As President Donald Trump today implemented sweeping immigration policy changes affecting millions of undocumented immigrants across the country, Brooklyn’s elected officials grappled with how to deal both with the new federal policy and how it affects local laws and policing.
Trump’s policy changes include the fast-track deporting of the county’s millions of undocumented immigrants – even those that haven’t been convicted of serious crimes as well as stripping such immigrants of privacy protections, enlisting local police officers as enforcers and erecting new detention facilities.
Mayor Bill de Blasio responded that the new policy is needlessly tearing apart families and spreading fear in immigrant communities, and that the city will not allow the City’s police department (NYPD) into immigration agents.
“We have been clear from the start that we will work with federal immigration authorities to remove individuals who are proven public safety threats in our City. What we will not do is turn our NYPD officers into immigration agents – or our jails into holding pens for deportation policy that will only undermine the inclusiveness that has helped make New York City the safest big city in the nation,” said de Blasio.
But while de Blasio and his progressive allies in the City Council are championing New York as a ‘Sanctuary City’ for undocumented immigrants, State Sen. Jesse Hamilton (D-Central Brooklyn) has been pushing hard to end the city’s ‘Broken Window’ policing policy, which cracks down on smaller crimes such as vandalism and subway fare hopping.
“As the Trump administration steps up its callous disregard for the well being of our immigrant friends and neighbors, we must step up our efforts to protect these vulnerable communities. Trumps latest unjust policy, set to speed up deportations and ensnare people for minor infractions, underscores the need to end broken windows policing. New York can not be a true sanctuary city with continued broken windows policing. I reject turning the NYPD into a deportation force and call upon all our local leaders, acrossgovernment, to protect New York immigrant communities. No one should be deported for selling churros on the subway,” said Hamilton.
Hamilton is also pressing City Councilman Carlos Menchaca (D-Sunset Park, Red Hook) and the Chair of the Council’s Immigration Committee to do everything in his power, including holding hearings and authoring legislation, to end broken windows policing.
“The urgency of policing reform is that much more critical due to the unjust, unwise, and unconstitutional policy undertakings of the Trump administration. Broken windows policing, really the over-policing of minor offenses, has particularly harmful consequences in vulnerable communities, including communities of color and our immigrant communities,” wrote Hamilton in a letter to Menchaca.
“Set on a bigoted witch-hunt against immigrants and Muslims, the Trump administration could use broken windows policing as an aid in furthering its deportation agenda and harming our vulnerable New York immigrant communities. In your capacity as Chair of the Committee on Immigration, I believe you are positioned to forcefully make the point on the dangers to our immigrant communities to your colleagues across government,” he wrote.
Menchaca responded that he is on board with ending “broken windows,’ but de Blasio spokesperson Austin Finan defended the policing policy.
“Only repeat offenders and those with outstanding warrants are subject to arrest for fare evasion. The remedy to a broken immigration policy is not to undermine an effective policing strategy that has helped make New York City the safest big city in the nation,” said Finan.
Currently, fare evasion in the subway system is handled through Transit Adjudication Bureau (TAB) summons which is a civil summons issued under MTA regulations.
If someone who commits fare evasion is found to be a Transit Recidivist (e.g. They have 3 unpaid TAB summons) then they are subject to arrest. They are not printed for TAB summonses, only if they are arrested as Transit Recidivist, active warrant or other associated criminal charges.
