East Hampton Town, Village Try To Reassure Immigrants

With federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids underway in New York City, rumors of the same across Long Island including in East Hampton Town, and growing fear among immigrant communities, Town Supervisor Kathee Burke-Gonzalez delivered a statement enumerating the town and the Town Police department’s policies when the Town Board met on Tuesday, February 4.

While the town is bound to cooperate with federal authorities, she said, the police department would not be enforcing immigration policy.

Later on Tuesday, East Hampton Village Mayor Jerry Larsen held a press conference about local police and immigrants at the village’s Emergency Services Building, where the message was the same: The village would not be enforcing immigration issues.

Town Responds to Fears

Emotions were laid bare in the crowded meeting room at Town Hall, as some 17 residents, among them an attorney and advocates for immigrants, implored the board to reject the Trump administration’s moves to round up, detain and deport undocumented immigrants and to refuse cooperation with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, or ICE. Many more would have spoken up, some speakers insisted, were it not for the fear pervasive in the Latino community.

“As policies at the federal level continue to evolve,” Burke-Gonzalez read from a prepared statement, the town and the police department “remain committed to protecting public safety and addressing violent crime by focusing resources on those who pose clear threats to our community, such as repeat DWI offenders, violent criminals and sex offenders.”

The police department “has a duty to cooperate with federal and state enforcement agents to ensure the safety and security of our community, while remaining steadfast in treating all residents with fairness and dignity, recognizing that immigrants are vital to the strength, character and success of our community.”

While ICE agents have previously apprehended repeat and violent offenders in the town and that will continue, the police department, the supervisor said, “has received no further federal or state guidance regarding new policies or procedures and has no information regarding ICE activity.”

Police policies are guided by state law, and ICE detainers alone “are not legally sufficient to justify detention,” Burke-Gonzalez said, and the recent executive order “does not alter or impact” the police department’s operation. The town’s police officers do not detain or hold anyone on an ICE detainer but rather require a federal warrant signed by a judge.

Further, local law enforcement has no means to determine citizenship status, nor are they permitted to inquire as to a person’s status.

“Arrest processing requires mandatory entry of biographical information into federal databases, which all federal law enforcement agencies have access to,” the supervisor said, “and this is the only avenue federal authorities have to access any local department’s information.”

For those making a report, or who have been the victim of a crime or involved in an incident, “there is no means for a local police department to access your status and in turn, no means to share your information with any federal agency.”

Town officials and the police department are attending meetings with advocacy groups, clergy and school districts to clarify the role of local law enforcement and will continue to foster an open dialog regarding community safety and law enforcement, Burke-Gonzalez said. “By prioritizing public safety and human dignity, we strive to create a strong, united community where everyone is safe and valued.”

Police Chief Michael Sarlo addressed the board and residents. “There is nothing in place in New York State law that allows us to enforce federal immigration law,” he emphasized.

Over the last five years, police have acted on just five ICE detainers for people arrested by Town Police, he said, only one of whom was transported to the Suffolk County Sheriff and subsequently taken into ICE custody. “We have no part of that,” he said.

The police, he added, have received “zero notifications” of changes in warrant or detainer policies, but are honor- and duty-bound to support efforts to arrest those committing serious crimes. Regarding offenses that have triggered the arrest warrant process, if the federal warrant is criminal, “we cannot lawfully not participate in that process,” he said.

Much of the public comment was emotional, a cross-section of residents condemning the “cruel orders” of the Trump administration, in one speaker’s words. “I’ve never been so heartsick about my country and my station as a citizen as I am now,” said Prudence Carabine. Many spoke of ordinary kindnesses Latino immigrants routinely demonstrate, and the same motivation to come to America that drove generations of their forebears from every corner of the world.

“I stand before you today not just as advocate but as a proud member of this incredible immigrant community, the Latino community,” said Yesenia Quichimbo, who said she grew up in Montauk and has lived there since 1995. “We are not outsiders. We are local, hardworking and deeply rooted in the fabric of this town. We are consumers, taxpayers, business owners and community leaders. We are mothers, daughters, fathers and sons. We are the ones who woke up early to open our businesses, to staff the restaurants, to build homes, who care for our children and the elderly.”

She asked that the town “stand on our behalf to support us as we have been supporting this town. Supporting the immigrant community means supporting the very foundation of this town. … Many of us don’t know who to trust, who we can speak to and who will stand up for us.”

Mark Smith of the Honest Man Restaurant Group told the board that he and other business owners “recognize the vital role the workers, customers and entrepreneurs of all backgrounds play in sustaining our local economy. The forced removal of members of our community through deportation can have serious economic and social consequences,” from workforce disruption, economic decline and reduced consumer spending to harm to community stability and reputation.

“We urge our local officials to consider these consequences when shaping these polices and enforcement practices,” he said.

Village Officials, Educators Urge Calm

At the press conference in the village later Tuesday night, the mayor said that he was moved to schedule the event because of the pervasive anxiety over the Trump administration’s new policy.

“We’re here tonight because there has been so much fear in our community that’s been developed by the new policies of the federal government,” Larsen said. “The most important message I want to get out to everybody is that the local police are not immigration police. … You need to trust the local police — you need to report crimes to the local police. You need to feel very comfortable that if you’re getting pulled over by a local police officer, they are not interested in your immigration status.

“We don’t want chaos in our community,” the mayor continued. “We want people to be calm, just like they have been over the last four years and even prior to that. The policy of local police has not changed at all.”

Fact sheets from the American Immigration Lawyers Association were available at the event, each titled “Know Your Rights” and detailing them in the event that ICE agents visit a residence, come to a workplace, or stop a person in public.

Speakers including Village Police Chief Jeffrey Erickson, Sag Harbor Village Mayor Tom Gardella and East Hampton Superintendent of Schools Adam Fine, reiterated the message.

“Public safety is our main concern,” Gardella said. “We want everybody in the public to feel safe, regardless of what your immigration status is.”

“If we as educators are doing our jobs right, we’ve created an environment in our buildings where our students feel safe,” Fine said. “Safe to learn, safe to try new things and safe to explore.” He acknowledged that “there’s a lot of uncertainty and anxiety streaming through our community,” but “we continue to monitor this fluid situation and we’ll continue to follow the guidelines and directives from the New York State Education Department. We live in rapidly changing times, and we as adults sometimes forget that children can be stressed by current events which may evoke unfamiliar and unusual ideas that lack context in their developing minds. … Please continue to reassure your children that they are not alone in this world.”

The East End towns and villages are “all exactly on the same page,” Erickson said. “We are not the ICE police. We don’t have the authority to deal with immigration law.”