ICE BREAKER
Gov tells fed agents to stay away from state properties amid wave of immig arrests
GOV. CUOMO threatened Wednesday to bar immigration agents from state property without a warrant and promised to sue the feds if they continued “reckless” and “unconstitutional” roundups.
Cuomo, in what he called a cease-and-desist letter to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Acting Director Thomas Homan, slammed the recent metro-area raids — first reported by the Daily News — which netted 225 people in the five boroughs and surrounding counties, saying the feds had no right to conduct those operations.
ICE agents have targeted upstate farms and city courthouses to nab undocumented immigrants for arrest.
The actions pose “significant legal and public safety concerns” that are “eroding trust in the foundations of our communities, threatening the sanctity of our public institutions, and unnecessarily stoking terror among lawabiding residents under the guise of promoting homeland security and public safety,” Cuomo wrote.
Mayor de Blasio has declared New York a sanctuary city, refusing to detain nonviolent incarcerated immigrants or request immigration status when residents apply for social services.
The head of ICE’s New York field office said the policy forces agents into the courts and communities, endangering citizens and immigrants alike.
On Wednesday, Cuomo shot back, threatening to sue should the “pattern of conduct and blatant unconstitutional violations committed by both agents in the field and regional leadership” continue.
“We believe ICE is violating the law,” he said at a Manhattan news conference. “We’re going to put them on notice today that, if they continue, the state will sue.”
Cuomo said he was signing an executive order barring agents from entering state facilities and buildings without a warrant.
“ICE is endangering public safety by not notifying local law enforcement” of an arrest they’re about to carry out, he said.
A rep for the Department of Homeland Security, Tyler Houlton, said, “Gov. Cuomo’s disregard for the rule of law is a slap in the face to the hardworking men and women (of) ICE whose mission it is to uphold the laws Congress passed.”
Federal immigration officers recently rounded up 46 people in the Bronx, 44 in Brooklyn, 40 in Queens, 25 in Manhattan and eight in Staten Island.
In addition, agents arrested a male defendant at Staten Island Criminal Court on Tuesday.
Cuomo in his letter said ICE agents also have gone to homes on Staten Island seeking one person but arresting others when that individual was not there.
Because they are in plainclothes, Cuomo said, many in the community believe them to be local law enforcement, with whom they are now afraid to deal.
Cuomo said he was assembling a “statewide” network of “rapid response teams,” including “legal counsel,” who could be quickly dispatched in a crisis situation.
“We should be able to get legal counsel there as quickly as possible,” he said.