By Anthony Favilla
Marc Andrew Soto is a community leader and director of Liga de Justicia, a Brentwood-based nonprofit organization. Many of the group’s efforts focus on helping immigrants and Spanish-speaking communities. Liga de Justicia provides school supplies to families, holds civil rights workshops and leadership programs for young people, and carries out other aid initiatives.
Soto said many of his clients and the communities he serves now visit his office less often, and the shopping center where he works sees significantly less foot traffic than before. Activists say immigrants, both undocumented and documented, are afraid to go out because they worry about being detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Soto said he shares their concern.
Soto, who is Puerto Rican, is particularly concerned for his 15-year-old daughter, despite the fact that Puerto Ricans have been U.S. citizens since 1917.
ICE presence in Nassau County has reportedly increased since agency officials signed a 287(g) agreement last year, allowing direct cooperation between ICE and the Nassau County Police Department. Ten county detectives have been deputized to assist ICE agents in detaining undocumented immigrants, according to a public statement by Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman in early 2025. They are embedded in ICE’s operations.
ICE has used its own administrative warrants to detain undocumented immigrants, according to attorneys with knowledge of ICE practices. Alexander Holtzman, a Hofstra University law professor and director of the university’s Deportation Defense Clinic, said he believes such warrants cannot be used in New York to arrest undocumented immigrants. “They can [make an arrest] with a judicial warrant, which an ICE warrant is not. It’s an administrative piece of paper,” Holtzman said.
A judicial warrant is issued by a court and signed by a judge. An administrative warrant is issued by a federal agency, such as the Department of Homeland Security. Under state law, arrest warrants must be issued by criminal courts.
Holtzman said a suspect can be arrested without a warrant in New York if there is reasonable cause, but that standard is reserved for crimes. Being an undocumented immigrant is a civil, not criminal, immigration infraction.
Law groups sue Nassau County
The New York Civil Liberties Union, Hofstra Law Clinic, LatinoJustice and others argue in a lawsuit that Nassau County’s 287(g) agreement violates state law and targets immigrants indiscriminately. Holtzman is representing the Hofstra Law Clinic.
The suit follows a previous case — Wells v. Suffolk County (2018) — that the NYCLU won against the Suffolk County Police Department. The suit argued the SCPD had no legal basis to honor ICE detainer requests to hold immigrants after their set release date. NCPD officials had agreed to follow the Wells v. Suffolk County decision, but then signed the 287(g), Holtzman said.
The lawsuit against Nassau County was fully briefed in September, and a preliminary injunction was filed. A timetable for a decision from the judge was unclear at press time. Holtzman and other attorneys involved said they were hopeful a verdict would be reached soon to halt the deputization of county police officers.
Immigrant community in fear
Lauris Wren, founder of the Asylum Clinic at Hofstra, said her clients who have not yet been granted asylum fear for their livelihoods and, in some cases, their lives. She noted there has been a “huge uptick” in expedited removal hearings, which ICE uses to avoid full removal proceedings and speed up deportations.
ICE presence “creates layers of distrust and fear,” said Melanie Creps, executive director of the Hempstead-based Central American Refugee Center. Creps said the 287(g) agreement leads immigrants to fear Nassau police, causing a less safe environment for all.
Andrew Case, who works as a policing lawyer for LatinoJustice, said ICE has increased its practice of holding immigrants in detention at the Nassau County Correctional Facility in East Meadow.
“It’s a tactic ICE is using in order to encourage people to self-deport,” Case said. “There are people who are choosing to self-deport, even though they might have valid claims in court, because the price of being incarcerated during your entire legal proceeding is too high.”
Since the 287(g) agreement took effect, areas of Nassau County with large Latino populations have seen increased ICE activity, immigrant rights activists say. According to data from Islip Forward, a nonprofit that runs the Long Island ICE Tracker website, there were at least 66 reported ICE sightings in Nassau County from July through December last year, including 22 in Hempstead. According to U.S. Census Bureau data, Hempstead’s population is 51% Hispanic or Latino. Westbury, a village with a 32% Hispanic population, had the second-highest number of sightings at 15.
“They appear to be engaging in racial profiling, which is illegal,” Case said. “It’s a serious challenge to the very rule of law in this country.”
The office of Bruce Blakeman was not available for comment on this story.
Soto said he remains committed to his work and helping his community. He said he views his work in offering guidance to immigrants as especially important now. Though his office may see fewer people walking in, he is still committed to Liga de Justicia.
The immigrant plight lights “that fire within me and beneath me to try and help in some small way,” he said.
