Just days from President-elect Donald Trump’s second inauguration, municipalities are bracing for an about-face on federal immigration policy, while waiting for guidance from Washington, D.C., on just what steps the new administration will take.
Trump’s 2024 campaign cited “broken” national borders that have allowed millions of undocumented migrants — a group he has portrayed, inaccurately, as rife with criminals and the mentally ill — to pour across them. Trump has announced a policy of “mass deportation now” once he is back in power.
As during his first administration, from 2017 to 2021, Trump’s statements have aroused fear among immigrants and an expectation that there will be widespread and concerted federal efforts to deport those in the country illegally, amid reports that the new administration is considering a dramatic expansion of detention centers.
While Congress has already begun to signal a more hardline stance — with the passage last week of a bill calling for the deportation of undocumented immigrants convicted of nonviolent crimes — state, county and local officials interviewed this week were cautious in their comments, citing the fact that Trump has yet to return to the White House or offer any specific policy initiatives.
Suffolk County Executive Ed Romaine, a Republican, said it was premature to speculate on how far the Trump administration will push its agenda.
“Clearly, it should be concentrated on getting the lawbreakers out of this country,” he said. “Start with the people in gangs and the criminal element, and get them out.”
But he added that it is too early to try to predict how much of the president-elect’s campaign trail rhetoric will be translated into policy.
The reality, Romaine said, is that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement doesn’t have the manpower to undertake widespread sweeps across the country. Plus, he added, it would be counterproductive to target immigrants who work in vital sectors of the economy — such as the farms on the East End.
Still, Romaine said that Suffolk County has never declared itself a “sanctuary county,” and he said county officials would work with ICE in detaining dangerous criminals.
State Assemblyman Tommy John Schiavoni, a Democrat, who this week began his first term in Albany, said there was a lot said during the campaign that has unnerved immigrants and those concerned for their well-being.
“It’s hard to comment on what he is going to do, without knowing specifically what it is he plans to do,” he said of Trump. “But I would hope it would be accompanied by comprehensive immigration reform by Congress. We haven’t addressed that issue since the Reagan administration.”
Schiavoni said that the ball was now in the Republicans’ court, because they have majorities in both chambers of Congress and had scuttled a bipartisan immigration reform bill late last year at the request of Trump.
“What are the budgetary ramifications of this?” he asked. “How much does it cost to round up and deport millions of people? Is a path to citizenship even on the table? What will be done about families that are broken up?
“Every hotel, every restaurant, every farm, and every construction site is going to be affected. There are a lot of unanswered questions.”
Schiavoni said he hoped Republicans would reach across the aisle.
“It’s going to take compromise and agreement, something we were once very good at,” he said.
Congress Signals Tougher Stance
Fresh from a visit with the president-elect at Mar a Lago last weekend, 1st District U.S. Representative Nick LaLota, a Republican, said this week that “while specific plans have not been presented to Congress, there is a strong bipartisan level of support for the deportation of criminal illegal immigrants, who are both in our country illegally and have committed crimes.”
A subsequent effort, he said, “will focus on those here to mooch off the system: those here for hotels, health care, other free benefits paid for by law-abiding American taxpayers.”
LaLota lauded the bipartisan passage last week of the Laken Riley Act, which the Senate is expected to take up later this week. The bill would allow for the deportation of undocumented immigrants charged with nonviolent crimes.
It is named for a 22-year-old nursing student who was murdered last year by a Venezuelan immigrant who had entered the country illegally and had previously been arrested and charged with nonviolent offenses but not detained.
The law would require the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to detain certain aliens who have been arrested for burglary, theft, larceny or shoplifting, and authorizes states to sue the federal government for decisions or alleged failures related to immigration enforcement.
LaLota, who endorsed Trump’s candidacy early last year and was easily reelected in November, was harshly critical of President Joe Biden’s policies regarding immigration and border security. In an interview in September, he described the southern border as a “disaster” that is “wide open in many senses,” both physically and via the asylum process.
“The reason we have a nonsecure border right now is that President Biden, soon after taking office, repealed 64 very effective Trump-era policies,” he said at the time.
The president, he added, canceled Trump’s “Remain in Mexico” policy, implemented in 2019, which he called a “very effective policy,” its repeal serving as “a green light” for Central and South American migrants to feign being asylum seekers.
“People who legitimately were not at risk in their own countries have been feigning asylum for three years now, and they get paroled into the interior of the country,” he said.
While he said that he favors “good, positive, legal immigration,” LaLota added that “deportations will be a part of the 10-year plan to move forward.”
Asked about the role of local officials in the incoming administration’s initiative to deport migrants, LaLota said, “I would hope that local law enforcement does cooperate with federal immigration officials in the negative result of sanctuary policies in cities like New York.” He said he expects many such policies to be reversed or rescinded.
Last week, LaLota reintroduced his No Bailouts for Sanctuary Cities Act, having initially introduced it in the previous Congress. The bill, which would prohibit federal funding for any jurisdiction with sanctuary city policies to aid or address undocumented migrants including funding for food, shelter, transportation costs and health care or legal services, passed the House in September 2024 but stalled in the Senate, which was then controlled by Democrats.
With respect to the potential impact on the tourism economy in his district, in which Latino immigrants fill many service-sector jobs, the congressman said, “It’s important not to paint the repatriation of illegal aliens with one broad brush. I’ve made an effort to categorize them differently. Folks who are committing violent crimes are to be deported right away, followed by those merely mooching. …
“The president-elect, who owns and operates golf courses and restaurants, understands and is very sensitive to that fact.”
Concerns at the Local Level
East Hampton Town Supervisor Kathee Burke-Gonzalez offered a sharply different point of view with respect to immigrants.
She said last week that “our primary responsibility is to ensure the safety and well-being of everyone in our community. Families and hardworking residents should not live in fear. Our community thrives when everyone feels safe, secure and valued.”
Immigrants, she said, “are not just our friends and neighbors — they are integral to the fabric of our community and economy. Our local economy relies on their skills, labor and entrepreneurship, which enhances the services and opportunities available to everyone. Their hard work and dedication enrich our community and contribute to the character that defines East Hampton.”
Southampton Town Supervisor Maria Moore offered a similar take.
“Immigration is a complex issue that affects many individuals, families and employers in our community. Congress has failed to resolve this decades-long problem that has grown larger and more challenging over time,” she said in a statement.
“It’s too early to speculate on what changes may be implemented by the incoming administration with respect to federal immigration policy, and what effects those changes may have on Southampton. I’m hopeful that the coming year will serve as an opportunity for bipartisan collaboration across all levels of government to address the issues in a balanced, sustainable manner that is both respectful of people and the rule of law.”
Minerva Perez, the executive director of Organización Latino Americana of Eastern Long Island, or OLA, said her organization is preparing for the worst and urging other community organizations on the East End to be ready as well.
“What are we prepared to do to protect our peaceful community, within the law?” she asked. “Is there anything within that margin that we’re able to do as leaders of law enforcement, municipalities, schools, houses of worship, nonprofits? If there is something we can do, we need to be doing it.”
Perez said the East End “is a beautiful, vibrant, mixed community of immigrants, Blacks, Native Americans, whites, wealthy and poor,” but that Trump’s earlier attacks on migrants, especially those from Latin America, as well as the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic “affected the whole community — and not in a good way.”
She said she was concerned that there would not be the same level of push-back as there was during Trump’s first term.
“What’s at stake is that our local community, as vibrant and beautiful as it is now, can be easily separated at its roots, at its core,” she said. “Who’s at risk? Our youth, their families, their employers and small businesses.”
Comentários