By: Luba Cortés and Zachary Ahmad
President Trump’s campaign of terror against immigrants has spread across New York and it will only get worse.
The Republican budget bill includes more than $170 billion to help Trump fulfill his promise to carry out the largest deportations in American history. The administration will use the money to hire thousands more Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents and expand the number of people warehoused in immigration detention facilities.
The situation is dire, and it has been for months, yet the New York State Legislature didn’t pass a single bill protecting immigrants during this year’s legislative session.
State lawmakers can’t stop all the harm Trump is inflicting on New York. But they can keep our state out of ICE’s cruelty by calling a special session and passing the New York for All Act.
Trump knows he needs help from local governments to reach his deportation goals. That’s why ICE wants local law enforcement and agencies to hand over their information and resources – which means that for many immigrants a traffic stop, attending school, or visiting a hospital could lead to being torn away from loved ones.
Delmy Rendón knows this too well. She ran into a deer on an upstate New York highway in January. As she knocked on the doors of nearby houses asking for help, one of the residents called the police. This set off a chain of events which culminated in clear collaboration between ICE and police. ICE is trying to deport her . This might not have happened if New York for All was state law.
New York for All would ensure local resources cannot be diverted from local priorities to ICE’s, and it would help keep communities intact.
The bill does this by prohibiting state and local law enforcement officers from enforcing federal immigration laws and sharing sensitive information with ICE.
Critically, New York for All would ban state and local law enforcement from entering into 287(g) agreements that turn local law enforcement into ICE agents.
Targeting immigrant communities for deportation is Trump’s priority, but it shouldn’t be New York’s. State leaders must seize the opportunity and pass New York for All.
Luba Cortés is civil rights and immigration lead organizer for Make the Road New York and Zachary Ahmad is senior policy counsel for the New York Civil Liberties Union.
This piece was originally published in The Buffalo News.
