Representatives from more than 20 Long Island community groups urged Nassau County to sever its partnership with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement during a news conference on Thursday\u00a0in Hempstead.<\/p>\n
The community advocates also urged state lawmakers to approve legislation \u2014 the New York For All Act \u2014 that would bar state and local agencies from collaborating<\/a> with federal immigration officials.<\/p>\n One speaker said immigrants detained at the Nassau County jail as part of Nassau\u2019s 287(g) agreement with ICE face horrid conditions, including overcrowding, inadequate heating and a lack of food and water. More than half held through mid-October, the most recent information available, did not have a criminal record, according to data obtained by Newsday.<\/p>\n “We have never seen conditions that now exist in the Nassau County jail as deplorable as they are currently,” said Serena Martin, executive director of New Hour for Women and Children, which has provided services to women incarcerated on Long Island for 14 years.<\/p>\n The news\u00a0conference, held at the Hempstead law offices of civil rights attorney Frederick K. Brewington, was organized by Corridor Counts, a coalition of the Long Island organizations represented at the event, and by Long Island Advocates for Police Accountability, which pushes for transparency and accountability in law enforcement.<\/p>\n “We\u2019ve decided to come together to speak in one voice in saying, \u2018ICE no more,\u2019\u2009” said Brewington, a member of LIAPA. “ICE needs to be out.”<\/p>\n Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, a supporter of President Donald Trump\u2019s mass deportation policy and the Republican candidate for governor<\/a>, announced in February 2025 the Nassau police department would assign 10 detectives to work with ICE under a 287(g) agreement. The agreement is named after a provision in federal law that allows ICE to deputize local officers for immigration enforcement.<\/a> The county also agreed to set aside 50 jail cells for immigrants without documentation who are facing criminal charges.<\/p>\n In a statement to Newsday on Thursday afternoon, Blakeman said immigrants with criminal records had\u00a0been removed from Nassau County since his administration began cooperating with ICE, “making it safer for the men, women and children who live in our communities.”<\/p>\n ICE officials did not immediately return a request for comment.<\/p>\n Sonia Arora, of the Long Island Immigrant Justice Alliance, said she attended the news\u00a0conference because of an 8-year-old girl whose father is detained.<\/p>\n “Her world has been turned upside down,” Arora said. “She\u2019s traumatized. She\u2019s struggling in school, and that stability and sense of safety\u00a0that every child should have is being shattered.”<\/p>\n Nassau officials held more than 2,600 immigrants at the Nassau County Correctional Center in East Meadow last year on behalf of ICE, county data obtained by Newsday shows. <\/p>\n