City says it was not notified or involved
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers raided a residence on North Elm Street in Beacon on the morning of Friday (June 20), according to a statement issued by Mayor Lee Kyriacou.
City officials said they do not know who ICE detained. It is unclear whether a judicial warrant was presented or the nature of any charges. ICE did not respond to a request from The Current for information.
“I want to make clear that at no time leading up to this incident did city staff, including our Police Department, have any notice of or involvement in ICE operations,” Kyriacou said. “As a city, we remain committed to our safe, inclusive community policy, to preserving rights enshrined in the U.S. Constitution and to avoiding any policies which engender fear among law-abiding families.”
The mayor said his office had been informed about the raid by residents and that Police Chief Tom Figlia confirmed with the Federal Bureau of Investigation that an ICE operation had occurred. Figlia said this week that ICE returned the following day (June 21), but he did not know if anyone was detained.
Mayor’s Statement
Earlier today, my office was informed by several residents of a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operation in the City of Beacon.
I want to make clear that at no time leading up to this incident did city staff, including our Police Department, have any notice of or involvement in ICE operations. As a city, we remain committed to our safe, inclusive community policy, to preserving rights enshrined in the U.S. Constitution, and to avoiding any policies which engender fear among law-abiding families.
Our city’s police chief was able to confirm with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, after the fact, that an ICE operation occurred in Beacon earlier this morning. At this time, the city has no information as to the identity of the individual who was arrested or detained, the nature of the charges, or whether a judicial warrant was presented or not. The City of Beacon also has no information as to the current location of the person who was arrested or detained. Our Police Department is actively seeking further information regarding the situation at this time.
— Lee Kyriacou, Mayor, City of Beacon
Andrew Canaday, a Beacon resident, wrote in a comment posted below that he witnessed the raid. “ICE, the FBI and what appeared to be one police officer (not from the City of Beacon) staked out the house, parked at different locations along the street around 6 a.m., presumably to apprehend him on his morning commute,” he wrote. The federal agents were armed and wearing body armor, Canaday wrote. He declined further comment.
Once news of the action circulated, hundreds of residents in Beacon and surrounding areas created an “unofficial neighborhood watch,” according to one participant who asked not to be identified. They are concerned that ICE is “confronting and taking our community members from their homes without due process,” the person said.
Volunteers have circulated pocket-sized cards with phrases such as “I do not give you permission to enter my home” and “I choose to exercise my constitutional rights” in English and Spanish. A second card offers tips for bystanders, such as how to observe safely, when to speak up and how to document what they see if witnessing a person being detained.
Joseph Lavetsky, an immigration attorney in Beacon, said that people who have been in the U.S. for less than two years, or who don’t have proof that they’ve been in the country for more than two years, are the most at risk because they could be subject to expedited removal.
If a person is detained, they will be held pending a bond hearing in an immigration court, he said, which would not take place in Beacon. The nonprofit New York Legal Assistance Group has created Designation of Standby Guardian forms for at-risk immigrants who have children to file in Surrogate Court or Family Court.
Lavetsky noted that Donald Trump is hardly the first president to prioritize immigration enforcement. Barack Obama was nicknamed the “deporter in chief,” he said, but previous administrations were more willing “to close your case or take it off the docket” if an immigrant did not have a criminal record or was married to a U.S. citizen.
Now, “they’re trying to go after pretty much anybody,” Lavetsky said, to meet an administration goal of 3,000 arrests per day. “That’s difficult to do if you’re only going after people with criminal records.”
Lavetsky created a Know Your Rights document that reminds immigrants that ICE cannot enter their home without permission and a warrant signed by a federal judge. It also cautions that the agency may use “tricks and deception” to gain entry.
“They will say anything to get someone to open the door,” he said. “They might say that a crime has been committed and they need the resident’s cooperation, or that they’re investigating an electric issue and need to inspect their apartment. The recent trend seems to be waiting for someone to leave or come home from work and grabbing them outside, instead of trying to get into their home.”
‘Safe and Welcoming Place’
The City Council in 2017 adopted a resolution declaring Beacon “a safe and welcoming place” where all residents should feel comfortable interacting with police and other municipal officials.
The resolution avoided using the phrase sanctuary city, a designation that had been targeted by the administration of President Donald Trump, but said that city employees and officials would not “stop, question, interrogate, investigate or arrest an individual based solely on actual or suspected immigration or citizenship status” or “inquire about the immigration status of an individual, including a crime victim, a witness, or a person who calls or approaches the police seeking assistance, unless necessary to investigate criminal activity by that individual.”
Regardless, the city, along with Dutchess and Putnam counties, was included last month on a list of jurisdictions the federal Department of Homeland Security accused of “obstructing” the Trump administration’s effort to deport millions of undocumented immigrants. The list was removed from government websites within days.
In response, Kyriacou read this statement at the beginning of the council’s June 2 meeting: “It is absolutely not the case that the city is deliberately obstructing the enforcement of federal immigration laws. While the city has yet to receive any formal communication from the federal government, we remain confident the city is abiding by all applicable state and federal laws and judicial orders. Our city and our Police Department remain committed to protecting public safety, and any statements to the contrary are misleading and inaccurate.”
I live on North Elm, a few houses down. I saw the raid happen. I had gone outside to find out what exploded (I don’t know if they employed flash bangs to flush him out or if a main transformer exploded nearby from heat or humidity). I believe the kid they took is one of our local bakers. We talk often. We say hello daily.
