A Latino advocacy group on Long Island is proposing a new public safety law for local municipalities to use as a template, as federal immigration officials continue arresting residents on the East End.
OLA of Eastern Long Island designed the model law to increase transparency and strengthen community trust during federal enforcement actions.
Minerva Perez, the group’s executive director, said towns and villages that adopt the proposal would establish emergency protocols to protect locations such as schools and houses of worship.
“We know fear, chaos and injury is absolutely what has happened on the East End, and what we’re looking at right now is an answer to that from a local perspective that doesn’t pretend to take the power away from a federal agent to do an ICE action, but it does say you have the power as a town and a village to uphold the highest level of public safety that you can,” Perez said.
Former state Assemblyman Fred Thiele helped draft the template.
“We can’t make ICE officers wear ID or not wear masks,” Thiele said. “But local law enforcement has the ability to at least ask them to show their ID. It’s against the law to impersonate federal enforcement officers. So we’d recognize that local government has a role there in making sure that these ICE officers are who they say they are.”
OLA is seeking meetings with town and village officials to build support for the proposal.
