Rep. Nydia Velazquez endorses Keith Powers for Manhattan borough president
NEW YORK — Rep. Nydia Velazquez has endorsed Keith Powers in his run for Manhattan borough president — the current councilmember's second congressional endorsement.
The Puerto Rican congresswoman represented the Lower East Side for decades before redistricting shifted her district to parts of Brooklyn and Queens. She remains influential there, especially among Latino voters.
'As a proven leader on the Council, Keith has led the fight for building more affordable housing, lowering costs and making our city a better and more prosperous place to live,' Velazquez said in a statement.
Powers is running against State Sen. Brad Hoylman-Sigal in the race. Mark Levine, the sitting beep, is opting out of seeking reelection to instead run for city comptroller.
The west side senator has previously won the backing of Reps. Dan Goldman and Jerry Nadler, while Powers has nabbed the endorsement of Rep. Adriano Espaillat.
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The Hill
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Yahoo
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John Ewing Jr. sworn in as Omaha's 52nd mayor. What to know about the city's first elected Black mayor
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Boston Globe
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Number of local police joining ICE is surging
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Advertisement But civil liberties experts and immigrant advocates warn such agreements come at a high cost to communities. Bringing on local partners at such a fast pace compounds the concerns, voiced by ICE's 'Local law enforcement in these jurisdictions have more authority to enforce immigration laws, but they don't necessarily know just by looking at someone walking down the street or pulling someone over whether they're an immigrant or not,' said Austin Kocher, a professor at Syracuse University who has tracked the 287(g) Program for 15 years. 'There are a lot of people in this country who are going to be affected by this expanded police power, maybe even who aren't immigrants, but who might get caught up in the system just because police think they're an immigrant or because they're conducting enforcement operations in places that affect U.S. citizens.' As of June 6, local and state police departments had signed 649 agreements to participate in the program, compared to the 135 agreements that were in place in January, according to ICE. An additional 79 applications were pending. A local police or sheriff's department may have multiple agreements with ICE. Over several days last month, the Tennessee Highway Patrol sent a surge of cruisers along the streets of south Nashville, pulling over drivers as ICE agents in unmarked vehicles with flashing lights waited next to them. They quickly drew the attention of passersby and activists who recorded video of the arrests. Advertisement Local leaders and immigrant advocates alleged the operation violated the civil rights of Nashville residents, noting it focused on areas where Latino immigrants live and involved far more traffic stops in a few hours than officers would typically do in an entire day. 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'This operation — which was focused on a neighborhood with an established, vibrant immigrant population — reeks of racial profiling and unconstitutional discrimination,' said Sherman Luna, who fled Guatemala to the U.S. with her family following the kidnapping of her sister. Nashville and Davidson County governments, along with community nonprofits, But federal officials defended the operation and lambasted critics. DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a news release, 'You would think all public officials would unite around DHS bringing violent criminal illegal aliens to justice and removing them from American communities. However, pro-open borders politicians — like Mayor O'Connell — would rather protect illegal aliens than American citizens.' DHS had included Nashville in a now-deleted list titled Advertisement It's unclear how many immigration-related arrests can be attributed to the 287(g) Program since Trump took office. ICE officials did not respond to Arizona Luminaria and ProPublica's request for those numbers. The agency issues monthly reports that selectively highlight arrests for violent crimes but don't provide arrest totals involving local police partners. Politics and power are driving the 287(g) Program's rapid expansion, according to Kocher. Republican-led states, including Florida, are passing laws requiring local police to sign on to the program. In conservative counties, it's popular to aid Trump's mass deportation effort. As a result, a large portion of new agencies signing 287(g) agreements are sheriff's offices, which run county jails. 'Sheriff's offices are elected,' Kocher said. 'Many of them are more than happy to do this, right? But regardless, it's also a public visibility electoral thing.' The expansion is not, however, driven by money. In fact, many expenses associated with the federal partnership, such as officer salaries, overtime and transportation, are covered by local agencies and taxpayers, per the agreements. Local departments can participate in three ways. The jail enforcement and warrant service officer models limit local agencies' immigration powers to people already being held in local jails and state prisons for other charges. The task force model extends that authority to community policing. The Obama administration Advertisement The Trump administration's decision to resurrect them has drawn sharp criticism. Immigration advocates say it erodes communities' trust in police, violates constitutional rights and shifts the focus of enforcement from immigrants charged with violent crimes to those who've committed minor offenses. They also note it comes as the Trump administration has None of the agreements allow local officers to act on their own. They must be supervised or directed by ICE. Local officers are also supposed to receive 40 hours of online training to participate in task force agreements. However, a 2021 Participation in the 287(g) Program is strongest in the Southeast, where entire states like Florida are mandating full cooperation with ICE. There were 277 agreements in Florida alone as of June 6, according to ICE's online database. But as quickly as it has taken hold in the Southeast, the expansion has so far missed the country's biggest cities and counties, home to large immigrant populations. Doris Marie Provine, an emeritus professor at Arizona State University and lead author of 'Policing Immigrants: Local Law Enforcement on the Front Lines,' attributed big cities' reluctance, in part, to concerns about the costs to police departments and taxpayers. 'From local law enforcement's perspective, it's an unfunded mandate,' Provine said. 'There has been much more interest in community policing than there was 20 years ago, and that is very directly in conflict with turning local police into immigration officers.' Advertisement Since the 287(g) Program first ramped up nearly 20 years ago, it has faced repeated accusations of racial profiling and of creating a chilling effect among immigrant communities, who may be reluctant to report crimes. Two Justice Department investigations alleged that enforcement under 287(g) agreements led to constitutional violations in North Carolina and Arizona. ICE subsequently pulled their agreements. In North Carolina's Alamance County, the DOJ found in 2012, six years after the sheriff signed a 287(g) agreement, that the sheriff's office engaged 'in a pattern or practice of discriminatory policing against Latinos.' A federal judge In 2013, a federal judge in Arizona reaffirmed the DOJ's findings and Trump pardoned Arpaio in 2017 of federal contempt charges for disregarding the judge's ruling. New Maricopa County Sheriff Jerry Sheridan has declined to pursue new 287(g) agreements, citing the court's ongoing scrutiny of the department to ensure officers comply with the 2013 ruling. The cost to taxpayers for the ongoing effort to root out racial profiling in the department had surpassed $300 million as of March. Sheridan said he values the 287(g) Program but agreed with the judge's finding that community enforcement under the county's agreement was 'racially biased.' ICE did not respond to a request for comment about its monitoring of local agencies for potential civil rights violations. White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said: 'ICE's 287(g) Program is playing a critical role in fulfilling President Trump's promise to deport criminal illegal aliens and keep America safe. Dangerous criminal illegals with lengthy criminal records who pose a risk to the American people are detained all the time thanks to partnerships with local law enforcement officers.' In an In highlighting ICE's push for greater collaboration with local law enforcement, Homan rebuffed a common criticism of the 287(g) Program — that allowing police to enforce immigration laws erodes trust between communities and local officers. 'I'm sick and tired of hearing the talking point, 'Well, we're a welcoming community, we're a sanctuary city because we want victims and witnesses of a crime that live in the immigrant community to feel safe coming to law enforcement to report that crime,'' Homan told Arizona lawmakers. 'That is a bunch of garbage. A victim and witness of crime don't want the bad guy back out there either.' ICE is seeking more funding to expand 287(g) agreements and its detention and deportation capacity. During an 'We would much rather partner with a sheriff's department or a state corrections agency, someone that's in a state where an individual is arrested that we don't have to transport all around the country due to lack of bed space,' Lyons said.
