Nassau County is holding hundreds of immigration detainees behind bars for too long, violating its own three-day limit it set in a deal with the feds, a migrant advocacy group claims.
The county has kept more than 360 migrants locked up by Immigration and Customs Enforcement at its East Meadow jail for more than the agreed-upon 72-hour limit — with more than a dozen staying for nearly a week, according to new federal data from pro-immigrant research group, Deportation Data Project.
Under the terms of the county’s contract with ICE, inked earlier this year by Nassau Executive Bruce Blakeman, 50 jail cells were set to house federal immigration detainees, but only for up to three days before they’re either removed by federal agents or released.
Blakeman’s office did not respond to multiple requests for comment, but have denied in the past that the county was violating its three-day rule.
According to the county deal with the feds, Nassau would rent up to 50 jail cells to ICE for $195 per night.
ICE’s own booking data, which the research group obtained through a federal lawsuit, claims that out of the over 2,200 detainees housed in Nassau this year through mid-October — at least 366 detainees, over 60% of which have no criminal record, were held past the three-day cutoff.
Multiple detainees were held for nearly 11 days, according to the statistics.
A spokesperson for Blakeman told Newsday on Friday — which first reported the findings — that extended detentions are rare and limited to “very few exceptions” for travel delays or medical quarantines, and insisted that “no detainee has been held for more than 72 hours.”
A source close to the county executive claimed the figures are “not good data,” however, the research group said the numbers come directly from ICE.
While the 72-hour limit is not laid out in state law, only specified in Nassau’s contract with ICE, the New York Civil Liberties Union said holding detainees beyond what is agreed may violate New York’s sanctuary laws, which bars local jails from enforcing civil immigration detainers.
“We have entered into a comprehensive agreement because it makes for a safer county to allow ICE to use our jail cells, and we will continue to do that,” Blakeman previously said in defense of the deal.
Democrats, however, told The Post that the newly released data is just the latest stain on the county’s already-controversial partnership after detained migrant, Santos Banegas Reyes, died in Nassau’s custody in September.
“This is something our constantly absent County Executive should be paying attention to,” state and Nassau County Democratic Committee Chairman Jay Jacobs told The Post.
Reyes’ family contests ICE’s official narrative that he died of “liver failure complicated by alcoholism.”
Since his death, Nassau’s program has been hit with allegations including not properly feeding ICE detainees, having “bad smelling” drinking and showering water, and denying migrants phone and lawyer access, according to state Democrats and the New York City Legal Aid Society.
County officials have previously disputed those claims.
Across the border, Suffolk County was recently placed on the hook by a federal jury for a $112 million settlement for similarly holding ICE detainees at their local lock-up longer than legally permitted under New York State law.
Suffolk officials previously blamed ICE for failing to pick up the detainees in time and have since stopped the practice, while Nassau has vowed to continue its federal partnership.
Read the full article here
