DEALING WITH DEPORTATIONS: Councilwoman Melissa Mark-Viverito announces Wednesday (August 17) a bill that would protect immigrants held at the Rikers Island correctional facilities from what she calls unjust deportations. The bill would limit the cooperation between the city's Department of Correction and the federal government's Immigration Customs Enforcement. (Ivan Pentchoukov/The Epoch Times)

NEW YORK—Thousands of Rikers Island inmates, who illegally immigrated to the United States, could be protected from deportation under a bill being proposed by Melissa Mark-Viverito, a Manhattan councilwoman. 

The city's Department of Correction (DOC) has been cooperating with the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to deport 3,000 to 4,000 such immigrants a year, despite a citywide "don't ask, don't tell" policy on immigration. 



"What this [bill] basically says is that we will not allow city resources to be used to deport New York City residents who have never been convicted of a crime," said Mark-Viverito. 
"We will not be complicit in facilitating a broken immigration system," she added. 

Over 50 percent of those deported had no prior criminal record and 20 percent were charged with minor crimes, according to Mark-Viverito, whose district includes part of the Upper East Side, Spanish Harlem/El Barrio/East Harlem, Manhattan Valley, Upper West Side as well as part of Mott Haven in the Bronx.

The DOC currently shares lists of illegal immigrants who are in custody with ICE. It also provides immigration agents with access to these inmates and detains those flagged by the ICE, whether or not they have been convicted of a crime. Immigration agents then arrest these immigrants and start deportation procedures.

"ICE does not comment on pending or proposed federal, state, or local legislation," stated an e-mail from the ICE New York Office.

 Part of ICE's mandate is to deport illegal immigrants. But the agency's funding is strained. So it pursues its goals in part by collaborating with federal, state, and local prisons. 



The DOC currently provides free office space to the ICE staff on Rikers Island. 

The city has spent more than $55 million a year supporting detainees wanted for deportation. ICE representatives have made it clear to the city that no funds will be provided to cover these expenses. 



DOC officials did not return calls seeking comments.



The proposed legislation would limit the cooperation between the DOC and federal agencies. The DOC would be restricted to cooperate only on cases of convicted criminals. Those with no prior criminal record would be protected under the new law.



"Our city has contributed to what Mayor Bloomberg and President Obama agree is a broken immigration system. But today the city has a chance to send our own message to the federal government—that we will not cooperate and we will not allow for our families to be broken," said Ana Maria Archila, co-executive director of Make the Road New York.

 She added that cooperation between police and immigration enforcement is destructive to communities.

According to Archila, illegal immigrants are less likely to cooperate with police if they fear deportation.

 "Does this make New York safer? No," said professor Peter L. Markowitz, director of Immigration Justice Clinic at Cardozo School of Law.

"When immigrant communities begin to see our criminal justice system as the gateway to deportation, they stop cooperating with local police as witnesses and victims of crimes. When immigrant communities fear our police, we're all less safe. DOC's entanglement with ICE is a public threat."

Councilman Daniel Dromm (District 25 – Jackson Heights, Elmhurst, Corona, Rego Park and Woodside), chairman of the Immigration Committee, told a story about a city resident who was arrested and spent two months on Rikers Island. During that time the immigrant spoke to ICE agents and was detained for deportation. Although the charges were dismissed, he was then sent to a detention facility in Texas, where he had no contact with his family or an attorney, for two years.

"This was a young man who was in college. His life was basically ruined for those two years," Dromm said.