Cheektowaga, N.Y. (WBEN) - Emotions ran high at Tuesday night's Cheektowaga Town Board meeting, which was packed with residents concerned about cooperation between Cheektowaga Police and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
About two dozen residents spoke during the public comment segment of the Town Board meeting.
Town Supervisor Brian Nowak told WBEN they had two requests.
Residents asked the board to support the "Melt Act", which is proposed legislation in New York State that would make it illegal for federal immigration agents, including those from ICE, to conceal their identities with masks while conducting enforcement operations.
Secondly, they asked the board to support the "New York For All Act," another state proposal aimed at limiting cooperation between state and local agencies and ICE.
"I can understand why there are concerns," said Nowak.
"You're dealing with a federal agency of masked men in unmarked cars. I saw a video of them detaining a U.S. citizen in a Target (store), pulling him out.
In another instance they're breaking windows, cutting seatbelts and pulling a lady out of a vehicle. Those are the kinds of things that, if our police department is collaborating on a side by side basis, the Town of Cheektowaga and the Cheektowaga Police Department are going to be named as defendants in future lawsuits and civil lawsuits and civil liberties violations."
Nowak added that is not what is happening here.
"The narrative is that the Cheektowaga Police Department is side-by-side with ICE doing these joint raids, but that is not the case," he said. "Our police are not masked, their names are on their uniforms. They are very restrictive in
their relationship with the federal government in immigration-related acts."