More than 1,600 illegal migrants on Long Island — including MS-13 members, murderers and international fugitives — have been taken into custody by ICE since the start of the year, according to the feds.
The hoards of criminals swept up as part of ramped-up enforcement under President Trump all have prior convictions, with some presumably already deported and others still in custody waiting to get the boot, said officials — aided in their efforts by both Nassau and Suffolk county authorities.
“Since Jan. 20, ICE has significantly increased its immigration enforcement activities with additional support from other federal as well as local law enforcement agencies,” the agency told The Post about its operations on Long Island.
“We have especially welcomed our ongoing collaboration with law enforcement officials in Nassau County,” it said.
Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman had struck a deal in February that set aside 50 county jail cells for immigration detainees, a move that has so far funneled more than 1,400 immigrants picked up from all over the New York City area through the facility in just months.
Blakeman also signed an agreement with the feds to deputize 10 local detectives into ICE to help arrest and jail immigrants without legal status.
“ICE law enforcement, along with our partners, are doing what “Sanctuary” politicians refuse to do — protect the American people,” the agency said, denouncing the liberal policy of refusing to allow cops to coordinate with immigration agents.
The agency cited a list of who it considers the worst of the worst that it has picked up in both counties since the start of the year, including the notorious gang members, killers and sought global suspects.
But ICE would not say how many of the 1,600 people rounded up had serious versus low-level prior offenses or how many others without criminal records have also been taken into custody — a category that includes a Port Washington bagel shop manager and a Suffolk County Community College student in recent months.
“ICE is going after criminals first,” Blakeman said Thursday. “Yes, when they go after criminals, there could be other people who are caught up. But what I do know is, they’re not raiding schools, and they’re not raiding churches.”
Nassau County Legislator Seth Koslow, a Democrat running against Blakeman for county executive in November, has called for the incumbent to limit cooperation with ICE to cases involving violent crimes and not to use county resources to target immigrants without serious convictions.
If elected, Koslow would apparently likely end Nassau’s current partnership with the agency.
“I believe Nassau County’s resources should only be used to assist ICE in removing violent criminals who threaten our neighborhoods, not to go after hardworking, taxpaying residents who are contributing to our community,” Koslow said.
Suffolk officials, on the other hand, have recently distanced themselves from cooperating with ICE in part because of a $60 million court ruling earlier this year tied to the sheriff department’s past work with the agency.
Still, federal agents continue to find a foothold in the county. In Islip, a taxpayer-funded gun range is being used to train ICE agents under a quiet Department of Homeland Security deal, and in Brentwood, a local firehouse parking lot was taken over by ICE as a makeshift base of operations.
ICE also is still getting help from both counties through what’s known as immigration “detainers” — a request for local officials to tip the agency off when specific people in custody are about to be released.
Sheriffs in Nassau and Suffolk both said they give ICE advanced notice, letting agents wait outside the jail to make an arrest the moment someone they’re targeting walks out.
Between January and June, ICE issued 635 detainers on Long Island — 341 in Nassau and 294 in Suffolk — mostly for men from Central and South America in their late 30s who, according to UC Berkeley’s Deportation Data Project, weren’t charged with serious crimes.
Detainers don’t require review by a court or judge, and local law enforcement isn’t legally obligated to respond.
ICE did not confirm the research group’s numbers.
Read the full article here
