What to know if ICE raids Capital Region
ALBANY, N.Y. (NEWS10) – Amid concerns about immigration enforcement, lawmakers in New York and Massachusetts reminded school districts they have a legal obligation to protect all students and their information. This follows increased enforcement across the country.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (I.C.E.) has conducted raids that have raised anxieties among immigrant communities. NEWS10 has not verified raids here in the Capital Region.
But Governor Kathy Hochul, Attorney General Letitia James and the Commissioner of Education Betty Rosa issued a memo that summarized the laws and regulations that already exist to safeguard the rights of immigrant students.
That memo was issued to school districts last week and provided guidance to K-12 schools, if federal agents attempt a raid. Mohonasen Central School District enrolled a number of asylum seekers when they first arrived from New York City in 2023.
“There are circumstances where folks, and even Immigration and Customs Enforcement, would have a right to come into school to question students. Whether it be over immigration status or something else. But those circumstances are extremely limited,” said Superintendent Shannon Shine.
He said agents would have to produce a warrant from a federal judge, with a student’s name on it, and he would have his legal team review it immediately. But Shine thinks that’s unlikely to happen at Mohonasen because the students are no longer enrolled.
“If I have somebody physically show up, as you’ve asked about, we could almost, in real-time, respond. But again, it’s a very, very rare set of circumstances where folks would actually have access to our students. And again, I’d consider that extraordinarily rare and extraordinarily unlikely to even occur in the first place,” said Shine.
Although there have been reports of asylum seekers committing serious crimes, Shine said he’s not heard about that in their community.
“I do know that there has been some gang incursion in the U.S. from Central America. And that would be of concern. I’m not aware of anything like that at Mohonasen or in our community,” said Shine.
Outside of school districts, two Albany County Legislators said they want to make sure Albany County cooperates with federal authorities.
“It occurred to us that there were many municipal and city officials around the country who were expressing opposition to the federal immigration actions that are currently underway,” said Albany County Legislature’s Deputy Minority Leader Paul Burgdorf.
He said they wanted to eliminate confusion because the City of Albany and the Town of Bethlehem are sanctuary jurisdictions, but the county – as a whole – is not.
Burgdorf said he and Minority Leader Frank Mauriello drafted a letter to Albany County Executive Dan McCoy looking for reassurance the county would comply with federal authorities – if I.C.E. raids were to occur.
“We would like to see the county government work with their federal law enforcement colleagues and make sure they would not be an impediment to carrying out federal law”
McCoy issued a statement in response to that letter: “We are not buying into partisan politics. These legislators should know the role of the County. The immigration program with New York City ended in the middle of December. We continue to be a welcoming community for immigrants and have no tolerance for anyone’s involvement in criminality. Any matters of law enforcement would go through local authorities.”
I spoke with Albany County Sheriff Craig Apple and he said he was contacted by the U.S. Marshals Service several weeks back in regards to bed space. Which he said they have a lot of.
However, Apple said I.C.E. has not contacted his office directly. He added, the last thing he wants is residents looking over their backs.