The New York Immigration Coalition (NYIC) has condemned corrections officers’ emails to agents with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency and called for swift passage of protections for Caribbean and other immigrants.
NYIC is an umbrella policy and advocacy organization that represents over 200 immigrant and refugee rights groups throughout New York.
It said that it was revealed during a New York City Council Committees on Immigration and on Criminal Justice hearing that New York City Department of Corrections (DOC) officers were sharing information about incarcerated immigrants with ICE.
“Emails sent from DOC officers to ICE were intended to help facilitate ICE pickups and deportations,” Murad Awawdeh, NYIC’s executive director, told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC) on Sunday.
This is a violation of NYC’s 2014 Sanctuary City legislation, which is supposed to end the warrantless and unconstitutional detention of immigrants and stop collusion between NYC law enforcement and ICE.
“New York is a welcoming city for all people who call it home, and our Sanctuary City laws exist to protect all of our neighbors from unjust detentions and deportations. But apparently, some DOC officers have decided that the law does not apply to them. By unlawfully colluding with ICE, these officers put the futures and families of our immigrant neighbors at risk, and betrayed the trust between immigrant communities and local law enforcement that is essential for fostering a safe city,” he added.
Awawdeh said this shameless disregard for the law and the rights of the people those officers were charged with serving, will not go unnoticed.
New York City Council legislative package, especially Intro 185, would prohibit the DOC from communicating with US federal immigration authorities.
“At the state level, the Legislature and governor must enact ‘New York For All’ (legislation) to ensure our state and local law enforcement and other resources are not used to support the ICE agenda: targeting and separating New York immigrant families, and sowing fear in our communities,” Awawdeh said.
“While some in law enforcement are actively working to subvert justice, our elected officials must swiftly step up to provide stronger, more comprehensive protections for immigrant New Yorkers.”
NYIC’s protest comes as New York immigration advocates have also denounced an “Asylum Transit Ban” plan by the Joe Biden administration in the United States that would block asylum applications from Caribbean and other asylum seekers who traveled through third countries to the US but did not apply for asylum.
NYIC said this proposed rule favors more affluent asylum seekers and needlessly excludes others from the United States.
It urged the Biden administration to expand protections for all asylum seekers, including those from Haiti, Cuba, and Venezuela.
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