Guest Editorial: It's time for Croton's Board of Trustees to restate its published position limiting cooperation with federal immigration authorities.

"...our village has long had a policy of limiting the cooperation of the Croton Police Department with federal immigration authorities, except where required by law."

by Joel Gingold

In anticipation of the ascension of President-elect Donald Trump to the oval office once again, and in light of his threat to indiscriminately deport millions of immigrants—many of whom have lived and worked in this country for years, if not decades—the Chronicle recently published a letter from several members of the local clergy supporting our immigrant community.

What may not be known by many contemporary Crotonites is that our village has long had a policy of limiting the cooperation of the Croton Police Department with federal immigration authorities, except where required by law. A statement to that effect was promulgated by the Village Board in 2017 and is currently posted on the Village web site in both English and Spanish.

That effort was advanced by then-Mayor Greg Schmidt and supported by the Croton United majority on the Village Board of that time. It was developed in cooperation with the local immigrant community, many of whose members attended the Village Board meeting at which it was announced, and who strongly commended its adoption. Instrumental in the process was (former Croton trustee) Alejandro Rosales, who acted as liaison to the immigrant community, as well as translator and interpreter, and who contributed to the content of the statement.

To the best of my knowledge, the current Board, in its frenzy to impose hundreds of new apartments on Croton, has made no recent comments with regard to protecting our immigrant community, nor have they even affirmed that such a policy is still in effect.

Some of the key points of that statement include:

“The Croton Police Department has not in the past, nor will it, inquire about an individual’s immigration status unless the status is important to a criminal investigation.”

and

“The Department will cooperate with immigration authorities on detainers where there is a judicial criminal warrant, or cases where there is probable cause that there are criminal offenses involved, including terrorism offenses. Department members are not authorized to stop, question, or arrest an individual based on a civil immigration warrant, administrative warrant, or an immigration detainer.”

Few of us would oppose the deportation of those who have been convicted of felonies in the U.S. But the mass deportation of “everyone” who may not be properly documented is not only morally wrong, but impractical and highly expensive—just the reverse of the policies that Trump has proposed for his administration.

If we truly wish to protect the large immigrant community in Croton and elsewhere, it would behoove the current Village Board to re-release and reiterate that statement of support, and for those of our surrounding communities (such as Ossining, Peekskill, Cortlandt, etc.) that have not already done so, to publicize their policies in this regard.

Joel Gingold has been a resident of Croton for more than 80 years. He wrote two books about his life in Croton and elsewhere, “Now Hear This” and “On the Street Where I Live.”

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