Nassau cops trained and ready as ICE partnership awaits final approval, despite pending lawsuit

Nassau County’s plan to deputize local cops as ICE agents is nearly active, with officers already trained and waiting on federal approval as police are already transferring arrestees into ICE custody.

Despite a lawsuit filed last month by the New York Civil Liberties Union to stop the partnership, Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman promised to move forward with his plans to deputize 10 detectives to work with ICE and is now just waiting for the green light from the agency to start assisting in deportation operations. 

“We’re confident that all measures taken to protect communities in Nassau County are legal and properly authorized,” Blakeman told The Post about the partnership. “The residents of Nassau County overwhelmingly approve of removing criminals from our neighborhoods and communities and therefore I am pleased with our relationship with ICE.” 

Nassau Detective Lt. Scott Skrynecki revealed that the officers selected to be deputized have already completed their training, but have yet to help the feds, and said the decision to swear in the officers as federal agents and use them during operations is at ICE’s discretion. 

So far, Nassau police have not assisted ICE with any immigration detainments or raids, but officials said they would not hesitate to help if called upon. 

However, coordination between both departments is already quietly underway. Since January, police have handed over at least 15 individuals to ICE after discovering they were undocumented during unrelated arrests — including charges ranging from grand larceny to endangering the welfare of a child, according to Skrynecki. 

Blakeman first announced the partnership in February, with plans to make Nassau County the largest police force in the nation to receive powers from ICE as one of the now 170 counties nation-wide to partner with the agency.

But critics like the NYCLU have called out the partnership as illegal in New York and are hoping the state strikes it down as so. 

“Despite what Bruce Blakeman and the Trump administration may think, it is illegal for New York law enforcement to detain someone on behalf of ICE,” the group’s senior attorney Amy Belsher said in a statement last month when the litigation first became public. 

“While officers have many well-defined, specific powers, detaining immigrants at the request of ICE is not one of them.”

The NYCLU’s lawsuit is the first of its kind in New York State, and attacks the agreement between the county and the federal government — saying it undermines protections against unreasonable searches and seizures.

The litigation argues that allowing detectives to target, arrest, and help deport undocumented immigrants not only violates state law, but will lead to racial profiling by allowing cops to “stop, question, and arrest Nassau County residents — anywhere in the community — based solely on the officer’s ‘belief’ that they may be in the United States in violation of law.”

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A 2018 state court ruling, cited in the suit, ruled that it is illegal under current state law for local cops anywhere in the state to make immigration arrests at the request of ICE or any other federal agencies.

Despite the ruling, two weeks after President Trump re-claimed the White House this year, Blakeman announced that Nassau would be one of the first counties in the country to have a partnership between local police and ICE to conduct immigration arrests.

Blakeman and other Long Island leaders later doubled-down on working with ICE as protests that drew tens of thousands from across both counties called for an end to that cooperation.

Earlier this year, state Attorney General Letitia James advised local police departments around the state not to join the partnership, which falls under a 287(g) Program — “remains unsettled” in state law since ICE would grant local law enforcement the power to make civil immigration arrests and detain people, “given that such arrests and detention would otherwise be unlawful.”

The county’s agreement with ICE currently remains on pause until the federal agency decides to activate the deputization — with all signs suggesting Nassau is ready to move the moment they do.

If ICE gives the go-ahead, Nassau would become the largest police department in the country to enter the program, and the only one in New York State, but would still have legal hurdles to jump in one of the largest sanctuary states in the country. 

ICE did not respond to a request for comment.