County Executive Blakeman emphasizes only known criminals would be detained
By Gabriel Prevots
More than a hundred protesters gathered on the steps of the Nassau County’s Theodore Roosevelt Executive and Legislative Building Friday to denounce County Executive Bruce Blakeman’s announcement that 10 county police detectives will be deputized to work with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Between chants in English and Spanish supporting immigrants, prominent representatives from immigrant rights advocacy groups, elected leaders and union members called on Blakeman to rescind his Feb. 5 decision and urged their communities to show solidarity with immigrants.
Immigrants “are the bedrock of every community in this state and in this country, and under no circumstances should the state law enforcement or city law enforcement or municipal law enforcement be colluding with ICE,” said Robert Agyemang, of Hempstead, vice president of the New York Immigration Coalition. Agyemang was born in the U.S., and his parents emigrated from Ghana.
“We’re here today, we’re sending the message: Blakeman, you need to do the right thing. You still have time to make it up,” said Angel Reyes, of Glen Cove, Long Island coordinator with the immigrant rights organization Make the Road in Brentwood, who served as emcee for the hour-long protest.
In response to opposition to his announcement, Blakeman reaffirmed that the purpose of the deputized detectives would be “picking up criminals, people who are engaged in crimes … These aren’t going to be raids. These are going to be targeted enforcement of known criminals who are here illegally.”
It is unclear when Blakeman’s deputization of the county detectives will take place, as the details have not yet been made public. ICE collaborations with police departments under its 287(g) program are published on the agency’s website, and as of Feb. 16, Nassau County remained absent from the list.
Still, speakers emphasized that ICE’s current enforcement policies, laid out by President Trump, have had a chilling effect on immigrant communities throughout Long Island, instilling anxiety and fear and leading many to forgo help when they need it most.
Marcia Estrada, a chapter coordinator with local women’s and immigrants’ rights organizations, shared her personal story of escaping “abuse, poverty and threats to my life” in Honduras and then domestic abuse in the United States.
Referring to the abuse, Estrada said, “If this had happened today with the police collaborating with ICE, I would have never sought help. I would have never called the police because I would have feared facing deportation, being separated from my children or even facing death.”
According to the New York Civil Liberties Union, the Feb. 14 protest was held on Valentine’s Day to “demonstrate love and support for Long Island immigrants, many of whom are living in fear due to an escalation in ICE activity in their communities.”
While condemning Blakeman’s announcement, many speakers endorsed legislation to counteract it, known as the New York for All Act. It is currently under consideration in the State Legislature, and if passed, the law would prohibit police officers from questioning individuals about their citizenship or immigration status.
The event also included a “Know Your Rights” session by Erik Villa Lobos, of Glen Cove, a paralegal with the Central American Refugee Center in Hempstead. The relatively short talk informed attendees about their right to remain silent, speak to an attorney if arrested and not open the door to police unless officials possess a search warrant signed by a judge.
Erik Villa Lobos, of Glen Cove, a paralegal with the Central American Refugee Center (CARECEN) in Hempstead, offered a mini-workshop on immigrant rights amid the protest. // Photo by Scott Brinton/Long Island Advocate
Susan Gottehrer, NYCLU’s Nassau County regional director, noted immigration should never be treated as a criminal matter, as is the case now. “We have two systems of law in this country,” she told the crowd. “One is civil and one is criminal. Immigration is considered civil law, not criminal law. To say that undocumented people are criminals just by virtue of being undocumented is a willfully false statement, and leaders who say it are betting on the public’s lack of knowledge around this.”
Cheryl Keshner, founder of immigrant rights group Long Island Language Advocates Coalition, drew parallels between Blakeman’s anti-immigration stance and a past period of anti-immigrant sentiment on Long Island in the 2000s that led to the murder of Ecuadorian immigrant Marcelo Lucero in Patchogue. “Let’s not forget the painful history which we have here on Long Island,” Keshner said, adding that “racist and xenophobic rhetoric” by prominent county elected leaders caused a wave of hate crimes in 2008 against Latinos in Suffolk County.
“Is this what we want in Nassau County?” she asked.
Nassau County Legislator Carrié Solages (D-Valley Stream), a Haitian-American, described Blakeman’s announcement as “reckless.”
“We have less people participating in our society because now they are living in fear,” Solages said. “The effect of what [Blakeman] did now will be devastating to Nassau County.”
Solages and other speakers also emphasized their concerns that Nassau County police collaboration with ICE would erode community trust in law enforcement.