He walked to work and had a court date for a driving violation. ICE, the FBI and what appeared to be one police officer (not from the City of Beacon) staked out the house, parked at different locations along the street around 6 a.m., presumably to apprehend him on his morning commute. By about 8 a.m., he apparently still hadn’t emerged. I went outside to try to determine what the source of the explosion was. By that time, he had exited the house and tried to run, but the road was blocked off in both directions by two unmarked SUVs and at least one sedan. (There has been a white SUV driving around Beacon the last day or two that looks like a county police car that someone took a paint roller to to cover the markings. I couldn’t say whether or not it was Dutchess, but I presume the white SUV present this morning was the same.)
I can say this much for sure: exploding noises and truckloads of armed federal agents in body armor surrounding a house on your street to apprehend a skinny, gregarious goofball who makes cookies is a disorienting way to kick off a Friday.
Thank you for taking time to write your perspective. So many “assume” — not enough speak truth. These young people may have been here from very young grade-school age. To be held, deported back to a country they are not familiar with or been raised in is a crime in itself. Every American should read and understand the immigration process. It’s filled with fees and months and years of waiting.
You can’t be critical of those who “assume” but in the next sentence assume that the subject “may have been here from very young grade-school age.” If he is here illegally, he committed a federal crime when he crossed the border. Those who made the effort to enter legally and assimilate despise illegals.
It is not a felonious crime to cross the border without documentation. By law, it’s a misdemeanor equivalent to driving a car with an expired registration. Serving warrant documents to the person, then leaving the area after giving them to the intended recipient is the only action required.
Showing up as a stake-out with multiple vehicles, groups of people in body armor and covered faces, firearms, handcuffs and zip-ties to kidnap people is a flagrant misuse of public resources. It’s grossly disproportionate to the reality of crime perpetrated by undocumented immigrants.
These are gestapo tactics lifted directly from Nazi Germany, only without the documentation that ultimately sealed the fate of those tried at Nuremberg. The only targets of these raids are people with brown skin. Despite all efforts, I can’t seem to find any reports of ICE raids in Brighton Beach or Monsey.
I am scared living near Beacon. During the Biden administration, a relative of mine was raped in Texas by an illegal. This is the Democrats’ fault; they have blood on their hands and should be held accountable. Go ICE and God bless President Trump.
Keep this number handy: 866-DHS-2-ICE.
“As a city, we remain committed to our safe, inclusive community policy, to preserving rights enshrined in the U.S. Constitution and to avoiding any policies which engender fear among law-abiding families.”
Many law-abiding families may fear people among us who violate daily federal law: Each and every illegal alien violates daily federal law due to his or her mere presence. Almost all of them are criminals as well, having crossed the U.S. border illegally. (And that’s not even to touch on the illegal aliens who have committed additional crimes, here and elsewhere.)
Our nation maintains and enforces immigration laws to protect and respect law-abiding people and manage and document the flow of immigrants into our country. A certain administration recently chose treason and aided and abetted millions of criminals to enter illegally our nation. Sadly, too many citizens tolerated this treason. Fellow citizens voted out the slow-motion insurrectionists last year from D.C.; today, ICE and many other government agencies clean up the expensive mess left behind.
It’s nice to see that the mayor of Beacon cares to protect the rights of somebody because it’s sure not the rights of citizens. I personally had an experience I will never forget with the Beacon police over something that was over and beyond a civil rights violation on the part of the Beacon police and the mayor couldn’t have cared less. I did go to his office and made a complaint. The way he handled it was a joke. But I’m glad to see he cares about somebody. I guess you just can’t be a legal citizen.
I found the actions of the Biden administration despicable, especially concerning the border. I can’t blame the people who swarmed out southern border as much as I can Biden. Would I have taken the same chance as millions did if I saw an opportunity to enter the greatest country in the world? You bet I would have. However, there’s a right way to do things and allowing millions of unvetted people to pour in is not one of them. I won’t go into the reasons I feel it was done. I don’t think they gave a lick who came, but they loved that they did.
The same bureaucrats responsible for the mess we find ourselves in lock their doors at night. Their homes have security systems and some employ security personnel. Why was it OK to leave the “door” to our country open? Would you, do you, let anyone into your home uninvited? Do you leave your doors unlocked? People question the arrests by ICE. Keep in mind you may view some of their crimes as minor but those may only be the crimes you’re aware of. What about the crimes they committed that we don’t know about? I have no problem with people coming to our great country as long as I know who they are.
I am surprised and saddened to see such hateful comments published in this newspaper.
It is appalling to see the racism and dehumanizing language used by certain letter writers to The Current on the topic of immigration and the kidnapping of their own neighbors by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. They seem to be entirely ignorant of the fact that the vast majority of undocumented immigrants are law-abiding, taxpaying community members.
Instead of facts or empathy, these letter writers show just how much harmful, dehumanizing propaganda they have absorbed. They should be ashamed of their clear inability to love thy neighbor.
And a polite request to The Current editors: “Illegal” is not an acceptable way to refer to a human being. If your policy is to redact or refuse to print slurs related to race, gender or sexual orientation, your stylebook ought to prohibit slurs based on immigration status as well.
While I was heartened to see many fellow neighbors condemn the unconstitutional and illegal thuggery of ICE raids in Beacon, I remain in awe of the amount of folks who claim to love America but remain ignorant of our history and our laws. We are living through an era that we’ll be ashamed to teach our children. Those still supporting Trump, his autocratic policies and these masked ICE vandals stand on the wrong side of history. End stop. Please, turn off Fox News, get off Facebook and maybe pick up a copy of the Constitution everyone loves to quote in the abstract but not actually read.