Nassau police are embedding with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Here's what to know.

Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman joins a list of mostly Southern leaders to advance President Donald Trump's mass deportation plan, as Nassau becomes the second county in New York to partner with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement under a program to arrest and help deport immigrants with no legal status.

Blakeman, a Trump ally, has moved quickly to make Nassau County police among the largest police forces in the nation to receive broad powers from ICE. It’s one of 170 counties nationally to partner with the agency, 35 of which submitted applications in the last month following Trump’s inauguration.

The program has been in place since 1996, when President Bill Clinton was in office. Eventually, agreements skyrocketed after the Sept. 11 attacks. By 2013, local police became the source of more than half of deportations from within U.S. borders. Such agreements were scaled back under former President Barack Obama after findings of racial profiling and abuse of authority, but rose again during Trump’s first presidency. No new partnerships with ICE were signed during President Joe Biden’s tenure.

Progressive lawmakers in Albany are pushing back, while legal experts have raised concerns about the collaboration.

Here’s what to know about the new policy in Nassau County.

What is ICE doing now in Nassau County?

Last week, Nassau became the second county in New York after Rensselaer, east of Albany, to forge an agreement with ICE under its so-called 287(g) Program, where the agency deputizes local police to carry out immigration enforcement actions.

ICE is authorizing 10 Nassau police detectives to arrest and jail immigrants with no legal status just as an ICE officer would, according to Blakeman, who stressed the program was about targeted enforcement. "This isn’t about raids," he said.

"If there’s probable cause that someone committed a crime, and they’re here illegally, we will call ICE," Blakeman told Newsday on Sunday.

The details of these local-federal agreements — like whom police can stop, question, arrest and jail — vary by county. Nassau has yet to make its agreement public.

Blakeman has set aside 50 jail cells for immigrants without documentation who are facing criminal charges. They will be jailed for up to 72 hours until ICE officials deport them or transport them to a long term detention site. "ICE will now have a permanent presence at the Nassau County jail in East Meadow," Blakeman wrote in a social media post.

Doesn’t Nassau already work with ICE? What new powers do the police have?

For years, ICE has been arresting immigrants without documentation across the New York City area using judicial warrants, as is mandated by New York State law. Nassau police officials, like the NYPD, have accompanied ICE on such arrests, though local police don’t make the arrests themselves.

Nassau police and jail officials can now identify whether people with pending criminal charges, ranging from low-level crimes to homicide, are undocumented immigrants, a policy that falls under the 287(g) "jail enforcement model." If they are found to be undocumented, police can call ICE to process a deportation. Nassau police will also call ICE on people arrested for infractions, who would otherwise be released with just a ticket, Nassau County Police Commissioner Patrick Ryder said.

Nassau officials will also adopt the "warrant service officer" model under the 287(g) Program, which authorizes local police to serve warrants to people violating immigration law, in some cases triggering deportations.

Nassau is one of just a few counties nationally taking on both the "jail enforcement" and "warrant service officer" models, according to Blakeman. Participating Nassau police detectives are expected to be sworn in by ICE and undergo training in the coming weeks. The federal government is reimbursing Nassau’s partnership with ICE, covering the cost of police training and the newly allocated jail cells.

"We don’t know what the agreement says, so we don’t know the full extent of what [the police] are permitted to do," said Amy Belsher, director of immigrants rights litigation at the New York Civil Liberties Union. "There’s nothing to stop the 10 special detectives from arresting people they suspect to be undocumented and initiating deportations."

In a social media video translated into Spanish, Blakeman spoke directly to Nassau residents without immigration documents. "Let me assure the public that there will be no raids on schools, churches or communities … There will be no stopping of individuals, unless they are suspected of committing a crime separate and apart from their immigration status."

The program, Blakeman said in the video, "is not designed to target law-abiding waiters, busboys, landscapers and others who are not criminals, even though they may not be in the United States legally."

Unlike Nassau, Suffolk County has not joined the 287(g) Program. The protocol for police there involves checking an immigrant's legal status only if they have been arrested for an alleged crime in the county, according to department guidelines. 

What legal questions have been raised?

Immigration attorneys and civil rights advocates claim Nassau’s partnership with ICE violates New York State law, a possible legal conflict that might ultimately be settled by the courts.

Living in the United States even after entering illegally is not a crime, but a civil matter. This means that while ICE officers can arrest and jail people for such civil violations, New York State law prohibits local police from doing so.

The scenario most likely to challenge state law is if Nassau police continue to jail someone because they are undocumented when otherwise they would be let go.

"Despite what Bruce Blakeman and the Trump administration may think, it is illegal for New York law enforcement to detain someone on behalf of ICE," Belsher said in a statement last week. "While officers have many well-defined, specific powers, detaining immigrants at the request of ICE is not one of them."

New York Attorney General Letitia James advised local police departments last month not to join the 287(g) Program. "It remains unsettled in New York law whether a Section 287(g) agreement could justify state and local law enforcement to arrest and detain for immigration violations, given that such arrests and detention would otherwise be unlawful," she wrote in a recent memo.

Blakeman told Newsday on Sunday: "We are in compliance with the federal and the state law as far as my lawyers have told us."

A Colorado court determined last year that an agreement between ICE and a local sheriff’s office under the 287(g) Program violated state law by turning people over to ICE who would otherwise be eligible for release. The NYCLU has also said the state’s first 287(g) Program in Rensselaer County violates New York law by authorizing local police to "detain and transport people suspected of civil immigration violations."

State lawmakers are pushing for the New York For All Act, which would block local police from asking people about their citizenship or immigration status. It would also prohibit local police from transferring custody to ICE without a judicial warrant. The bill, which was first introduced in 2020 during Trump’s first presidency, has 26 co-sponsors.

Beyond legal questions, what has advocates worried?

Advocates say they fear what the new program could mean for undocumented immigrants who are caught for misdemeanor crimes, such as public drinking. Blakeman said last week he would not distinguish between violent and nonviolent crimes. "We have burglary rings that have been operating here by illegal migrants … that cost taxpayers and the people who do business in this region a lot of money," he said.

But the argument didn’t sit well with Patrick Young, a special professor of immigration law at Hofstra University's law school: "In other words, they have no serious crimes and they’re not a danger to the community but he is engaging in enforcement of federal immigration law on behalf of Donald Trump."

There are about 100,000 undocumented immigrants on Long Island, according to 2019 data from the Migration Policy Institute. Studies show there is no indication that undocumented migrants are more likely to commit violent crimes than anyone else.

An investigation by The Washington Post found counties participating in the 287(g) Program saw a spike in arrests for low-level crimes. "The whole idea for 287(g) was to make sure that this applies to dangerous criminals. It was not meant for people jaywalking who get a ticket," said Naresh Gehi, a longtime immigration attorney and founder of Gehi & Associates.

"A lot of detectives rely on undocumented immigrants to bust gangs," Gehi said, adding that the program could erode people's trust in the police.

In a video on social media, Blakeman told the Hispanic community they can report crimes without fear of being turned over to ICE.

"Victims and witnesses to a crime will not be asked for their immigration status," he said. "If you call 911 for an emergency, you will not be asked for your immigration status."