Brooklyn Defenders Condemns Executive Order to Establish ICE Office at Rikers Island
Brooklyn Defenders Condemns Executive Order to Establish ICE Office at Rikers Island
(BROOKLYN, NY) – Yesterday, the Mayor’s Office signed an executive order that would authorize Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”) and other federal law enforcement agencies to establish an office on Rikers Island. Brooklyn Defenders issued the following statement in response:
“In 2014, the New York City Council passed legislation to remove ICE from Rikers Island and prevent the Department of Correction, the New York Police Department, and the Department of Probation from unlawfully detaining noncitizens without a judicial warrant. City and state laws afford all people accused of crimes the same due process rights regardless of their immigration status, and allow all New Yorkers to be able to engage with city services and local legal systems without fear of deportation.
New York City has long recognized that sanctuary principles such as these make all New Yorkers safer and that city agencies should not be in the business of collaborating with ICE.
Allowing ICE back on Rikers flies in the face of these principles and undermines New Yorkers’ constitutional rights to due process, including the right to equal treatment under the law, a fair trial, and the presumption of innocence.
We see on a daily basis how ICE enforcement violates peoples’ rights, separates families, and unlawfully detains people in dangerous conditions in locations far from their communities.
This executive order shamefully allows ICE to leverage New York City property to target, surveil, and arrest people so that it can detain and remove them, which often happens without notice, legal justification, or process.
We condemn this order, and urge our elected leaders to do everything in their power to protect the rights of all New Yorkers.”
Find a PDF of this press release here.
