Metro

Police unions say removing ICE from Long Island could be deadly

Nassau County is rolling out the red carpet for the brutal MS-13 gang by booting Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers from the local jail, police union leaders charged on Tuesday — as county leaders shot back that the cops were ginning up phony outrage over an unrelated collective bargaining dispute.

Nassau County Executive Laura Curran last week asked the feds to yank six officials from the ICE Office of Enforcement and Removal Operations from the county’s correctional center in East Meadow by Jan. 31, following a November state appellate court decision that localities cannot hold suspects on ICE warrants alone.

But police union honchos slammed the plan as “stupid” and “mind-boggling” during a press conference Tuesday.

“It could be tragic. It could end up in deaths in Nassau County,” said county Police Benevolent Association president James McDermott. “This is a political decision. This is not a decision for public safety. I’m calling on the county executive to reconsider and stop the madness.”





McDermott said ICE agents are able to get inside information on gangs such as the brutal MS-13 that his own local cops are not.

“They deal directly with gang members and they are very good at it,” McDermott said. “ICE is good at getting information from these guys in jails. We are nothing without information.”

Information gathered by ICE helped thwart an April 2018 plan by MS-13 to kill a police officer, union officials said.

“A police officer’s life was saved and possibly members of the public also,” McDermott said.

Nassau County has become ground zero for the brutal MS-13 gang, prompting President Trump to visit the island last year.

But Curran said Tuesday the six ICE officers are simply being moved to a facility at the Nassau University Medical Center across the street — and argued that the unions are coming after her because they’re mad that labor contract negotiations have stalled.





“The decision to relocate ICE agents from the County jail facility had no effect on ICE’s jurisdiction to operate within the County. The Nassau County Police Department will continue to notify ICE at the time of arrests, as they did before. The only change will be the relocation of ICE officers from jail property to prevent mistakes that could lead to unlawful detentions,” said Nassau County communications director Christine Geed.

“This has never been a police issue and it has not impacted police procedures in any way. What this morning’s PBA press conference was about is collective bargaining!”





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