Southold Town Board unanimously approved a Public Safety Task Force Tuesday following public pressure to address ICE activity in Greenport –including the detention of three longtime North Fork residents on Feb. 4.
The latest sweep by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents – following recent activity across the East End – spurred Minerva Perez,executive director of OLA of Eastern Long Island, to call for the task force.
Her organization has been circulating proposed legislation among East End towns to create task forces on immigration enforcement, establish police department policies around license plate recognition technology and establish local police departments’ ability to train and designate officers to investigate incidents of law enforcement impersonations.
“By and large, we’ve got safe and peaceful communities on the East End of Long Island,” Ms. Perez said during the two-hour meeting at the Southold Town Recreation Center, which was attended by more than 50 residents, including Greenport Mayor Kevin Stuessi.
“What we’re recognizing with this resolution is that there are times when the safety and the peace is broken,” she continued. “And any town, any village when that’s happening, it’s happening in a repeated sort of way, would want to have a response to that and some sort of plan in place and not just an idea of a plan but a rock solid plan.”
Town Supervisor Al Krupski said the group would review any proposed legislation that might affect local public safety.
“Just because somebody submitted legislation somewhere else, doesn’t mean it’s going to be consistent with our needs in our community,” Mr. Krupski said. “So we need to make sure if someone is proposing something, that it’s going to be helpful.”
Councilwoman Jill Doherty, the board’s lone Republican member, did not comment after casting her vote. The new task force will include two Town Board members, two Southold Town Police Department members, a member of the police advisory committee,a member of the town’s Anti-Bias Task Force, a local school district representative, a Greenport village representative and a community member.
The group will examine health, safety and welfare concerns associated with federal immigration policy and review all proposed federal, state and local legislation to advise the Town Board. The group will meet “as needed” in response to ongoing developments in the law.
“We can monitor if a storm is coming or not but [ICE activity] is unpredictable,” Councilwoman Anne Smith said. “And I don’t know exactly what that looks like, but I think it should be one of their tasks.”
Source: The Suffolk Times
