Dear Nassau County Legislators:
The nonpartisan group, Nassau Residents for Good Government (NRGG), which promotes transparency, accountability and integrity in Nassau County government, urges you to take immediate action to ensure that Nassau residents are not subject to the alarming situation still unfolding in Minnesota.
As national tensions continue to rise, residents throughout Nassau are increasingly concerned that inadequately trained, armed federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents could be surged or deployed here, turning our streets into a war zone. County Executive Bruce Blakeman’s lack of transparency about his secret militia and his unaccountable 287(g) cooperative agreement with ICE are intensifying these fears.
Because neither Blakeman’s militia nor the ICE officers are adequately trained, the County Legislature has both the authority and responsibility to demand accountability from Blakeman to ensure public safety. As a first step, there’s an urgent need for the Legislature to conduct hearings, which should be a core component of your oversight function. At a minimum, these hearings should address the following issues:
The lack of accountability and potential dangers of Blakeman’s 287(g) agreement with ICE:
- What measures are in place to protect Nassau residents from ICE agents breaking into homes without a judicial warrant, as they are doing in Minnesota?
- What steps are being implemented to safeguard non-violent protesters exercising their constitutional rights?
- What actions are being taken to protect County Police Officers from uncoordinated enforcement actions involving inadequately trained ICE agents?
- How will the County protect immigrant residents who report crimes to police officers working alongside ICE? How will the NCPD rebuild the mistrust caused by sharing information with ICE?
- What are the implications of Blakeman’s Executive Order that exempts ICE from the County’s mask ban? Is the anonymity provided by masks encouraging ICE to violate constitutional rights? Should Blakeman’s Executive Order be rescinded? How can the public differentiate between kidnappers and masked ICE agents who aren’t in uniforms, do not display badges and do not identify themselves?
- Community mistrust of Blakeman’s agreement with ICE is escalating, especially after a 42-year old man died in ICE custody at the Nassau County Correctional Center in East Meadow last September. ICE failed to comply with a congressionally mandated deadline to release details surrounding his death, and reports in December indicated the County violated its own three-day limit for holding detainees.
- What was the basis for the decision, and who authorized it, to allow ICE agents to use County-owned facilities that were built and financed with taxpayer funds long before Blakeman became County Executive? What resources from the NCPD’s crime-fighting efforts are being diverted to support ICE activities?
- The Legislature should call on Blakeman and County personnel involved with ICE to answer these questions. Additionally, immigration advocate stakeholders and Nassau residents impacted by ICE should be invited to speak at your hearing.
Blakeman has kept his militia shrouded in secrecy since its abrupt and arbitrary establishment. Compounding this issue, he refuses to answer questions from the public or respond to FOIL requests:
- Why does the safest county in America, with one of the largest, most professional, and highly respected police departments in the country, require a militia composed of inadequately trained, armed residents?
- Blakeman’s secret militia has faced widespread criticism since being created in March 2024, particularly regarding concerns about vigilantism and police deaths from friendly fire.
- Blakeman has not disclosed the authority under which he established his militia, the need for the militia, or any standards governing its deployment. He has kept its mission and the standards for their actions a secret, and their authority to act remains unclear. Blakeman has authorized payment to the militia, without statutory or legislative authority and he has not revealed the nature of the training they received. In these dangerous times, having a group of armed individuals deployed by one person without any standards for their actions is perilous.
Nassau residents fear that the tragic killing of Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti by ICE agents in Minneapolis could happen here. The County Legislature, led by the Republican majority, must exercise its oversight authority and stop rubber-stamping Blakeman’s unchecked actions by conducting a thorough review of these potentially life-threatening actions. That evaluation should begin with public hearings.
Sincerely,
Jody Kass Finkel
Ms. Finkel is the Founder/Coordinator of Nassau Residents for Good Government.