Westchester County Passes Immigrant Protection Act

WHITE PLAINS, NY — Westchester County’s Board of Legislators passed the Immigrant Protection Act with a bi-partisan vote of 10-5 Monday. According to a spokesman, the legislation will protect the confidential information of all residents, regardless of immigration status, and ensure that county resources are not misappropriated.

Majority Leader Catherine Borgia, D-Ossining, said the intent of the bill was to create a policy of public safety for everyone in Westchester County. (For more information on this and other neighborhood stories, subscribe to Patch to receive daily newsletters and breaking news alerts.)

“In surveys all across the country, immigrants have reported that they are less likely to contact police officers if they have been the victim of a crime because of potential immigrant consequences,” she said.

“Westchester is too diverse a county for our residents to live in fear,” Borgia said.

She said the legislation is not a sanctuary bill, but simply ensures county law enforcement focuses its attention and resources on protecting public safety in Westchester while complying fully with federal law.

County Executive Robert Astorino, a Republican, has vowed to veto the bill, because the county could lose nearly $13 million in federal grants.

The county executive also said that his Administration had long worked with legislators and immigration groups to come up with workable legislation. But after much testimony from advocates, public safety, corrections and social services, the grave flaws in the Act were apparent and unworkable. In this case, political grandstanding was put before public safety, Astorino said.

“Just because proponents of the bill say it doesn’t create a sanctuary county, doesn’t make it so,” Astorino said. “Our county attorney has given us an opinion that passage of this act makes Westchester a sanctuary county and at odds with the federal government.”

In his legal opinion, County Attorney Robert Meehan raised concerns that the law established “sanctuary policies,” jeopardizes millions of dollars in federal funds, and raises substantial questions as to whether it violates federal law.

A joint statement from Republican legislators who voted against the measure called the legislation “well intentioned,” but said it provides little in new protections for immigrants living in Westchester.

Since 2006, they said, there has been an executive order on the books that said the county does not investigate or detain any resident based solely on their immigration status.

The Republican legislators said the bill amounts to a declaration that Westchester is a sanctuary county and will lose federal funding because of it.

The advocacy group Neighbors Link said the bill was important because it protects public safety by ensuring people can report crimes without fear of revealing their immigration status.

Rabbi Aaron Brusso of Bet Torah in Mount Kisco said in calling someone “alien” or “illegal” makes them different and therefore they cannot be trusted.

“We take the people we don’t trust and we make them distrustful of law enforcement, distrustful of the court system and distrustful of government,” he said.

“A community with no trust is a community in which everyone is alien and no one is a human being,” Brusso said.

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