Southold Town Board pressured to reject ICE presence on North Fork

Dozens of residents frustrated with Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations that have roiled the nation packed Southold Town Hall on Jan. 27 to urge local leaders to declare ICE is “not welcome” on the North Fork.

Greenport’s Seth Egan was among roughly 50 people calling on the Town Board to take a stand, saying nearly 800 people have signed a Change.org petition he had started.

Southold officials previously hosted a public forum on immigration enforcement last January, where Police Chief Steven Grattan said his officers would “not actively participate in immigration enforcement,” but would provide assistance in peacekeeping and traffic control upon request.

In a call with The Suffolk Times on Thursday, Chief Grattan said the town’s policy regarding immigration enforcement has not changed since last year’s meeting.

“Our priority is providing public safety to our community,” he said.

Mr. Egan told the board that things have reached “horrifying proportions” across the country and locally, citing the deaths of Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti during ICE operations in Minneapolis this month.

“People are dying in detention centers from lack of medical assistance in inhumane conditions right here on Long Island,” Mr. Egan said, citing what he described as the death of an immigrant in a Nassau County jail. “We have citizens being murdered on the streets just for showing up and voicing their concern for their community.”

He labeled ICE operations “state-sponsored terrorism” and said he has accompanied immigrants to appointments in Hauppauge where he said ICE agents waited outside.

“They are racially profiling — these are not rumors. People like me are witnessing this on the daily,” Mr. Egan said. “They are violations of people’s civil rights and it’s just morally wrong.”

Greenport Mayor Kevin Stuessi said the village and town have had a policing agreement for 31 years and expressed confidence in Chief Grattan and local police, but said the community needs the Town Board’s direction.

“The immigrant experience is what every single one of us here comes from because frankly, each one of us had a relative who came here at one point from somewhere else,” Mayor Stuessi said.

Following the public comments, Southold Town Supervisor Al Krupski read a statement prepared by the Town Board and Chief Grattan regarding ICE operations.

The statement said the Southold Town Police Department is “fully committed to ensuring fair enforcement of the law, treating all individuals with dignity and providing equal services to anyone, regardless of immigration status.”

“Our goal is for everyone to feel comfortable interacting with police officers without fear of being reported to immigration authorities,” Mr. Krupski said.

The statement added that the department does not honor detainer requests without a judicial warrant and that residents have the right to question and document immigration enforcement activities, though active interference is a violation of federal law.

The board pledged to ensure all community members feel safe calling 911, reporting crimes, attending school, participating in religious services, shopping and accessing health care without fear.

Mr. Krupski said the board would follow up on a December letter to the Department of Homeland Security expressing concerns about immigration enforcement and would continue communicating with county, state and federal officials about public safety impacts.

“We will continue to embrace our diversity and celebrate our immigrant communities as important participants in the rich and vibrant fabric of our town,” Mr. Krupski said.

ICE did not respond to The Suffolk Times’ request for comment.

Several residents said Mr. Krupski’s statement did not go far enough.

Samantha Payne-Markel, a lifelong North Fork resident, called the statement “fluffy.”

“That doesn’t make me feel safe,” she said. “You’re hoping that people feel safe going to the grocery store or school? They don’t. They just don’t.”

Greenport resident Sandra Benedetto said residents have witnessed what she called escalating aggression from federal agents, culminating in what she termed the “senseless murders” of Ms. Good and Mr. Pretti — who were both shot and killed during confrontations with ICE agents while protesting operations.

“These raids have also escalated in our own backyard,” she said, citing activity in Riverhead, Flanders, Hampton Bays, Islip and Hauppauge in recent months.

ICE agents were active in Greenport this summer and detained several people, as previously reported by The Suffolk Times.

Local photojournalist Jeremy Garretson, a contributor to The Suffolk Times, described documenting those ICE activities in August.

He told the board he witnessed a detained man’s two children left crying in a parking lot and was later followed by an unmarked black Dodge Charger with tinted windows.

While documenting another enforcement stop on Fifth Avenue, Mr. Garretson said an agent photographed him on a cellphone.

When he submitted a Freedom of Information Act request for images taken of him, Mr. Garretson said his request was denied because he “could not identify the agent involved.” He had asked the agent for identifying information at the time of the incident, to which Mr. Garretson said the agent replied “Why would I tell you anything?”

“That moment matters, because it illustrates that armed individuals were exercising authority in public spaces without the transparency or accountability that local law enforcement is required to uphold,” Mr. Garretson said.

Other speakers included a Greenport High School senior in the Navy Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps program, East Marion counselor Diana Moscoso, English teacher Dinni Gordon, Greenport High School senior Nicholas Dowling, Greenport firefighter and EMT Kristie Lutz, and Orient resident Jennifer Baptist.

According to New York State Education Department data, roughly 66 percent of students in the Greenport School District are Hispanic or Latino.

Nicholas told the board his classmates are the future of the town.

“They are my brothers and sisters,” he said. “And it is a moral responsibility for this local government here to say that ICE is not welcome here.”

Minerva Perez, executive director of OLA of Eastern Long Island, told The Suffolk Times the Latino advocacy organization continues to operate a rapid-response effort to document and respond to ICE activity across the East End.

Ms. Perez advised volunteers not to livestream faces of people targeted by ICE, but to document officers with narration detailing the date, time and location.

“We are urging people to not use tactics from OLA’s perspective that are escalating tactics,” Ms. Perez said. “We are there to document.”

She commended local law enforcement’s efforts to keep the peace and said an “overwhelming majority” of departments “believe in their mission to protect and serve their local communities.”