NEW YORK (1010 WINS) – Ten detectives from the Nassau County Police Department have been cross-trained and sworn in as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to assist in the arrest and deportation of undocumented immigrants accused of committing crimes, officials announced Tuesday.
"This isn’t about raids. This is targeted enforcement," Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman said at a news conference.
Under the new initiative, after an arrest, ICE will take custody of the individual. If ICE is unable to do so, the suspect will be held in the county jail.
"We will make available jail cells to detain these individuals for 72 hours until they get a permanent detainment site or they are deported," Blakeman said.
Blakeman explained his frustration with cases where arrests were made in the county but undocumented immigrants were later released.
"Six illegal migrants burglarized the Long Island jewelry store. The judge had to release five of those six, cut off their ankle monitors, and they were gone," Blakeman said.
"We're the first major county in the United States cross-designating and embedding our Nassau County detectives," Blakeman said.
The 10 detectives now have federal authority to arrest and deport undocumented immigrants suspected of committing crimes.
The New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) criticized Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman’s plan to deputize certain local law enforcement officers as ICE agents, calling it a “dangerous decision that will undermine public safety and needlessly enable ICE’s cruelty.”
In a statement responding to the announcement, the NYCLU said that “local law enforcement have no place doing ICE’s bidding and enforcing laws outside their expertise — in fact, New York state law prohibits officers from holding someone for civil immigration purposes.”
The organization also called for transparency regarding the agreement’s details and its implementation.
Under President Donald Trump, officers have now been authorized to arrest people without legal status if they encountered them while searching for migrants targeted for removal. Under former President Joe Biden, such "collateral arrests" were banned.
ICE averaged 311 daily arrests in the year ending Sept. 30, with numbers remaining steady in the early days of Trump’s presidency. However, last Sunday, arrests surged to 956, followed by 1,179 on Monday, figures that, if sustained, would represent the highest daily average since ICE began keeping records.
Trump also has lifted longtime guidelines that restricted ICE from operating at "sensitive locations" such as schools, churches or hospitals. The decision has raised concerns among migrants and advocates, who fear children will be traumatized by seeing their parents arrested in the drop-off line at school or that migrants needing medical care won’t go to the hospital for fear of arrest.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.