By Michael V. Cusenza
Amid the ongoing migrant crisis, City Councilwoman Joann Ariola (R-Ozone Park) this week encouraged her District 32 constituents to testify at the upcoming City Charter Revision Commission Queens hearing and request that the commission include on the November ballot a question asking New Yorkers if they would support repealing the so-called Sanctuary City laws.
According to City records, the Big Apple has long been designated a sanctuary city. The term “sanctuary,” in this case, refers to a jurisdiction that limits the role of local law enforcement agencies (LLEAs) and officers in the enforcement of federal immigration laws.
Courtesy of Councilwoman Ariola
Ariola is urging her constituents to get involved and have their voices heard.
Additionally, sanctuary cities direct personnel:
- Not to engage LLEAs in activities with the sole purpose of enforcing federal immigration laws;
- Not to honor U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement or Customs and Border Protection detainer requests except in specified circumstances involving violent or serious felonies;
- Not to honor ICE or CBP requests for disclosure of certain nonpublic, sensitive information about an individual;
- Not to provide ICE or CBP with access to individuals in LLEA custody for questioning solely for immigration enforcement purposes;
- Not to use local agency resources to create a federal registry based on race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, ethnicity, disability or national origin;
- To ensure that LLEAs protect the due process rights of persons as to whom federal immigration enforcement requests have been made;
- To establish that LLEAs may not stop, question, investigate or arrest a person based on perceived immigration status or suspected violation of federal immigration law
Ariola on Monday appeared on Newsmax’s “American Agenda” to discuss the continuing migrant crisis and how it has affected the lives of Gotham residents.
“We need to get ICE back involved. We need that ICE becomes active again in the migrant crisis—where [migrants] are detained; where, if found guilty, they are deported,” the councilwoman said. “Right now, they’re getting in trouble, they’re subject to the weak criminal justice reforms that people who live here are subject to; weak bail reforms; and so they’re just getting back out onto the streets. We’re not talking about people who came here to get a better life—they fled their country, they fled prosecution in their own countries, and they’re coming here and doing the same exact crimes right here in our city.
“There has to be continuity between local law enforcement and ICE, and that’s what we’re not seeing,” Ariola continued. “Migrants have been committing more crime. Maybe they’re not reporting it as much, but migrants are committing more crime.”
Last week, Bernardo Raul Castro Mata, 19, an allegedly undomiciled migrant, was charged in a 20-count indictment for his role in the shooting of two City police officers in East Elmhurst.
The next Charter Revision Commission hearing in Queens is on Monday, July 22, from 5 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at the Queens Public Central Library at 89-11 Merrick Blvd. in Jamaica.
For more info on testifying virtually, visit nyc.gov/site/charter/meetings/2024-notice-queens-0722.page.
Or submit your testimony online by July 12 by emailing: charterinfo@citycharter.nyc.gov.
