ALBANY — Three New York law enforcement agencies recently signed agreements to strengthen cooperation with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement as President Donald J. Trump seeks to increase detention and deportation of migrants without legal status.
The Broome County Sheriff’s Office, Nassau County Sheriff’s Office, and Nassau County Police Department all signed agreements to assist ICE in the last three weeks, according to federal agency records.
Previously, the Rensselaer County Sheriff’s Office was the only law enforcement agency in New York with an official agreement to work with the federal government on immigration enforcement.
Broome and Nassau counties’ law enforcement agencies are among those that have signed official partnerships with ICE since Trump took office in January. More than 200 agencies have approved memorandums of cooperation since Trump’s inauguration, bringing the total number of participating departments to 360 as of Monday, according to ICE.
Police departments without formal policies may communicate with ICE at times.
According to ICE records, the Broome and Nassau County sheriff’s offices agreed that their officers would serve civil immigration warrants on people in their custody on behalf of the agency. The Broome County Sheriff’s Office will not actively apprehend people based solely on their civil immigration status.
However, Sheriff Fred Akshar stated that the department will receive and house people who have already been detained by ICE. He said that office has a similar arrangement to house federal inmates for the United States Marshals Service.
Broome County Executive Jason Garnar, a Democrat, expressed his support for “any lawful effort to ensure that individuals who break our laws face the appropriate consequences.”
“My priority is the safety and well-being of Broome County residents,” he informed us. “Let me be very clear, if you want to commit crimes and hurt our residents, there is no place for you here in Broome County.”
According to ICE records, the Nassau County Police Department agreed to collaborate with ICE to enforce immigration laws on people who were not in police custody while conducting law enforcement activities.
Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, a Republican, announced that 10 county detectives have been chosen for “cross-designation and embedding with ICE” to pursue people without legal immigration papers who are suspected of committing crimes. County jail cells will also be available to house ICE detainees for up to 72 hours.
“I believe that our recent partnership with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is essential to combating dangerous threats to county residents,” Blakeman stated in a recent op-ed explaining the decision.
Murad Awawdeh, president and CEO of the New York Immigration Coalition, accused county leaders Blakeman, Granar, and Rensselaer County Executive Steve McLaughlin of using “politics of fear” rather than promoting public safety.
“We should be guaranteeing our local resources are directed toward investigating real crimes and responding to real emergencies rather than fulfilling the federal government’s mass deportation agenda at any cost,” according to him.
The New York Civil Liberties Union also condemned the new policies in Broome and Nassau counties, claiming they would jeopardize public safety and foster distrust in law enforcement. The organization urged both counties to cancel the partnership agreements immediately.
“When local law enforcement acts like ICE agents, it creates deep distrust, making immigrants afraid to speak with local police and making officers’ jobs more difficult,” said Deka Dancil, assistant director of field organizing at the New York Civil Liberties Union.
The Rensselaer County Sheriff’s Office has been working with ICE since 2018. Officers at the Rensselaer County Jail are authorized to search federal databases to see if ICE has a hold on any inmates housed at the facility. The jail can then notify federal immigration officials of an inmate’s release date and transfer them to federal immigration custody.
Rensselaer County Sheriff Kyle Bourgault said Tuesday that the county only refers people with an active warrant in ICE’s database for arrest in another U.S. jurisdiction or country.
He added that if ICE required additional assistance in the county from his department, “I would provide whatever they needed to assist them.” However, he stated that his department had not received any requests from ICE in the past few years.
“I am glad to see that other agencies are signing on to (agreements with ICE),” said the secretary. “It’s another tool in our toolbox to make that we aren’t releasing dangerous people out into our communities.”
Officers from participating departments receive training from ICE. Departments are not paid by ICE for their efforts.
In recent years, litigation has centered on the extent to which New York law enforcement can cooperate with ICE. In 2018, a New York appellate court ruled that police officers cannot arrest or detain people solely based on an ICE civil immigration warrant.
In an interview, Albany County Sheriff Craig Apple stated that New York law enforcement can cooperate with ICE even without the agreements. The reason law enforcement may enter into the agreements could be “political,” he suggested.
He stated that his department will honor civil immigration warrants signed by judges but not civil detainers, which are requests from ICE for law enforcement to hold an individual without a warrant.
“If we want to contact ICE, we can contact ICE,” according to Apple. “We are not a sanctuary county,” he said, referring to policies that limit cooperation between federal immigration enforcement and local authorities.
State Police continue to follow an executive order issued by former Governor Andrew M. Cuomo in 2017 that restricts cooperation with ICE, Superintendent Steven G. James told the Times Union on Tuesday.
The order prohibits State Police from providing information to federal immigration authorities solely for civil immigration purposes, unless required by law.
It also prohibits State Police from inquiring about someone’s immigration status unless it is directly related to a criminal investigation. They are not permitted to use law enforcement personnel or resources to locate or apprehend individuals wanted solely for civil immigration purposes.
As of last week, ICE had arrested 32,809 people in the United States since Trump took office, according to a senior ICE official. According to the ICE official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity in accordance with the administration’s policy, approximately 47,600 people were detained by ICE.
According to data compiled by Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, 4,779 new deportation cases were filed in New York between January and February. February saw less than half the number of deportation cases filed in January. Many of the January cases could have been initiated by the administration of former President Joe Biden.
According to data from the Center for Migration Studies, New York had an estimated 672,000 undocumented immigrants in 2022. In recent years, over 200,000 asylum seekers have arrived in New York City and sought refuge there or throughout the state.
To house the migrants, New York City opened dozens of emergency shelters, while others stayed in hotels in the Hudson Valley, Capital Region, and other upstate areas. In December, New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced that several upstate hotels would close their shelters.
Many immigrants with varying legal statuses in New York are terrified of Trump’s threat of mass deportation, according to more than a dozen people interviewed by the Times Union.
Migrants are also being targeted for arrest in state courthouse hallways, according to the state’s chief administrative judge.
