President-elect Donald Trump has promised to deport immigrants living in the country illegally who have committed crimes. He’s also threatened to cut federal funding to those municipalities who refuse to cooperate with Immigration and Custom Enforcement, or ICE.
Cities like Hartford, New Haven and New York City have reaffirmed their status as “sanctuary cities,” but Suffolk County’s policy may change.
Suffolk County, which does not call itself a “sanctuary county,” is one of about 300 municipalities across the country that refuses to hold someone in custody based solely on an ICE detainer request.
When an immigrant living here illegally has been arrested and is set to be released, ICE can send a detainer to local law enforcement to hold that person until it can begin the deportation process.
In 2014 a federal court ruled that ICE detainers were not mandatory notices, and if local law enforcement honored one without a warrant, they could risk lawsuits for violating detainees’ Fourth Amendment rights.
Irma Solis, Suffolk chapter director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, says, “They’re not being allowed the opportunity to go through due process that is afforded under the Fourth Amendment. It’s also because immigration officials cannot compel the state and local agencies to expend funds so that was primarily one of the reasons why the courts said local municipalities really shouldn’t be in the business of enforcing federal law.”
Advocates met with Suffolk County Sheriff Vincent DeMarco and County Executive Steve Bellone, and in September 2014, the sheriff issued a memorandum stating that inmates scheduled to be released from custody would not be held solely on the basis of an ICE detainer request.
According to Jessica Vaughan, director of policy studies at the Center for Immigration Studies, any place that has policy or practice of obstructing immigration enforcement has a sanctuary policy. Those policies can take various forms.
“It can be a policy of prohibiting local officers from communicating with ICE or giving ICE information, getting information from ICE. It can take the form of blocking ICE officers from coming into the jail to interview inmates and it can mean they don’t comply with ICE detainers, which means that they release people who are in custody that ICE is trying to deport,” Vaughan says.
After a Fox News story in October tied gang-related murders in Brentwood to the “sanctuary policy,” Sheriff DeMarco released a statement saying the story was inaccurate.
DeMarco said the Sheriff’s Office has turned over 868 immigrants, who committed crimes while living in the country illegally, to ICE in the last three years based on detainers. The Sheriff’s Office has also received more than $8 million in federal aid over the past five years for jailing those criminals. There are also ICE officers stationed in the correctional facilities.
“The Suffolk County Sheriff’s Office is not a sanctuary agency and does not participate in any sanctuary activities that other agencies within this county may,” says DeMarco.
Police departments within Suffolk can approach the stated county policy differently.
Vanessa Baird-Streeter, with the Suffolk County Executive’s Office, says the Suffolk County Police Department’s current policy does not make Suffolk a “sanctuary county.” Instead, she says it protects taxpayers from costly jail stays and potential litigation.
“The only thing that we’re asking for is we’re asking for a warrant, so that if we’re holding someone there is a warrant. You’ve asked us to do it and just provide us a warrant to hold the person,” Baird-Streeter says.
A week after the election, Sheriff DeMarco sent a letter to County Attorney Dennis Brown asking him to change the county’s policy and honor all ICE detainers.
Republican Legislator Tom Cilmi was surprised by the Fox News story but says he was pleased with Sheriff DeMarco’s efforts to clarify the county’s policy.
“I certainly don’t want Suffolk County to be known as a “sanctuary county.” And I was happy to hear the extent to which we go to enforce the county’s laws and to help enforce immigration law and I’m even happier to know we’re looking at avenues to make our cooperation with ICE even greater,” Cilmi says.
But Irma Solis, of Suffolk County NYCLU, says now is not the time for the county to go back on the agreement it made in 2014.
“This is a time for them to reaffirm and not to even be considering going back on their word, and it’s not that they’ll be promoting, ‘Oh we’re gonna be a ‘sanctuary city,’ it’s more we’re gonna be protecting everyone’s Fourth Amendment rights,” Solis says.
County Attorney Dennis Brown declined to comment on the letter saying only that the policy was under review.
