Over 1,600 people with convictions arrested by ICE on LI so far under Trump's second term, agency says

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has arrested more than 1,600 people on Long Island with prior convictions since Jan. 20, the agency told Newsday on Thursday.

The number of ICE arrests on Long Island since President Donald Trump took office has not been made public until now. But the agency did not respond to Newsday’s questions about how many people without a criminal record have been arrested, though reports include a Port Washington bagel shop manager and a Suffolk County Community College student, among others.

"Those who committed crimes should be deported or incarcerated," Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman told Newsday on Thursday.

"ICE is going after criminals first. And 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. They're not raiding churches," he said.

Blakeman entered into an agreement with ICE in February, allocating 50 local jail cells for the agency to hold people arrested across the region. More than 1,400 immigrants have moved through those cells since, Newsday first reported. Blakeman has also deputized local law enforcement to arrest and jail immigrants with no legal status.

“We have especially welcomed our ongoing collaboration with law enforcement officials in Nassau County," Marie Ferguson, a spokeswoman for ICE, wrote in a statement to Newsday.

Ferguson did not respond to questions about how many of the 1,600 people arrested were convicted of a serious versus a low-level offense.

Scott Banks, attorney-in-chief of the Legal Aid Society of Nassau County, says the distinction is crucial: “What we’re seeing is individuals being picked off the streets regardless of whether or not they have criminal records.”

“Take the worst of the worst, OK, but you’re lumping other people into the same boat,” he said. “It’s just wrong.”

The arrests, according to ICE, include those sought by law enforcement agencies outside the United States for crimes committed abroad, such as a man wanted in Honduras for aggravated femicide, killing a woman or girl because of her gender, who was arrested in Westbury last week. In another instance, ICE arrested a man in Hempstead who was wanted also for killing someone in Honduras.

One way that ICE takes custody of Long Islanders with a criminal record is through an immigration “detainer,” a request from ICE for local law enforcement to share information about a specific detainee. Local officials in Nassau and Suffolk give ICE advanced notice about when someone is expected to be released from jail, according to sheriff’s departments in both counties, giving ICE time to arrest people at the jail’s entrance once they are released.

ICE issued 635 detainers across Long Island from January through June, mostly men from Central and South America in their late 30s who are not charged with serious crimes, according to data obtained by the Deportation Data Project, a research group at the University of California, Berkeley, led by David Hausman. A spokesperson for ICE did not confirm the research group’s numbers.

“Once that bail is posted and that person walks out of the jail, [ICE] is grabbing them … they’re waiting outside,” Banks said.

“It happens often. … Sometimes it even depends on the time of day the bail is posted.”

ICE issued 341 detainers in Nassau and 294 in Suffolk, according to Hausman’s data. About a quarter of those with a detainer were previously convicted of a crime. Another 73% had pending criminal charges, according to the Deportation Data Project.

Nearly 30% of the detainers were issued to people born in Ecuador, and another 20% to those from Honduras. The next largest groups were people from Guatemala and Mexico.

ICE detainers don’t need to be reviewed by a court or a judge, and “local law enforcement are not legally obligated to respond," according to Ify Chikezie, a staff attorney at the New York Civil Liberties Union who is leading the organization’s lawsuit against Nassau County for its partnership with ICE.

“Simply put: It’s an ask that comes from ICE,” she said.

Nassau authorities have walked a fine line on immigration enforcement under Trump, taking orders from a Republican County executive in lockstep with the president’s mass deportation plan in a Democratic state that largely outlaws cooperation with ICE.

In states like Florida and Texas, local jail officials not only tell ICE when they expect to release a detainee, but also frequently hold them for up to two additional days — giving ICE more time to plan for an arrest. But in New York, a state court deemed that practice illegal.

Suffolk officials have distanced themselves from ICE, in part due to a $60 million lawsuit after the sheriff’s department historically jailed immigrants on behalf of ICE.

In Nassau, the federal government is reimbursing Nassau $195 per detainee per night to use the jail cells allocated for ICE, according to Blakeman. Nassau does not have information about those detainees, including whether they are charged with a crime separate from their immigration status, according to Blakeman.

The partnership comes amid Blakeman's bid for a second term.

Seth Koslow, a Nassau legislator who is running against Blakeman for the county executive seat this November, told Newsday he would share information with ICE only on people charged specifically with violent crimes.

“If elected, 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 wrote in a statement to Newsday.

“Our priority must always be public safety, and that means focusing county personnel, funds, and law enforcement efforts where they make the greatest impact, not diverting them for political stunts or to fill federal quotas.”

Banks, of the Legal Aid Society, said: “Most of the immigrant population here is doing the right thing. We rely on them to do the landscaping, to watch our children.”

Newsday’s Joe Werkmeister contributed to this story.