ICE Agents Used Suffolk Police Precinct Parking Lots, County Says No Collaboration

ICE agents have used parking areas at three Suffolk County Police Department precincts, Suffolk Police confirmed, even as county leadership maintains local officers do not take part in federal immigration enforcement. Suffolk Police said, "ICE used the precinct's parking lot, but there was no collaboration," and Commissioner Kevin Catalina added, "We do not get involved in immigration enforcement ever, period, and we won't. We have not changed our policy on immigration enforcement. We will never ask for somebody's immigration status."

The precincts named by Suffolk Police were the 2nd Precinct in Huntington, the 5th Precinct in Patchogue and the 3rd Precinct in Bay Shore. Activists filmed "at least a dozen ICE agents" in the parking lot of the Suffolk Police 2nd Precinct in Huntington, and activists said it was the "third time in three months" they had seen ICE at that location. Demonstrators staged an anti-ICE rally outside the 2nd Precinct on Dec. 13, a scene captured in a photograph by Rick Kopstein.

Those on the ground in Huntington described the agents and the impact on immigrant communities. Activist Dubnau said, "I think it's terrible," and called the agents "a masked, armed paramilitary that wears no badges, that hides their faces and that doesn't follow due process." Suffolk County Police have emphasized policy boundaries at the same time community members report repeated ICE presence on precinct property.

On the East End, federal agents used the Suffolk Credit Union parking lot in the Southampton hamlet of Riverside as a staging area in an operation early one Sunday morning, the second time in less than a week ICE returned to the East End. By 10 a.m., "several dozen Hispanic men and women had gathered" in the lot, with some half-surrounding an idling vehicle that "appeared to be an ICE vehicle," and the crowd confronted agents with whistles and shouted insults. Members of the crowd identified what they described as a Hispanic member of the enforcement team inside the vehicle and demanded he speak with them.

Suffolk Credit Union said it was not notified or asked for authorization to use the Riverside branch parking lot, stating, "We were not notified that ICE was planning to use our branch parking lot, and such activities were not authorized or coordinated with the Credit Union. The Credit Union is grateful to the Southampton Town police for maintaining peace and that everyone walked away without incident. Our top priority is, and always will be, providing our members and employees with a safe, secure, and welcoming environment to conduct their banking and financial business. As a financial institution, Suffolk Credit Union complies with all applicable laws and legal requirements. We do not control the actions of external agencies that may be present in public areas near our locations, nor can we interfere with their operations."

It remains unclear how many, if any, local residents were detained during the Riverside operation, and a spokesperson for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not immediately reply to a request for comment. Local officials and community groups now face specific transparency questions: which dates and times ICE used each precinct lot, whether formal permissions or permits were sought, and whether precinct logs or arrest reports document any detentions tied to these operations. The county's public position, articulated by Commissioner Catalina, is unchanged, but the documented uses of police and private parking lots raise outstanding records and accountability issues for Suffolk County public safety officials.