This summary was featured in Documented’s Early Arrival newsletter. You can subscribe to receive it in your inbox three times per week here.
Agents from Homeland Security Investigations, a branch of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, were protecting precincts while NYPD officers patrol the streets amid protests. Benjamin Tucker, the First Deputy Commissioner of the NYPD, told this to Councilman Carlos Menchaca as he questioned Tucker during a city council hearing. Tucker also said there is no formal agreement between the agency and the police department.
Last week, the Immigrant Defense Project reported that HSI agents had helped apprehend a man at a protest on the Upper West Side area of Manhattan. Five mostly plain-clothed officers jumped out of an unmarked SUV and threw the man, a US citizen of Puerto Rican descent, to the ground. The man was not formally taken into custody, but was held in handcuffs for some time before being let go. Protestors gathered at the spot Monday to call for the NYPD to stop collaborating with ICE.
Menchaca also questioned why the NYPD, which has a $6 billion budget, also needed a federal agency to help protect its property. “If the NYPD’s cooperation with ICE on non-immigration matters is not written down or reviewable by the City Council, how can we trust that immigration cooperation is not taking place?” he tweeted. HSI has long sought to separate itself from Enforcement and Removal Operations, the agency that primarily arrests people on immigration violations. “I would not let ICE agents anywhere in any official capacity in New York City except what they’re allowed to do on their own,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said during a press conference on Monday. “ICE agents aren’t allowed in our public buildings… I have no knowledge and really don’t believe that happened. If anyone has evidence of it, I need to know it,” he added. WNYC
In other New York immigration news…
Buffalo Immigration Court to Resume Hearings on June 29
The Buffalo immigration court will resume hearings in non-detained cases on Monday, June 29, 2020, the Executive Officer for Immigration Review announced on Twitter. The agency did not announce whether or not other courts in the state would be reopened. EOIR closed many courts across the country due to “civil unrest” of the recent national protests. Detained cases, however, continued operating. According to Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, 850,000 immigrants may be affected by the shutdown. TRAC, EOIR announcement
Street Vendors See Business Uptick from Protests
New York street vendors have been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic, saying about 80 percent of their business has vanished. With few customers on the streets and risk of catching the virus, many have even decided to stay home. But the industry is seeing a new resurgence in business because of the city’s protests against police killings and brutality. “This is my first day out in three months,” said Ayman Elgaman, who was working on the Upper West Side near a protest march. Vendors near the Barclays Center have also seen business increase, according to Mohamed Attia, Executive Director of the Street Vendors Project. Gothamist
Irish NJ Resident Deported After 20 Years of Residence
A former Irish National Liberation Army soldier who fled Northern Ireland for the U.S. after pro-British loyalists fired 26 rounds of ammunition into his home in 1988 surrendered himself to be deported on June 10. Malachy McAllister and his children have lived in New Jersey for over 20 years, and he had been granted multiple stays of removal by the DHS since 2007. “This man’s deportation is shameful and will not make America safer. Mr. McAllister is a good man who built a life for himself and his family in the United States for over 20 years,” Sen. Bob Menendez’s (D-N.J.) office said. Irish Central
