Mayor Michael Bloomberg signed into law a new bill that limits in certain circumstances the cooperation with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Rikers Island.
The law will discourage the Department of Corrections (DOC) from detaining innocent immigrants with no criminal records, who face no pending charges and who are not included in the terrorism watch list to ICE agents.
According to City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, it was remarked as an historic day for the city and immigrant communities in New York. "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".
Upon signing the bill, Bloomberg emphasized the impact that the U.S. immigrant population has on the life of the city.
"New York is a city of immigrants, and it is impossible to overstate the role immigrants play in our city's economy, culture, and civic vitality. As such, my Administration has gone to great lengths to ensure that immigrants have the opportunity to thrive here in the five boroughs," the mayor said.
Bloomberg initially endorsed cooperation with ICE at Rikers, but later this year came out in support of the new bill.
In 2009, the DOC identified 12,710 foreign born inmates, and ICE placed detainers on 3,506 of them. While 22 percent had seriously criminal records, more than 50 percent had no prior convictions.
"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 DOC.
Thursday, December 1, 2011
New York Limits Cooperation with Federal Immigration Officials
11:37 PM
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