Chronicle Editorial: Croton's policy of limited cooperation with ICE follows the urging of our clergy, and the principles of basic decency in a time of rising hatred.
Videos in English and Spanish spark social media outrage, most from outside the village. We believe this community will resist any pressures to hand in neighbors.
We in Croton-on-Hudson are lucky to have a highly professional and competent police force, as most anyone who has needed their services can attest. They are experts at defusing tense situations, including disputes between neighbors, and they only use force of any kind when it is absolutely necessary. They know that they are working for a community in which respect for fellow citizens is a principle (even if not always applied) and they follow that principle.
The village has had a policy of limited cooperation with immigration authorities since 2017. It had that policy during the entire first Trump administration. With the commencement of the second Trump administration, and anti-immigrant rhetoric even more virulent than the first time around, the question naturally came up whether the village would stick to that policy or cave to political pressure. In the meantime, our local clergy made it clear that the basic principles of Christianity and Judaism required our community to “welcome the stranger” among us and protect immigrants as best we could, no matter what their legal status.
We were happy to hear at this past Wednesday’s board meeting that Mayor Brian Pugh and the trustees were sticking by the 2017 policy, which apparently will not be modified in any way. He also announced the production of two videos, one in English and one in Spanish, in which our own police officers outlined the policy.
We will not spend much time here explaining the policy, which in part is designed to protect some of our neighbors from zealous enforcement of immigration policies that are often more ideologically driven than based on any serious law enforcement rationale. Law enforcement officials here and elsewhere have made it clear that the policy is necessary so residents can report crimes and cooperate with police without fear their immigration status will be demanded, and that they will risk deportation.
The policy does not apply to situations where immigration status becomes relevant to an actual law enforcement action.
Croton is not a “sanctuary village,” and has not been declared as such. Our police are still required to cooperate with federal authorities in cases where an individual is suspected of a crime. But we believe there is no crime in being a sanctuary community, and many municipalities around the country have chosen that route.
Despite the village’s clear rationale for the policy, word has apparently gotten around social media nationwide that Croton has joined the long list of communities that do not allow their police forces to inquire into an individual’s immigration status. Below is a sampling of comments on the policy on the village’s Twitter page, where the videos were posted, and which we have not censored according to content. The great majority are from people not in Croton, but many of them attack our police force in insulting ways.
We hope, and we expect, that this community and its leaders will stay the course on a policy that is endorsed by our religious leaders and based on the strong moral sense we think should guide everything we do in Croton.
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