant.
Chief Sarlo said this week that his department was “not taking a political or philosophical stance,” and he noted that, in alignment with the International Association of Chiefs of Police, “most local police departments feel it is important for there to be a separation of federal and local law enforcement efforts, and the federal government should not dictate policy to local municipal departments.”
“Federal agents are not tasked with routine patrol of a community and responsible for building trust and cooperation from all members of the community. Local policing is very different from federal enforcement,” he said.