ICE using Suffolk County police parking lots, but department says it's not 'involved in immigration enforcement'

Suffolk County's leadership has said repeatedly that police are not cooperating with federal immigration agents who are carrying out the Trump administration's deportation campaign.

So the sight of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in three Suffolk County Police Department precincts in recent months has triggered an outcry in the Latino community, even as the department seeks to reassure them its policy has not changed.

The issue came to a head on Sunday when activists filmed at least a dozen ICE agents in the parking lot of the 2nd Precinct in Huntington. It was the third time in three months they have seen ICE there, they said. 

"They were going in and out of the precinct at will," said Josh Dubnau, of Huntington, who said he was among a half-dozen people who made videos and took photographs of the agents. One photo shows nine mostly masked and hooded agents standing around a white van.

The ICE vehicles were spotted seven months after the federal government ended a consent decree aimed at improving the department's ties with the Latino community and after police officials say they have made efforts to reach out. 

Now the department is torn between cooperating with the federal government's deportation program and convincing the immigrant community that it is not a party to the raids that have spread fear throughout Long Island.

Suffolk police, in response to questions from Newsday about the presence in Huntington, said in a statement,  "ICE used the precinct's parking lot, but there was no collaboration."

In an interview, Suffolk County Police Commissioner Kevin Catalina said, "We do not get involved in immigration enforcement ever, period, and we won't. We have not changed our policy on immigration enforcement. We will never ask for somebody's immigration status."

He said the department will assist federal agencies if they are investigating criminal activity or need assistance in times of civic unrest.

Michael Martino, a spokesman for Suffolk County Executive Edward P. Romaine, said, "The Suffolk County Police Department does not participate in civil immigration enforcement."

The Suffolk policy stands in contrast to Nassau, where County Executive Bruce Blakeman has endorsed police cooperation with ICE, even signing an agreement to "deputize" 10 police officers as ICE agents and renting out space in the county jail for ICE to hold detainees

ICE in other police lots

In Suffolk, activists say they have also filmed ICE vehicles at the 5th Precinct in Patchogue and the 3rd Precinct in Bay Shore. Suffolk police confirmed to Newsday that ICE agents have used precinct parking lots in Patchogue, Bay Shore and Huntington.

"I think it's terrible," Dubnau said. ICE agents are like "a masked, armed paramilitary that wears no badges, that hides their faces and that doesn't follow due process."

Activists said the use of the parking lots is stoking distrust of the police among Latinos, creating hesitancy to report crimes and gang activity due to fear of ICE detention.

"There are folks who have made it clear to their faith leaders or their close friends or partners that they are scared of calling the authorities," said Ahmad Perez, a leader of Islip Forward, a nonprofit organization that tracks ICE activity on Long Island. "They fear that they may be somehow taken."

ICE did not respond to questions about its presence in Huntington specifically or its use of police parking lots. "Due to operational security, ICE does not divulge law enforcement tactics or methods," a spokesperson said.

Activists had first spotted ICE agents at the 2nd Precinct in December. Suffolk police said at the time the agents had stopped in temporarily because of a "malfunction" with their van. Police had said the precinct was "not a staging area" for ICE.

The sightings come as controversy over ICE spreads nationally. Immigration agents fatally shot two U.S. citizens — Renee Good and Alex Pretti — in Minneapolis in January, provoking shock, outrage and a move by Democrats in Congress to freeze funding for the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE. 

President Donald Trump and other administration leaders contend ICE is following proper procedures as it tracks down the "worst of the worst" — dangerous and violent illegal immigrants. Studies show that most of those detained in the crackdown have no criminal record.

On Long Island, the campaign has provoked alarm in Latino communities. A Brentwood mother of five was separated from her children last June and now sits in an ICE jail in Texas. An honors student at Suffolk County Community College ended up deported to Colombia. A Honduran man's head was smashed into a brick wall during his arrest by ICE agents in Hempstead in January.

Suffolk County police have long had a contentious relationship with the Latino community dating to several high-profile hate crimes in the 2000s that led to allegations police were not doing enough to protect Hispanics or properly investigate hate crimes against them, said Patrick Young, a professor of immigration law at Hofstra Law School and a longtime immigration lawyer and advocate. After a group of teens beat and stabbed to death an Ecuadorian immigrant in Patchogue in 2008, the department was put under a federal monitoring program. That ended last August.

In the last several years, the department has tried to build a better relationship with Latinos, Young said, though "that's going to disappear if people see ICE in the police department" parking lots. "There won't be a debate. People will say they're working with ICE."

Detainees waiting for transport

On Sunday, police said they had received a 911 call of an erratic vehicle, which officers located in a 7-Eleven parking lot.

"While administering field sobriety tests to the driver, ICE agents pulled into the parking lot and independently detained several individuals," the Suffolk police department statement said. "ICE then left the 7-Eleven and arrived at the Second Precinct parking lot, where they transferred multiple people to ICE vehicles."

Detainees "waited for transport in the parking lot," the police statement said.

Suffolk police did not respond to questions about whether ICE agents or migrants they detained entered the precinct building. 

In a statement, ICE said: "ICE agents are sworn law enforcement officers who conduct targeted enforcement operations nationwide every single day to protect Americans — this is not new, nor will it change. ICE will continue to make arrests across the country including on Long Island. 7 of the top 10 safest cities in the United States cooperate with ICE."

Generally, ICE has the right to use public spaces such as the parking lots of fire departments, police stations, stores and other areas, according to legal experts, though in some cases ICE could be blocked if the departments do not consent. 

Some counties that have joint-task force agreements with federal law enforcement typically allow ICE or other agencies to park at police precincts, though if they end the agreement they could prevent ICE from using the lots, said Ian H. Marcus Amelkin, an associate professor at Hofstra Law School.

On Sunday morning, anti-ICE activist Osman Canales, who travels Long Island tracking ICE activity and alerting the public to it on his Facebook page, told his followers ICE vehicles were heading to the 2nd Precinct. He urged them to go. At least a half-dozen did.

A video Canales made of his encounter at the precinct shows two immigration agents in the back parking lot — which is restricted to police and other officials — standing next to a vehicle as Canales approaches.

"Shame on you! Shame on you, using police!" Canales is heard yelling at the agents.

The agents, then joined by a third, are seen walking toward Canales and apparently telling him to get out of the lot.

"I’m moving. I’m moving," Canales said. "You don’t have to come toward me."

Then a uniformed Suffolk County cop appears.

"Why are they here? Why are they here?" Canales said to the officer as he apparently continues walking away to exit the lot. "Why are you working with ICE?"

"I’m not working with ICE," the officer responded.

"Yes you are," Canales said. "Why are they here?"