Latino advocates urge Riverhead to adopt local law addressing public safety during ICE activity
- Denise Civiletti
- Feb 20
- 7 min read
Key Points
OLA urged Riverhead to consider a local law on public safety, transparency and accountability during ICE activity
OLA urged Riverhead to consider a local law on public safety, transparency and accountability during ICE activity
Supervisor Jerry Halpin said he has no plans “as of this morning” to schedule a work session discussion.
Councilman Ken Rothwell said he “would not and will not support” the proposal.
With concern growing about increased federal immigration enforcement activity on the East End, OLA of Eastern Long Island urged the Riverhead Town Board Wednesday night to consider legislation it says would help local police protect public safety while improving transparency and accountability.
Riverhead officials offered no response during the meeting, and it’s unclear whether the proposal will gain support. The next morning, Supervisor Jerry Halpin said he has no immediate plans to put it on a Town Board work session agenda for discussion. Council Member Ken Rothwell, the board’s senior member and Halpin’s challenger in the November election, said he would not support it.
A long night, then public comments
OLA’s request came during the open comments portion of the Feb. 18 Riverhead Town Board meeting, after nearly three hours of other business had concluded. Board members listened quietly as OLA Executive Director Minerva Perez and 13 other speakers spoke in support of the proposal.
Perez told the board that OLA (Organización Latino Americana), which she said has served the East End for 23 years, is seeking action with “a level of urgency,” citing what she described as changing ICE “patterns and activity” and “random raids.” She said OLA sent the proposal to Riverhead and nine other East End towns and villages that maintain their own police departments.
“This is not an anti-ICE resolution or local law,” Perez said, arguing that the point is not to stop federal enforcement but to establish local protocols for public safety, transparency and accountability when federal actions occur in the community.
“What we’re seeing right now in the East End of Long Island is the relative peace and calm and safety that people have come to truly enjoy … is disrupted at a very different level when ICE comes to town with little regard for public safety of any kind,” Perez said. “There’s no faith in the fact that there’s going to be order and calm and safety in the actions of ICE at this point. So we can’t rely on that.”
Speaker after speaker urged the Town Board to take up OLA’s proposed “public safety and accountability” local law, arguing that stepped-up or more aggressive federal immigration enforcement operations — described as masked, chaotic and sometimes lacking clear identification — are already creating fear, disrupting community trust and complicating local emergency response.
“Public safety suffers because trust breaks down,” Rosario Rodriguez of Riverhead said.
“Our community is being affected and concerned by what is going on right now in the community of hard-working residents with no criminal records,” said David Amaya of Riverhead. “They’re being persecuted by federal agents only because of their Hispanic profile. Businesses are being affected. Children are being affected.”
Amaya urged the board to support the proposal in the interest of community unity.
“We are a very diverse community,” he said. “We are here to work and in some way contribute to the economy of the town.”
“We cannot ignore the growth of the great Latino community and the contribution we represent to the town,” Amaya added, saying he has lived in Riverhead for more than 25 years. “We love our town, and we need clear and express support and protection from the authorities and you, the board, that represent us.”
Several residents and advocates said the proposal is meant to clarify roles and procedures for when outside agencies operate in town, emphasize transparency and communication with the public, and reduce risks to residents and local police by setting expectations around identification, warrants and coordination. Others described impacts on children and schools, local businesses and workers, and the anxiety felt by immigrant and mixed-status families.
What the proposed law would do
The proposed local law was drafted by retired state Assembly Member Fred Thiele, who is a member of OLA’s board of directors, Perez said.
The draft acknowledges federal authority over immigration enforcement and the limits on local governments, while asserting municipal “police power” to protect public health and safety. It frames the proposal as a response to what it describes as a lack of transparency and accountability in immigration enforcement operations and the fear and disruption those operations can cause.
Among other provisions, the proposal would:
require the local police department to designate and train officers to investigate reports of people impersonating law enforcement officers, including ICE, and to develop protocols for verifying credentials;
require recordkeeping and reporting of impersonation incidents, including reporting confirmed incidents to federal and state authorities and sharing information with the public through “appropriate channels”;
set out reporting requirements when police respond to an incident involving federal immigration enforcement activity, with information shared to the supervisor’s office, the Town Board and the public;
establish a community task force on immigration enforcement, appointed by the Town Board and intended to include a range of stakeholders.
