East Hampton bars police from aiding federal immigration raids

East Hampton Town barred its police from helping federal agents with civil immigration enforcement, making clear that town officers are not to take part in ICE raids or related detentions. The move turns a political debate into an operational rule for the East Hampton Town Police Department, where the line now separates routine local policing from federal immigration work.

The Town Board adopted the measure Tuesday after months of public pressure and policy development on the East End. On March 20, town officials sent letters to Rep. Nick LaLota and Sens. Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand asking for federal reforms, including notification to local police within 12 hours when someone is detained and a requirement that immigration officers obtain judicial warrants before entering private property.

Support for the tougher stance came from Organizacion Latino Americana of Eastern Long Island and members of the town’s Latino advisory committee, who urged adoption of what they called the East End Public Safety and Accountability Law at a March 26 meeting. Angie Castillo, a high school senior, also pressed the board for clarity and protection for people targeted in ICE actions. News 12 later reported that the proposal was based on a drafted recommendation from OLA and was intended to increase transparency and rebuild community trust.

The new East Hampton rule follows a February 2025 town statement saying police focus on public safety and violent crime, and that officers do not detain people on ICE detainers without a judicial warrant. The town said then that it has no means to determine anyone’s citizenship status and no legal basis to ask about it. That earlier position cited People ex rel. Wells v. DeMarco as support for rejecting detainers on their own.

The East Hampton vote also lands in the middle of a wider Suffolk and Long Island split over immigration enforcement. In neighboring Nassau County, County Executive Bruce Blakeman said in February 2025 that 10 county police detectives would be given authority to work with ICE, including embedding officers with the agency and using jail cells for short-term detention. The New York Civil Liberties Union criticized that arrangement.

On Suffolk’s side, the legal risks are harder to ignore. A federal class action over ICE detainer holds by the Suffolk County Sheriff’s Office covered 650 people between July 18, 2014, and Nov. 15, 2018. A federal judge granted summary judgment for the plaintiffs in January 2025, and county officials warned liability could reach $60 million.

East Hampton Village took a similar step on April 22, unanimously approving its own law barring participation in civil immigration enforcement, banning 287(g) agreements and restricting village resources and Flock license-plate-reader data for those purposes. It also created an advisory task force. Together, the town and village actions leave East Hampton with a narrower police role and a sharper line around federal immigration enforcement on the East End.