Requests To Detain NYC Immigrants Rocketed After Trump Win: NYPD

NEW YORK, NY — Federal immigration officials asked the NYPD to detain nearly 20 times as many immigrants last year as in 2016 as President Donald Trump launched an immigration crackdown, police officials told city lawmakers Wednesday.

The Police Department received 1,526 requests from Immigration and Customs Enforcement to hold immigrants in police custody in 2017, up from just 80 in 2016, Oleg Chernyavsky, the NYPD's legislative director, told a City Council committee.

Police ignored all the requests last year under New York City policies limiting cooperation with ICE, Chernyavsky said. The NYPD honored two requests in 2016 only because the people involved had federal arrest warrants.

"That is an important number to get out, because I think that speaks volumes to our intent as a city and as a department to cooperate on immigration enforcement," Chernyavsky told the Committee on Public Safety during an oversight hearing Wednesday.

Under city law, the NYPD can only hand someone over to ICE if they've been convicted of one of 170 serious crimes. Police do not generally comply with the agency's administrative requests to hold an arrested person for up to 48 hours until ICE can come get them. Those requests do not have to be signed by a judge.

The city's policy has frustrated immigration officials as they've ratcheted up arrests under Trump and targeted immigrants who have only been accused — not convicted — of crimes.

ICE took shots at the city on Twitter during Wednesday's hearing. The agency said it recently arrested nine immigrants with pending criminal charges after the NYPD released them despite getting detention requests from ICE.

"The release of criminal aliens back on New York City streets continues to pose a dangerous risk to our communities," Thomas Decker, the director of ICE's New York field office, said. "As Acting ICE Director Thomas Homan has made clear, ICE will continue to dedicate more resources to conduct at-large arrests to ensure the safety of the law-abiding citizens of these communities."

NYPD and city officials denied cooperating with ICE in most circumstances, including the agency's Jan. 11 arrest of immigrant-rights activist Ravi Ragbir. Chaos erupted outside the Jacob K. Javits Federal Building that day as NYPD cops worked alongside U.S. Department of Homeland Security officers to get protesters under control. Eighteen people were arrested, including Councilmen Ydanis Rodriguez and Jumaane Williams.

ICE didn't send the Police Department any detention requests that day or request the NYPD's presence at the protest, Chernyavsky said. Cops didn't even know what hospital an FDNY ambulance took Ragbir to after he fainted inside the federal building, he said.

"That just kind of really accentuates the fact that there was no cooperation with ICE," Chernyavsky said. "When the individual left the scene in an ambulance, we reported to the nearest hospital, and it turned out that the individual was not there."

Councilman Donovan Richards (D-Queens), chair of the public safety committee, said the NYPD's role in policing that protest gave people the perception that cops work with ICE. The Police Department should try to eliminate that perception when it can, he said.

"It does have ripple effects on communities, in particular where people are undocumented," Richards said.

(Lead image: An Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer escorts an immigrant in January. Photo from ICE.gov)