In a “talking points” memo posted with its online petition seeking support of the legislation, OLA emphasizes that local governments cannot stop ICE, but argues that local police and elected officials can define their own public safety responsibilities and provide public-facing transparency when federal actions cause community disruption.
Halpin declines to schedule discussion
Halpin said in a phone interview Thursday morning that he had received the proposed legislation and believed the police chief was aware of it, but said he had no plan to put it on a Town Board work session agenda for discussion.
Asked if he had any specific objections to the proposed legislation’s contents, Halpin said, “Well I’m not saying that and I don’t want to get into that.”
Pressed on why he wouldn’t schedule it, Halpin said he had not reviewed the proposal “line by line,” adding, “I got the gist of it.” He repeated that he had “no plan” to bring the legislation to a work session “right now, this morning,” adding, “tomorrow is a different day.”
Halpin said his reluctance is “not just because” he hasn’t reviewed it line by line.
“I’ve talked to the other East End towns. They don’t plan on bringing that legislation to the floor,” he said. “I think, looking at it, I’m trying to make the best decisions.”
Halpin suggested the town’s Hispanic Development, Empowerment and Education Committee should look at the proposal and provide “guidance” and perhaps bring it to a work session. He said he does not plan to create “another committee on top of the one we have.”
Outside our mission
But the chair of that committee, Alexander Escobar, told RiverheadLOCAL via text Thursday that OLA’s proposal “is outside of our committee’s mission. If the supervisor or Town Board has any questions, they’re welcome to reach out to us directly,” Escobar wrote.
Rothwell brought the idea of the Hispanic Development, Empowerment and Education Committee to the Town Board in January 2025. After a work session discussion, the board established the committee by resolution at its first meeting in February 2025. Rothwell has been the Town Board liaison to the committee since its inception.
Law enforcement is “not part of its mission statement,” Rothwell said in a phone interview Thursday.
“I think it would be disingenuous to say just because the majority of the members of the Hispanic Development, Empowerment and Education Committee are Hispanic or Latino, that committee should be responsible,” he said.
Rothwell described the committee’s work as focused on education, helping local business owners navigate town processes, and improving access to government services. As one example, he cited the translation function on the town’s website.
The committee has done a lot of good things, he said, including helping downtown businesses connect with town departments and translation services. “There’s wonderful things that are coming out of that committee,” Rothwell said.
But the committee “doesn’t have anything to do with law enforcement” and does not make recommendations to the police department or the supervisor on enforcement issues, especially on a federal level, he said.
“So I think the supervisor should read their mission statement and not try to pull them into a situation that’s not their mission,” Rothwell said. “I don’t think he understands the committee.”
Rothwell: I will not support that legislation
“I would not and will not support that legislation,” Rothwell said. Immigration enforcement is a federal matter and the town “has no authority” to direct federal agents, he said.
Rothwell also said local police are not notified in advance of ICE operations. “We as a Town Board have no jurisdiction with ICE or on anything on a federal level,” he said.
He said Riverhead Police Chief Ed Frost has sought a meeting with ICE’s regional representative so local police can better understand what ICE is doing in town, but that meeting has not occurred. Rothwell said the request has been made by police chiefs in the five East End towns, but the meeting has yet to take place.
Rothwell also took issue with some of the statements made by supporters of the proposal at Wednesday night’s meeting, which he called “inaccurate and untruthful.” ICE arrests in the local area have been targeted, focused on removing felons who are in the U.S. illegally, he said. “They’re not standing on the street corners, stopping people as they go by. And you know what? If that’s going to make our community safer, then you have to allow them to do their work,” Rothwell said.
Asked if ICE operations should change with a surge in deployment similar to what occurred in other Democrat-run states, such as California, Illinois, Minnesota and the District of Columbia, Rothwell said“I don’t have the knowledge …[of] what’s happening in other places.” He said he follows media reports, but noted that depictions of what has happened in those places are very different from one media source to another. “I can’t comment on things that I don’t know,” Rothwell said. “I can’t comment on what somebody may feel is fair or unfair,” he said.
“Governing our own town on a local level, we have only seen or we’ve been notified after the fact, where they have made arrests for wanted felons. And so I don’t see any roundups. I don’t see any any other information that people you know have commented on in social media. I have not seen that.”
He said the Town Board is “keeping a close, watchful eye on our town.” He said he spoke to the police chief that morning and asked whether there is anything the board should know about any federal operations, and was told nothing has changed. “They don’t communicate with us,” Rothwell said.
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