Cheektowaga, NY (WBEN) The Cheektowaga Town Board sent a message to the Cheektowaga Police, passing a resolution to limit how much cooperation it gives ICE. The town's supervisor says the police already follow what's in the resolution.
The resolution says the town will not allow its funding or resources to assist in civil federal immigration enforcement, except when “required by a judicial warrant, court order, or applicable law, unless legally mandated or in the interest of public safety.” Supervisor Brian Nowak says that's nothing new. "In a lot of ways, it's a continuation of what's already in place," says Nowak. "What this does is put the town board on record supporting those limitations and making clear that when it comes to civil matters, that it's not the position of the town of Cheektowaga to cooperate with ICE and Border Patrol," explains Nowak. "Obviously, when it comes to criminal related issues, when you have folks that are that are committing serious crimes, causing serious problems, yeah, we're going to cooperate as needed, with ICE and Border Patrol.
Nowak says there were concerns from residents, and he had some too. "I can speak for myself and some other members of the board, from what I've heard from them, and it has to do with ICE being poorly trained. Our police officers go through a year of training, for instance, and folks that are with ICE and Border Patrol, we're looking at closer to 45 days. There are instances, obviously, in Minneapolis, where two individuals were were killed by ICE agents and border patrol agents early in the year, and that was a concern as well," explains Nowak.
Nowak says what hasn't happened in Cheektowaga Police joining ICE or Border Patrol on joint raids. "It's not like we're sending out our SWAT teams working side by side to break into people's houses or do anything like that. It has to do when we detain somebody that has got a criminal record and and they're wanted by another agency, for example, that we we may reach out to Border Patrol or ICE on that when it comes to the verification of identities, that may be another case where we reach out to people other types of incidents, instances like that," says Nowak.
Residents have been speaking out on ICE concerns over the past few months.