Residents renew push for action on ICE public safety law proposed by OLA
- Denise Civiletti
- Apr 24
- 4 min read
Local residents at Tuesday’s Town Board meeting continued to push for Riverhead to act on legislation proposed by the East End Latino advocacy group OLA to protect public safety during federal immigration enforcement activity.
Several speakers took the podium to urge local officials to adopt or at least publicly consider the proposed local law that OLA says will improve transparency, accountability and emergency coordination when ICE or other federal immigration agents are stopping and arresting people locally.
Riverhead board members again offered no substantive response to the speakers or the proposal itself. Town Supervisor Jerry Halpin has not invited representatives of OLA to meet with the board in a public work session and board members have stated they do not support the legislation, which some have called unnecessary.
Residents, advocates and nonprofit leaders have spoken during the open comment portion of Riverhead Town Board meetings to describe fear among Latino families, students, workers and business owners and argue that Riverhead needs a clearer local response to ICE activity.
The proposed local law is not an attempt to block federal immigration enforcement, its proponents argue, but a local public safety measure meant to spell out how town officials and police should communicate and respond when federal agents operate in the community.
The proposal was drafted by retired Assembly Member Fred Thiele, who serves on OLA’s board of directors. Another OLA board member, Rebecca Ray, told the Town Board Tuesday that the proposed law is intended to create an effective emergency response when ICE raids occur and to define roles for town and village officials and police.
Kimberly Wilder of Riverhead said OLA had gone to considerable effort to create a model law towns could use to define the proper relationship between local police and ICE, and argued that schools and churches should be protected from enforcement activity.
Allyson Matwey of Wading River said Latino members of the community are afraid and likened the proposal to the role school resource officers play in building trust and safety in schools.
Brianne Ahearn, who works with local youth organizations, said fear of ICE activity is keeping Latino youth and families away from programs, services and downtown businesses. Sarah Reynolds of Riverhead urged board members to read the proposal and meet with OLA and Thiele, while Kevin Shea of Baiting Hollow suggested broader public input, including an online survey.
Kerry Flanagan of Riverhead urged the board to consider reporting by the Associated Press about issues with hiring and training of ICE agents, including lack of completed background checks, “questionable employment history” and other “red flags” such as past bankruptcies.
“Are these the type of ICE agents that we want in Riverhead working without accountability to our town police department,” she asked. “These types of agents are a danger to all of us, including our police.”
Council Member Ken Rothwell took the opportunity to respond to Flanagan’s comments with praise for Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney.
“In response to her comments, I just want to say how proud I am of our Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney and his office for combating crime here in Riverhead and gang activity,” Rothwell said. “And we support all of their endeavors, and they’ve done a phenomenal job and multiple arrests for and obtaining illegal firearms and multiple arrests for murder crimes in the town of Riverhead, and we are cleaning up Riverhead, and I firmly support everything they do. They’re doing a phenomenal job. Thank you.”
Colin Tooker of Riverhead spoke of the country’s historical reliance on immigrant labor, including undocumented immigrants.
“The demand for labor exists and the supply naturally follows,” Tooker said. “We know our immigration system is broken, but we don’t fix it…and we give a wink and a nod to the business owners who employ” them, he said. “We need them to come here to work and support our economy, while at the same time, we are terrorizing them and demanding that they leave. It’s a cruel game,” Tooker said, noting that a lot of people seem to derive joy from it.
“Riverhead can’t solve the country’s immigration problems but at the least, we should assure that our legal immigrant neighbors feel safe in our town, because it’s their town. We can make sure they feel understood and that they feel welcome. We can do this, at least for our legal immigrant neighbors, and then maybe, just maybe, we could show some compassion to the illegal immigrants” who live and work in the community,” he said.
The comments Tuesday were notably one-sided. No speaker addressed the board in opposition to OLA’s proposal, and no board member engaged directly with the substance of the measure after the comments ended.
East Hampton Town has advanced related legislation drafted with input from OLA and Thiele. It has scheduled a May 7 public hearing on a similar law,” Newsday reported Thursday. https://www.newsday.com/long-island/towns/east-hampton-ice-deal-g0vjrdaf
East Hampton Village this week adopted a narrower law barring its police department from entering into cooperation agreements with federal agencies for civil immigration enforcement.
Southold has not adopted OLA’s proposal outright, but its Town Board created a Public Safety Task Force in February to review the draft local law and recommend immediate actions, and town materials say the task force is considering policies needed to protect public safety in response to immigration enforcement operations.
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