GARDEN CITY, NY — Community organizers, immigrant-rights advocates and faith leaders rallied outside the David S. Mack Center for Training and Intelligence in Gardeb City on Friday as President Donald Trump visited the facility, calling for an end to Nassau County's cooperation with federal immigration authorities and criticizing the policies of Trump and Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman.
The demonstrators gathered in a designated "free speech" zone outside the police facility as Trump appeared alongside federal law enforcement officials and local Republicans to speak on crime, immigration and policing.
Trump praised Nassau County's public-safety record and repeatedly promoted Blakeman, the Republican candidate for governor, while Blakeman touted Nassau County's partnership with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Organizers said the rally protested the administration's policies on mass surveillance, wealth inequality, racial profiling and immigration enforcement, which they said have disproportionately affected local working-class communities.
"We demand an end to local collaboration and collusion with ICE," said Nadia Marin-Molina, co-executive director of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network.
Marin-Molina said that New York should go further in restricting cooperation between local police and federal immigration authorities, targeting both formal agreements and what she described as informal collaboration.
"Local governments have to end not just formal agreements like the Nassau County 287(g) agreement but informal agreements, like what Suffolk County is doing," Marin-Molina said. "So let's send this message now. Let's send this message as far as it can go, and in the name of all of the people who are not here with us but want to be here with us today, we say ICE out of New York!"
The protest came less than two weeks before Nassau's existing 287(g) agreements are required to end under a new state law.
The New York Attorney General's Office notified the Nassau County Police Department and Nassau County Sheriff's Office in July that the Local Cops, Local Crimes Act immediately prohibited local law enforcement from conducting civil immigration enforcement under their 287(g) agreements and requires the agreements to be terminated by Aug. 25. The Attorney General's Office directed Nassau officials to provide an update on the status of the agreements and their plans for termination by 5 p.m. Friday — the same day as Trump's visit.
The state law prohibits 287(g) agreements and similar arrangements using local resources for federal civil immigration enforcement, but does not prohibit local law enforcement from working with federal authorities on criminal investigations.
The protest came as immigration enforcement emerged as one of the central themes of Trump's appearance inside the facility.
Blakeman told the crowd Nassau has what he called the most comprehensive agreement with ICE in the country and said the partnership had resulted in the removal of 2,000 migrants with criminal records in one year.
"In one year, we removed 2,000 illegal migrants with criminal records ranging from attempted murder, rape, murder, drug dealing," Blakeman said during his remarks.
Blakeman also defended the agreement against criticism, saying Nassau carried out the removals without immigration raids at churches, daycare centers, schools or hospitals because county officials cooperated directly with federal authorities.
"I want to thank Bruce Blakeman for working closely with federal law enforcement to remove more than 2,000 migrant criminals from Nassau County," Trump said. "He removed 2,000 absolute total criminals. That's why your records are so good. That's why you're number one in the whole country."
The president also called sanctuary jurisdictions one of the largest obstacles facing federal law enforcement.
"The biggest problem we have, the biggest impediment we have, are sanctuary cities, where they protect criminals," Trump said during his speech.
Protest organizers said aggressive immigration enforcement has harmed immigrant and working-class communities on Long Island.
Hazel Leon, a community advocate and organizer with Así Vamos NY, pointed to the death of Santos Banegas Reyes in the Nassau County jail and the detentions of three people advocates have referred to as the "Long Island 3" — Ricardo "Chelito" Arevalo Baires, Kerin Saddy "Romero" Rodriguez Ulloa and Miriam "Mia" Burga Mendez.
Banegas Reyes, 42, died at the Nassau County Correctional Center in September 2025 less than 18 hours after arriving there in ICE custody. ICE said the preliminary cause appeared to be liver failure complicated by alcoholism and that the cause of death remained under investigation. New York Attorney General Letitia James was also investigating the circumstances surrounding his death, according to Patch's previous reporting.
"Our immigrant communities on Long Island have seen not only the unjust death of Santos Banegas Reyes in the Nassau County Jail but also violent detainments of the Long Island 3," Leon said.
News 12 previously reported that the Department of Homeland Security disputed advocates' accounts of the arrests, saying the three were detained because of their immigration status and not for filming or documenting ICE activity. DHS also disputed that excessive force was used during the arrests.
Leon said Friday's demonstration was intended to hold both Trump and Blakeman accountable for policies protesters believe have harmed immigrants.
"Our rally for the working-class people of Long Island was assembled to condemn the lack of accountability from both President Trump and Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman who have caused harm to our hardworking neighbors," Leon said. "We demand justice for our families and affected communities now."
Inside the police facility, Blakeman argued cooperation with ICE has made Nassau safer and linked border enforcement to declining fentanyl and opioid deaths.
"Our opioid deaths, our fentanyl deaths, have gone way down. Overdoses are way down," Blakeman said. "What does that mean? What it means is that we don't have to read about in a newspaper another family that's lost a child to fentanyl. That's what it means."
Trump used Nassau as an example of the public-safety policies he wants implemented elsewhere and praised Blakeman's record while campaigning for him for governor.
"We're not going to let that happen to New York, New York State," Trump said after criticizing Democratic crime policies. "And that's why we have to get Bruce into office."
Kiana Bierria-Anderson, Long Island director at New York Communities for Change, accused Trump and Blakeman of pursuing policies harmful to Black, brown, transgender, immigrant and working-class Nassau residents and characterized their political agendas as threats to democracy.
"Donald Trump and Bruce Blakeman are twin scars on the fabric of American democracy," Bierria-Anderson said.
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