By Dave Collins
Associated Press
NASSAU COUNTY, N.Y. — A county in New York City’s Long Island suburbs will be teaming up with federal authorities in President Donald Trump’s crackdown on immigrants who are in the U.S. illegally.
Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman announced Tuesday that 10 county police detectives will be given the same authority as federal immigration agents and work with them to detain immigrants who are in the country illegally after they are charged with other crimes.
While dozens of other police departments around the U.S. have similar 287(g) arrangements with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the move makes the county of nearly 1.4 million residents an outlier in New York, where state law limits when police agencies can cooperate with federal immigration officials.
Blakeman said police will check the immigration status of people charged with crimes and notify ICE if they are there illegally. The arrangement also includes embedding officers with ICE and providing jail cells for short-term detainment until arrestees can be handed over to federal authorities.
“I want to stress that this program is about illegal migrants who have committed crimes,” said Blakeman. “This isn’t about raids. This is targeted enforcement of our laws based here in the state of New York — people who have committed crimes here and have violated federal laws by being in the United States illegally.”
A federal law, the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996, authorizes ICE to delegate authority to state and local police to perform certain immigration officer duties under ICE’s oversight. But some states and communities have restricted how law enforcement officers can work with immigration authorities.
Blakeman, the county executive, criticized New York bail laws for allowing many people charged with nonviolent crimes to go free while their cases are pending without having to pay money to stay out of jail.
“With this program, ICE can pick up illegal migrants who committed crimes … who may be out running around as we’ve seen many times and they are able to commit crime after crime without being held in a state court or without ICE removing them,” he said.
