We’re Suing Nassau County to Stop it From Unlawfully Working With ICE

President Trump has started to put his plans for the largest mass deportations in American history into action, and his administration has succeeded in sowing fear in immigrant communities across the nation. But Trump knows that – even with the massive immigration enforcement funding boost in the GOP’s new budget bill – ultimately, he needs state and local governments to do his dirty work for him.

One of the most powerful tools in Trump’s mass deportation toolbox is what is known as a 287(g) agreement. These agreements purport to give state and local law enforcement officers the authority to carry out certain immigration enforcement duties. Essentially, 287(g) agreements turn state and local police into arms of ICE, diverting the time and attention of local officers from community safety to federal immigration enforcement.

Earlier this spring, Nassau County signed a 287(g) agreement with ICE that says county police officers can stop, question, and arrest any resident, anywhere in the county, who they believe may not have adequate documents. But this agreement is illegal.

In a case brought by the NYCLU in 2018, a New York State appellate court ruled that law enforcement officers do not have authority to enforce civil immigration law. This means Nassau’s 287(g) agreement violates state law.

That’s why the NYCLU, Latino Justice PRLDEF, and Hofstra Law School’s Deportation Defense Clinic sued Nassau County. We want a judge to throw out this agreement, which could subject New Yorkers to racial profiling and illegal stops, searches, detentions and arrests. Our case is the first of its kind in New York, and if we win, it could deter other New York counties from enacting similar illegal agreements and protect residents from ICE.

Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman claims the agreement will improve public safety. But – as Blakeman himself often says – Nassau is already one of the safest counties in the country. And 287(g) agreements damage community safety by making residents afraid to engage in any kind of interaction with local officers.

In fact, research shows that places that keep local law enforcement out of ICE’s cruelty experience less crime than communities that turn their officers into immigration agents.

What Nassau County is doing is an attack on immigrants and an attack on our rights – and we’re in court to stop it.