A revised version of a proposed local law aimed at public safety during federal immigration enforcement activity is now circulating among East End municipalities, but Riverhead officials have not committed to discussing it with the advocacy group seeking its adoption.
The Organización Latino Americana of Eastern Long Island, or OLA, says the latest draft reflects input from East End municipal officials and attorneys gathered since the proposal was first presented publicly in Riverhead last month. But while OLA says it has met with every other East End town and village leadership team and their lawyers, Riverhead did not attend a Feb. 26 Zoom meeting on the proposal and has yet to engage in any substantive public discussion about it.
OLA Executive Director Minerva Perez again urged the Town Board to open a dialogue when she addressed members at their March 3 meeting, following what she said was additional ICE activity in Riverhead on Feb. 28, including near public schools.
“To date, there have probably been more random raids in Riverhead than any other town or village, which, again, is part of the reason for the law that we have proposed,” Perez told the board. “It is a law that we are looking for dialogue on.”
Perez said OLA had already met with “every other town and village leadership, along with their lawyers” and that the current version is a third draft incorporating feedback, including from attorneys who have represented law enforcement.
“We want to make sure that the actions of these random raids are not stopping children from going to school,” Perez said. “We need to have a plan of action.”
“Thank you for your comments,” Supervisor Jerry Halpin replied. “Appreciate it.”
Several other speakers also urged the board to discuss the proposal.
After OLA’s original pitch to the Town Board last month, Halpin told RiverheadLOCAL he had no plan to place the proposal on a Town Board work session agenda.
More coveragge: Latino advocates urge Riverhead to adopt local law addressing public safety during ICE activity
In an interview Monday, Halpin said he has not met individually with OLA and that no meeting has been scheduled, but said he was not ruling one out.
“Absolutely not a hard no,” Halpin said when asked whether declining to meet with the group was a final decision. “I ran [for office] to listen, so I will be listening.”
Halpin also said Riverhead Police Chief Ed Frost “went to great lengths” to investigate reports tied to a video posted online after the Feb. 28 incident near a Riverhead public school. Police interviewed the parents and one of the children involved, reviewed the video and identified the man seen speaking with children outside the school, Halpin said. According to Halpin, the man was a member of the general public and not a federal agent or affiliated with law enforcement.
Council Member Denise Merrifield said she has always supported the federal government’s immigration enforcement actions. “I am not in support of local legislation restricting Federal immigration enforcement,” she said in a March 3 email in response to RiverheadLOCAL’s inquiry seeking comments on the revised proposal.
Council Member Ken Rothwell said in a phone interview Tuesday that he would have “no trouble meeting with” OLA. But he also said the group appears to be “creating a narrative that, quite frankly, does not exist in Riverhead.”
“From what I’ve seen or read, they [ICE agents] have picked up wanted felons,” Rothwell said. “I support that work.”
Rothwell acknowledged that he has not read the revised draft of OLA’s proposal, but said “most of those things” in the first draft “are already being handled by our police department.”
“I think our officers right now are doing a great job,” he added.
Public safety proposal overhauled after feedback
The latest draft is significantly different from the version OLA first circulated in February.
The earlier proposal was framed more broadly as a law to promote transparency, oversight and accountability in connection with law enforcement activities. It included detailed provisions calling for police protocols to investigate reports of people impersonating federal agents, as well as a section authorizing license plate recognition technology and manual plate checks in certain circumstances.
Those provisions have been removed from the revised draft.
The new version is more narrowly focused on immigration enforcement operations. It adds a definitions section, retains reporting requirements when local police respond to incidents involving federal immigration enforcement activity and calls for the creation of a community task force on immigration enforcement.
It would also require incident reports to be provided to Town Board members by the next regular board meeting and then made public consistent with the state Freedom of Information Law.
Another new provision would prohibit town officers, employees or agents from allowing federal agencies into nonpublic areas of designated town property for immigration enforcement operations unless there is a valid judicial warrant, court order, exigent circumstances or another legal requirement. Covered properties would be designated by Town Board resolution and posted with signage stating that a judicial warrant is required in nonpublic areas and that employees may not voluntarily consent to access.
The revised draft also replaces the earlier enforcement language with a provision authorizing the town attorney, with Town Board approval, to seek judicial relief in court. It would also allow any town taxpayer or any person aggrieved by a violation of the law to bring an action seeking to enforce it.
A new construction clause says nothing in the law would prohibit cooperation with federal agencies in criminal investigations or prosecutions when required by law, or restrict mandatory compliance with federal or state law. The revised proposal would expire July 1, 2029.
Fred Thiele, a former state assemblyman who joined OLA’s board of directors in September and drafted the proposal, said the current version is intended as a template for local governments and should at least be discussed.
“It’s mostly about reporting and transparency and things like that,” Thiele said in an interview Monday. “There’s nothing radical in any of it.”
Thiele said the proposal was meant as a collaborative starting point and that municipalities may ultimately tailor legislation to local circumstances.
“I think dialogue is important,” Thiele said. “And sometimes, even if it doesn’t yield legislation or it yields other legislation, there’s value just in having the discussion.”
For now, no such discussion appears imminent in Riverhead.
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