In March 2017, the Common Council passed a resolution declaring Hudson a "welcoming and inclusive city." The resolution defined and prescribed the Hudson Police Department's interactions with the public regarding immigration and citizenship status and with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Recently, the Columbia County Sanctuary Movement (CCSM) announced that the Columbia County Sheriff's Office has implemented a policy codifying non-cooperation with ICE. Policy outlines the following procedures:
- Members of the Columbia County Sheriff's Office will refrain from asking about residency, place of birth, immigration status and citizenship status except when legally obligated, or required for reporting purposes.
- Members of the Columbia County Sheriff's Office are prohibited from sharing information regarding residency, place of birth, immigration status and citizenship status with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) except when legally obligated.
- Members of the Columbia County Sheriff's Office will not arrest, detain, or delay the release of individuals for civil immigration purposes and/or in response to a civil administration warrant.
- Members of the Columbia County Sheriff's Office will confirm a judicial warrant is present prior to dispatching CCSO personnel.
- Members of the Columbia County Sheriff's Office will complete training to properly identify judicial warrants vs civil administrative warrants and detainers.
The policy's adoption comes after years of CCSM organizing and months of testimony from community members accounting their experience with the Columbia County Sheriff's department and advocating for non-cooperation and language access to be adopted as policies within the department. . . .
CCSM led the campaign to make Hudson a Welcoming and Inclusive city in 2017, followed by Catskill Police Department's 2020 issuance of an immigration detainer policy prohibiting officers from assisting ICE agents without a judicial warrant present.
"I was pulled over for a loud exhaust, arrested by the police, and given to ICE. No one deserves to be separated from their family and face deportation because of a traffic violation."--Daniel Hernandez, member of CCSM
Hudson and Columbia County's policies were modeled off of the New York State Attorney General's guidance and Ulster County's non-cooperation policy with ICE. Despite the regional and statewide move toward non-cooperation with ICE, Rensselaer County continues to be the only county in the state to use county tax dollars to terrorize local immigrants by deputizing their officers through the federal government's 287g agreement.
Is there a sign up list to propose laws that we do not want to follow or enforce? I thought we changed laws by electing like minded representatives to serve in the legislature.
ReplyDeleteSelective enforcement is a failure of leadership. Despite how vocal the opposition the duty of law enforcement is to enforce the law. If one doesn't like the law elect representatives that will change it.
The Columbia County Sheriff's office has no obligation to enforce immigration law, or any other federal law. A local law enforcement authority may choose to assist federal authorities, or alternatively choose not to, but the Supreme Court has ruled repeatedly that the feds cannot "commandeer" the resources of state or local government. That's how our Constitutional system works.
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