Pol: Expand city’s policy to entire state
Illegal immigrants would get sanctuary across New York state under a plan being pushed by a Bronx lawmaker, who says the timing is right to expand the controversial policy already in effect in the Big Apple.
Democratic state Sen. José Serrano Jr. is sponsoring a bill to prohibit cops from holding noncitizens for deportation by the feds unless they’ve been convicted of serious or violent crimes in the past five years.
In the past, similar proposals never stood a chance of passing the then-GOP-led Senate, but Republicans lost control in last year’s election.
And since Democrats are now in charge of both houses of the Legislature — which is already on the verge of passing a bill to let the state DMV issue driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants — Serrano said he is hopeful of reaching a consensus on his Dignity for Immigrants in New York State Act.
“We expect to have a good, robust discussion on the bill,” he told The Post.
Influential Senate Finance Committee Chairwoman Liz Krueger (D-Manhattan) is a co-sponsor of the measure, which was reported to her committee for consideration.
If enacted into law, the Empire State would join California and Connecticut in offering the protection.
State Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis (R-Staten Island/ Brooklyn) slammed the proposal as “misguided, dangerous and asinine,” saying it rewarded people for violating the nation’s immigration laws.
“It continues to amaze me that legislators are going to great lengths to make the citizens who elected them less safe,” she said.
But Serrano said the state should adopt his proposal because honoring “detainers” filed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents has a “chilling effect” on the relationship between local cops and illegal immigrants, leading some to avoid reporting crimes or helping investigations for fear of getting thrown out of the country.
He also said the feds have “erroneously” placed detainers on US citizens.
“It leaves the issue of dealing with immigration enforcement to the federal government,” Serrano said. “Local law enforcement wants to have a good relationship with the immigrant communities.”
A spokeswoman said Gov. Cuomo was willing to review any legislation to “protect immigrants in New York from the reckless actions taken by ICE.”
Spokeswoman Caitlin Girouard noted that Cuomo last year “signed an executive order to ban ICE arrests in all executive agencies without a court order and he has now proposed codifying his executive order in legislation to apply it to all public buildings.”
Serrano’s proposal comes amid an ongoing expansion of rights for illegal immigrants, with New York court officials announcing last week that they won’t let ICE agents make arrests in courthouses unless they have a warrant signed by a judge.
Also last week, a federal appeals court in San Francisco unanimously rejected a Trump administration challenge to the laws that protect illegal immigrants living in California.
Trump has been threatening to send migrants detained at the Mexican border to mostly Democratic Party-ruled sanctuary cities, saying it should make the liberals who live there “very happy.”
It continues to amaze me that legislators are going to great lengths to make the citizens who elected them less safe. — Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis on Sen. José Serrano