Residents and advocates want Orange County lawmakers to end the local jail’s agreement with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Since 2008, the Orange County Correctional Facility has been used for immigrant detention but the agreement has come under increasing scrutiny as ICE uses more extreme tactics.
Rosa Santana, co-executive director of the Envision Freedom Fund, said the revenue from the agreement is why county lawmakers haven’t ended it, despite poor conditions for immigrant detainees.
"There have been a lot of reports of conditions like medical neglect, racism from the officers," Santana explained. "This has been going on for years but I think this is like the first time all the residents are standing together in solidarity to ask for the contract to end."
Conditions for ICE detainees have been the subject of reports and legal complaints in recent years but county lawmakers have been pushing back on ICE in some cases. The Orange County Legislature unanimously passed a resolution rejecting the agency’s attempts to build a new detention facility in Chester.
Twelve law enforcement agencies across nine New York counties have similar 287(g) agreements, which allow local law enforcement to work with ICE on raids and arrests.
Grace Ott, immigrant solidarity working group co-chair for the Mid-Hudson Valley Democratic Socialists of America, said state lawmakers are considering legislation to protect immigrants and terminate the agreements.
"The Dignity Not Detention Act would end county contracts to hold detainees for ICE," Ott pointed out. "New York For All would then prevent state and local police, as well as other agencies that have personal information like the DMV, etc., from sharing information with ICE and collaborating with them."
The two bills have received strong support from both chambers of the legislature but with the budget running late, it is uncertain if they plan to approve it with the funding package or in the remaining weeks of this year’s legislative session.
Source: Public News Service
