New Bill Limits City's Cooperation with Immigration Officials at Rikers Island
On Tuesday, November 22, Mayor Michael Bloomberg signed a new bill into law that will prevent the Department of Corrections (DOC) from releasing immigrants to Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents if the immigrants have no criminal convictions, are not known gang members, or are not on the U.S. terror watch list.
Under an initiative known as the Criminal Alien Program, information about prisoners being held at Rikers Island is shared with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents. Agents from ICE who are stationed at Rikers can interview foreign-born inmates and decide whether they want to place the inmate on an immigration hold or detainer. If a detainer is lodged against an inmate, the DOC will hold that person at Rikers for 48 hours after their case is closed. This extra detention is intended to give ICE agents an opportunity to assume custody of the individual.
"Under the new legislation, if an inmate gets an ICE detainer but has no record of criminal history or pending cases, and no other record of being a threat to the community, the Department of Correction will not honor the detainer," said Sharman Stein, Deputy Commissioner for Public Information at the DOC.
"We are sending a strong and unified message that this city will no longer allow innocent immigrants who pose no threat to be unfairly detained and deported due to an antiquated immigration system," said City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, also adding that it was an historic day for the city and immigrant communities in New York.
ICE counters that The Criminal Alien Program, enables them to identify an illegal alien with a criminal record and prevent them from being released into the general public and potentially committing other crimes. Immigration advocates and some politicians, however, have argued the city works too closely with ICE and that many individuals with no prior criminal record end up being deported.
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