City Council hears calls to change immigration
Dems and other speakers lay down proposed policy changes after ICE activity is reported in Congress Plaza.
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About 10 speakers urged the Saratoga Springs City Council to take a stronger stance against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s “removal operations” — as the practice is called in the ICE web pages — in the city after another of these operations took an unspecified number of people from Saratoga’s Congress Plaza earlier that day, Tuesday, July 15.
Reports from organizations that track the activity say as many as 10 people were taken, but the numbers could not be confirmed. See our story from yesterday here.
The city council needed to take a stronger stance against the actions, according to the 10 speakers who took to the microphone.
Otis Maxwell, the city’s Democratic Party chair, was the first of a series of party members to speak, each taking a different portion of the Democratic position on the subject.
“We stand firmly against unconstitutional deportations that violate due process, sow fear and undermine the rule of law in our community,” Maxwell said. “The U.S. Constitution protects all persons, not just citizens, under the Fifth Amendment’s guarantee of due process…We affirm every individual deserves dignity, legal representation and protection that is provided.”
Springs resident Alice Smith took the next portion, a list of recommendations that the city should adopt, which included maintaining due process, stopping the city’s police department from holding people for ICE without a judicial warrant; expanding legal aid and legal education to the immigrant community; stopping local hospitals, schools or other institutions from asking about immigration status in order to promote community safety and trust; and setting up a system by which immigrants can show that they have been a citizen in the city for at least two years, which can slow down the removal process.
Terry Diggory, a co-leader of the nonpartisan Saratoga Immigration Coalition, seconded the ideas brought forth by the Democrats, and added that the city’s police department needs to look at their policy on immigration, specifically Section 414.4 that deals with detention.
Under that policy, the police may not hold anyone for a civil immigration matter, but they may hold someone for a reasonable time for a criminal immigration matter, and they may contact ICE “to verify whether an immigration violation is a federal civil violation or a criminal violation”
It is this portion that Diggory had the most trouble with, saying that asking the police department to call ICE is the trouble itself. That is, talking to ICE brings the person to ICE’s attention, whether the person has committed a crime or not.
“In other words, you're asking ICE, ‘Is this somebody that you're interested in?’ That is, I think, a blatant violation of the idea that ICE and the Saratoga police are operating separately,” Diggory said.
He then called on the council to revise that section of the policy. He explained in an interview afterward that he believes the police department could withhold much of that contact.
(It was a similar situation in Queensbury last month when ICE took about a dozen people from the Red Roof Inn after the Warren County Sheriff’s office asked for translation assistance. Read our story on that, here.)
Department of Public Safety Commissioner Tim Coll, who has been endorsed by the Democratic Party as well as the Republicans and One Saratoga, responded after the public comment period, saying that the police department is already an accredited agency and therefore the policies, including 414.4, already follow state law.
“If a police officer arrests someone for a DUI, for an example, they will run that person through NCIC, it's the national database, and if there's a criminal warrant there, they will get in contact with the agency. If it’s a criminal warrant, they will release that person to the agency. It doesn't matter if it's ICE or the FBI or DEA,” he said, referring to the Federal Bureau of Investigation or the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency. “It says if it's a civil warrant, we have no authority to hold that person.”
Others at the city council meeting, including Holiday Hammond of MLK Saratoga and Michele Madigan speaking not as the county supervisor but as a resident, spoke on the secretive nature of the ICE raids, that the agents arrive in unmarked cars — often wearing masks — and take people from the area.
Referring to that morning’s removal operation, she said, “They were abducted by men who not in uniforms and their faces are covered. I can’t imagine.”
Again, Coll’s response was one that said the focus of the people’s ire should not be on the local city councils such as Saratoga Springs. They have little power to affect change, he said.
“People should understand that ICE has no legal obligation to even tell us they’re coming into our community. They have their legal authority through the Supremacy Clause in the Constitution. The FBI has the same authority. The DEA has the same authority. They can go wherever they want, to whatever city, town, village, Native American reservation, and conduct their activities,” Coll said, adding later, “The Saratoga Springs police department does not enforce federal immigration law. We have no authority to do it, but we will also not obstruct the enforcement of federal administration, because that's clearly a crime.”
The department does receive notification from ICE when they plan an operation in order to avoid confrontation between ICE and police officers and to avoid both agencies having operations at the same time in the same location.
Commissioner of Accounts Dillon Moran and Commissioner of Finance Minita Sanghvi, both Democrats, sided with those who spoke against the ICE activity, highlighting the secretive nature of taking people off the street while not in uniform and with masks over their faces, a common practice with ICE.
Yet, Moran also found one piece of common ground with Coll, asking him if they each agreed that arresting people for the color of their skin is illegal. Moran mentioned the recent statement from the U.S. Border Czar Tom Homan that detaining people for short periods of time does not require a warrant or reasonable suspicion of a crime, even if the stop is based on physical appearance.
“That is, no one has the right to do that to anybody in this country, period, right? I mean, you would agree with that, commissioner?” Moran asked ColI about arrests for the color of their skin.
“I agree with that,” Coll responded.
Correction: Earlier versions of this story placed the ICE activity in Congress Park, but it was in Congress Plaza. We have made the changes.