Requests include people without conviction
Requests from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to hold immigrants detained in the Dutchess County jail and other Hudson Valley lockups have accelerated this year and largely target people without convictions, according to data released in July.
The Deportation Data Project, a team of academics and attorneys, sued ICE under the federal Freedom of Information Act to obtain the data, which covers September 2023 through June 26.
After receiving 20 “detainers” — requests to hold inmates for up to 48 hours past their release date so ICE could re-arrest them — in 2024, Dutchess has received 19 already this year, with two detainees taken into ICE custody.
Nearly all the 17 men and two women — most of whom are from Ecuador, Guatemala and Mexico — had pending charges but no convictions. Two were categorized as an “other immigration violator,” meaning they had no convictions or charges.
While federal officials have said they are pursuing people who have committed “serious” crimes, “everything we’ve seen about the way this administration operates tells us that they are not targeting people in any particular way,” said Zachary Ahmad, senior policy counsel with the New York Civil Liberties Union. “They’re, in fact, sweeping very broadly to arrest and detain as many immigrants as they possibly can.”
Twenty of the 51 people sought by ICE from the Orange County jail since January had criminal convictions, with driving while intoxicated being the most common serious offense, followed by two larceny convictions.
Just six of the people sought by ICE from the Westchester County jail had criminal convictions — two for larceny, two for rape and the others for robbery and a traffic offense — while 37 had pending charges and two had no criminal records.
The ICE requests led to four inmates held by the Putnam County jail being taken into federal custody, along with 12 from Orange and six from Westchester, according to the data.
ICE issues detainers based on final deportation orders, pending deportations, fingerprint matches with Department of Homeland Security records or a person’s admission to an immigration official that they are here without authorization. Fingerprints shared with the FBI enable the agency to locate people in local jails.
County jails in New York state are not legally obligated to notify ICE that a prisoner will be released from custody or to honor its detainer requests, according to guidance issued in January by the state Attorney General’s Office. Requests are often accompanied by an administrative warrant issued by immigration authorities, which local police are prohibited from honoring under a 2018 state court decision in a lawsuit filed by the NYCLU on behalf Susai Francis, a native of India.
Attorney General Letitia James recommends that local jails only honor detainers when ICE presents a warrant signed by a federal judge. Such warrants are “something that ICE is not in the practice of providing,” instead relying primarily on administrative warrants, said Ahmad.
“ICE just sends the detainers, and then it’s the local law enforcement that decides what to do with them,” he said. “Under the Francis decision, they’re not permitted to hold a person beyond their release date.”
William Moore, the superintendent for the Dutchess County jail, did not respond to a request for comment. Capt. Michael Grossi of the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office said in January that ICE is notified when detainees sought by the agency are scheduled for release, but that the jail will not hold them longer unless a federal judge signs a warrant. He said that has been the policy for at least 10 years, and under two previous sheriffs.
