Immigrant advocates ask officials not to work with ICE

Many immigration advocacy groups fear for the future of undocumented immigrants following the presidential election. Immigrant advocates are calling for law enforcement agencies not to cooperate with

News 12 Staff

Dec 10, 2016, 4:13 AM

Updated 2,934 days ago

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Many immigration advocacy groups fear for the future of undocumented immigrants following the presidential election.
Immigrant advocates are calling for law enforcement agencies not to cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, officials when it comes to detaining immigrants, unless they have a warrant.
"We want to make sure that people who are brought into custody are not unjustly detained," says immigrant advocate Anita Halasz.
Halasz says there is heightened fear in immigrant communities since Donald Trump won the presidential election. She says she is concerned about a possible increase in deportation and detainment that violates the fourth amendment. 
Suffolk County Sheriff Vincent DeMarco says his office works very closely with ICE and says since 2006 ICE has maintained an office at the Yaphank Correctional Facility and says he plans to continue cooperating with the federal agency. 
DeMarco says his staff has turned in over 900 immigrants to ICE over the past three years.
"We're talking about people who are priorities for deportation, we're talking about people who are convicted of crimes, not accused of crime, convicted of crimes and it's usually at least a felony or three misdemeanors or a significant misdemeanor," says Sheriff DeMarco.