By RICK MILLER
Olean Star
Gov. Kathy Hochul introduced a bill last week that would ban New York law enforcement from cooperating with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
If approved by the state Senate and Assembly and signed by Hochul, the Local Cops, Local Crimes Act would outlaw the 287 (g) agreements ICE has with a number of law enforcement around the state including the Cattaraugus County Sheriff’s Office and the Allegany Police Department.
Eight New York counties, including Nassau, Niagara, Rensselaer, Cattaraugus, Madison, Otsego, Steuben, and Broome, currently have agreements with ICE.
Cattaraugus County Sheriff Eric Butler said the Sheriff’s Office entered into an agreement with Immigration and Customs Enforcement about three months ago. It provides training to support limited ICE enforcement.
There was some preliminary training of a few officers before the local ICE agents were redeployed to the Midwest, Butler said. The training will enable the deputies to assist ICE.
“We’ve helped ICE at various times.” Butler said. “There was an incident at one point where a number of illegal immigrants were living in a house. We worked collaboratively with ICE for public safety. It’s all about trying to keep our community safe.”
Butler said, “the governor is a fool” for proposing the Local Cops, Local Crimes Act. “It’s political” and “it will make it more dangerous for all police officers.” Hochul and other Democratic governors
The sheriff said the Sheriff’s Office will continue to work with federal agencies. The governor’s “eliminating these agreements won’t affect us from working collaboratively” with federal officials. “It won’t change.”
In Minneapolis over the past month two American citizens protesting and documenting ICE and Border Patrol street attacks have been shot and killed by agents.
Butler acknowledges the optics of the ICE and Border Control agents on the streets of Minneapolis are not good and they often appear unprofessional. But the federal agents are hamstrung by not being able to work with local police, the sheriff said. The result is a lack of public safety.
Unlike Minnesota, local police work with ICE to notify them when illegal immigrants are about to be released from jail, Butler said. If Minnesota police worked with ICE on turning over illegal immigrants when they are released from prison or local jails there would be fewer dust-ups, he said.
When an illegal immigrant is jailed, ICE is notified, the sheriff said. “We turn them over to ICE.”
Assemblyman Joe Sempolinski, R-Canestio, said in a statement; “It’s completely inappropriate for Governor Hochul to attempt to prevent local and county law enforcement agencies and the governments they represent from deciding what is in the best interest of their own communities.”
Sempolinski added: “Barring local law enforcement from working with federal immigration officials makes New Yorkers less safe. Don’t be fooled, this proposal has more to do with courting the governor’s base during an election year than it has to do with ensuring public safety.”
State Sen. George Borrello, R-Sunset Bay,
“Eliminating these partnerships doesn’t make enforcement disappear; it just makes it more chaotic,” Borrello said, quoting an ICE spokesperson: “When politicians bar local law enforcement from working with us, that is when we have to have a more visible presence so that we can find and apprehend the criminals let out of jails and back into communities.”
Borrello said, “In other words, cutting off cooperation forces roving patrols after offenders are released instead of handling transfers in a controlled jail setting. That’s not safer; it’s political posturing at the expense of public safety.”
Allegany Police Chief Paul Griffith told Tap Into Olean that he expects no change with the ICE contract except that some officers will undergo additional training. The police department gets reimbursed for time its officers spend assisting ICE under the contract.
In a press statement, Hochul said, “We’ve worked hard to drive down crime, reform our laws, and provide more tools to put criminals behind bars — those who would do harm to our communities. But all of us have a core belief that public safety must be pursued lawfully, transparently, and with humanity. And yet, these very principles have been abandoned by our federal government and our immigration officers.”
The governor said the proposed law banning the ICE agreements with local police will allow them to “focus on local crimes — focus on protecting our streets.” She said she would work with her partners in the legislature “to get this passed as quickly as possible.”
Among those standing with Hochul as she made the announcement was the new president of the New York State Sheriff’s Association, Ulster County Sheriff Juan Figueroa, the 94-year-old group’s first Latino president.
Also, last month Niagara County Sheriff Michael Filicetti announced he had re-evaluated the ICE pact and ended
the practice of holding ICE detainees without a warrant. His department will continue to work with ICE with criminal warrants.
