This discussion is urgent: Open letter to Supervisor Halpin from OLA executive director Minerva Perez

Hello Supervisor Halpin, 

Firstly, I’d like to thank you for taking the time to meet with me. It was a pleasure to meet Riverhead Police Captain Danielle Willsey as well. 

I am responding publicly to create as much transparency as possible. I don’t believe any of us are served by confusion or games of “telephone” in an effort to relay what was or was not discussed. Respectfully, I will sum up some of our conversation and let you know what we would like to see happen for the benefit of Riverhead and all those who enjoy Riverhead for healthcare needs, shopping, travel, etc. 

During our meeting, you sought my origin story and also offered your own. I appreciated getting to know more about Kentucky, your faith-driven work, and the commonality we have in our love and pride for our talented daughters. 

You requested more information on OLA programs. I shared the multifaceted work we’ve been doing since 2004, with many programs and events and offerings in Riverhead. We enjoy being in Riverhead and engage on many levels with adults, youth, families, and elders. You may recall that we were happy to support Riverhead schools with $900,000 worth of Chromebooks and wifi devices during covid and remote learning. Since then, we have added more and more programs that benefit Riverhead families. 

At the end of our meeting we were able to discuss the Public Safety Law — briefly. You stated that Riverhead PD was dong as great job and you didn’t feel the need to change anything. 

I was able to reassure the captain that the impetus for this law was not based on anything Riverhead PD lacks — to the contrary, we have worked with Riverhead PD on some very important matters. We see that more community members need to have clarity on the ways they can and will be supported by the town, town police, and institutional leadership (schools/healthcare) in the event of chaotic actions such as federal random ICE raids coming to Riverhead Town.

I’ll also be clear that the boundaries of Riverhead proper are important but also become muddied when ICE is driving from Riverhead town to the criminal court parking lots and back again to town. I agreed that OLA can use a map more often to define the exact or nearly exact locations of were ICE was sighted and confirmed. We don’t always have the luxury of time or GPS tracking, which is why town support would be great. 

Since January 2025, we have counted 20 ICE actions reported with 16 confirmed in the Riverhead area. We have no way of knowing how many folks were taken, if ICE was running targeted or random raid action, or if other community members were impacted as collateral damage. We are working with several impacted families currently. 

What is pressing, is the response that Riverhead Town can have in its own back yard to be ready and willing to respond to the needs of families and children left in confusion and chaos and panic when an ICE raid is -or presumed to be – in effect. 

I’ve made clear that the Public Safety and Accountably law we have put forth (even lighter now that we have taken out NY State redundancies) is meant as a very local answer to the chaos created by these random raids. Whether you agree or disagree with ICE actions, the fact is that the approach they use is not yielding the promised criminals — but it IS yielding outsized fear and panic among a great number of families. They have seen friends and family taken without any criminal history whatsoever. There is no logic — only fear, and that does not serve a healthy community. Ever. 

In our meeting, you spoke of needing to create a relationship with anyone doing business in Riverhead. I took the time to give you my origin story. Did you ask the ICE officers to sit at your table to give their origin stories before they came into your town to needlessly frighten families – when a simple judicial warrant would justify picking up dangerous criminals? If your approach to all business in Riverhead were equally applied, I’d agree to your approach, but it’s not equal and too many lives are harmed by this imbalance.

The fact is this, our community does not have the luxury or time you seem to have when random raids rock their safety. 

Now is the time to establish a very clear plan of action that connects the fabric of our full community back to the wonderful institutions and police leadership they have come to expect will be there in times of crisis. 

The Public Safety and Accountability Law is that plan, but this can be adapted to Riverhead’s needs. The key is that there is plan in place and it is communicated fully by all means necessary in whichever language(s) seems right for Riverhead — perhaps, English, Spanish, Polish, and Portuguese (I may have missed one). 

You made it clear to me in our meeting that you had no intention of discussing the Public Safety Law further. I will not be able to honor the timeline that you have put forth that would see us meeting on other OLA work that we are already doing in Riverhead at our own expense so that we can stall the very important next steps of getting this or a similar law into place. 

We ask that Riverhead Town call a full work session for a deep dive into this law or a version of this law created by you and the Town Board that serves to clarify roles and responsibilities and expectations during a federal ICE raid. 

There is no pride of authorship — only an urgent desire to see clarity and accountability in whatever form necessary. 

I look forward to hearing back.

Sincerely,

Minerva Perez
Executive Director
OLA of Eastern Long Island