MELISSA MARK-VIVERITO COMMITTEES

COUNCIL MEMBER, 8TH DISTRICT

DISTRICT OFFICE PARKS & RECREATION, CHAIR
105 EAST 116TH STREET
NEW YORK, NY 10029 AGING
(212) 828-8900 CIVIL SERVICE & LABOR
FAX: (212) 722-6378 THE COUNCIL
COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
CITY HALL OFFICE
250 BROADWAY, ROOM 1882
OF CONTRACTS
NEW YORK, NY 10007 THE CITY OF NEW YORK HOUSING & BUILDINGS
(212) 788-6960
FAX: (212) 442-1564
PUBLIC HOUSING
mviverito@council.nyc.gov
www.newsfrommelissa.wordpress.com YOUTH SERVICES

February 26, 2010

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg

New York City Hall
New York, NY 10007

Dear Mayor Bloomberg:

As members of the City Council, we are writing because we are concerned that New York City’s
families are being torn apart by the Unites States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)
agency’s operations in New York City Department of Corrections (DOC) facilities. We are
encouraged to hear that Department of Corrections Commissioner, Dr. Dora Schriro has been
meeting productively with community based organizations, such as Make the Road New York,
The Northern Manhattan Coalition for Immigrant Rights and the New Sanctuary Coalition of
New York, to consider ways to disentangle DOC from federal immigration enforcement activities.
We understand that Dr. Schriro has already taken some small but laudable steps to begin
addressing ICE’s abuses and misconduct that had become commonplace in DOC facilities.
Much, however, remains to be done. We urge you to take swift action to establish a City policy
that will end DOC’s involvement with the federal immigration authorities. As Council
members, we stand ready to support a mayoral policy that seeks to achieve this goal or to use our
legislative authority, if necessary.

We understand that, at ICE’s request and at the City’s expense, DOC is currently detaining
thousands of New Yorkers a year based on civil immigration detainers in order to facilitate their
transfer into ICE’s immigration detention system. We further understand that no city, state or
federal law requires this practice. The City’s current practice is enabling and even participating in
the broken federal immigration system by funneling City residents into the black hole of
immigration detention at alarming rates. Each year, 3000-4000 New Yorkers are transferred from
DOC to the ICE custody – including New Yorkers who have no criminal record, asylum seekers,
victims of human trafficking, long term permanent residents, juveniles, and persons seeking
protection under the Violence Against Women Act. These City residents are often sent thousands
of miles away to immigration detention centers in Texas, Louisiana, and Alabama, where they are
deprived of adequate access to counsel, medical care, family, witnesses, and other evidence
necessary to defend themselves against deportation. Beyond the individual suffering, each one of
these New Yorkers leaves behind a broken family.

Participation in federal immigration enforcement is contrary to the interests of the City of New
York. The loss of a family member, particularly a primary bread-winner, results in the breakdown
of families which were previously self-sufficient; causing many to become dependent on the
City’s strained safety net services. In addition, the increasingly well-known collaboration
between DOC and ICE is undermining our City’s community policing efforts by making
immigrants fearful of contact with the police. Many immigrant domestic violence victims and
parents concerned about their children are unwilling to call the police for assistance because they

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fear their loved ones will end up in Rikers and then deported. When any segment of our City’s
population is hesitant to contact the police, the entire City is less safe.

The City needs to get out of the deportation business. DOC’s collaboration with ICE is the
primary mechanism by which New Yorkers end up in immigration detention. It is our
understanding that DOC allows ICE to operate a permanent office on Rikers Island, without
compensation from the federal government, and provides ICE on-demand access to DOC
detainees, as well as special access to DOC’s internal databases. Most importantly, the City must
stop acting as the gateway into immigration detention for New Yorkers by holding individuals on
civil immigration detainers. By participating in federal immigration enforcement activities, the
City is exposing itself to significant liability and undermining our own local interests. The City
has discretion to use its resources as it sees fit and not participate in these activities.

We encourage you to propose a plan to end DOC’s entanglement with ICE. The City should use
its limited resources to keep New York families together, to promote public safety, to limit its
exposure to liability, and to protect the rights of its most vulnerable residents.

Sincerely,

Melissa Mark-Viverito Daniel Dromm Fernando Cabrera

8th Council District 25th Council District 14th Council District
Chair, Immigration Committee

Helen Diane Foster Robert Jackson Brad Lander

16th Council District 7th Council District 39th Council District

Rosie Mendez Annabel Palma Ydanis Rodriguez

2nd Council District 18th Council District 10th Council District

Jumaane D. Williams
45th Council District

cc: Linda I. Gibbs, Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services
John Feinblatt, Chief Advisor to the Mayor for Policy and Strategic Planning
Cyrus R. Vance, Jr., New York County District Attorney
Robert T. Johnson, Bronx County District Attorney

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