A social media alert went out early on July 21 about immigration agents on Cottage Street in Middletown. The next morning, two similar bulletins were posted for Monroe and White Plains. The next day, there was one in Kingston.
From across the Hudson Valley has come a spate of recent warnings about new enforcement actions, each documented online with photos and videos of what are said to be federal officers stopping in one neighborhood after another. One immigrant advocate has posted almost 30 such alerts in the last month, spanning more than a dozen places that also include Port Chester, Ossining, Newburgh and Croton-on-Hudson.
The activity comes in the wake of vows since May by Tom Homan, the Trump administration’s “border czar,” to send a surge of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to New York. But it’s unclear if the almost daily ICE sightings being broadcast to immigrant communities in the Hudson Valley are signs of an actual surge — or simply more robust enforcement happening all over the U.S. with a beefed-up deportation force.
No data is available yet to measure if ICE activity has picked up recently in New York and by how much. And ICE officials didn’t respond to questions from the USA TODAY Network about specific reports from the Hudson Valley or about the promised New York surge.
Police chiefs in three communities — White Plains, Peekskill and the village of Monroe — all confirmed recent reports of ICE activity in their jurisdictions when contacted by the USA TODAY Network. Each said their departments had no involvement in the actions and had merely been notified in advance as a courtesy by the federal agency. They had no information about why agents were there or about any arrests they made.
Hochul casts doubts on ICE surge pledge
Asked at a July 20 event about the threat of a surge, Gov. Kathy Hochul said she has reminded Homan that President Donald Trump promised her he wouldn’t allow a flood of agents in New York unless she or a particular community requested it. Big enforcement pushes have taken place in other states, including a four-month operation in Minneapolis that involved at least 3,000 agents and resulted in the deaths of two Americans who were shot by agents in January.
“So I encourage Tom Homan to talk to the big boss and ask him his position, because I am not giving that invitation nor that permission,” Hochul told reporters.
The cable station NewsNation reported Monday, July 27, based on what it said were unnamed ICE sources, that ICE started an enforcement operation in New York City that day and would move from Queens to other parts of the metropolitan area. The operation was said to involve agents already working in New York and not added forces from other areas.
ICE announced in January it had hired 12,000 more agents and officers with new funding from the “Big Beautiful Bill” that Republicans enacted last year over Democratic opposition. Though devoted largely to tax and spending cuts, the massive legislation also directed a total of $165 billion to the Department of Homeland Security, which encompasses ICE and other agencies.
Republicans in Congress approved another $38 billion for ICE in June to fund the agency through the final two years of Trump’s term.
Why did Homan threaten to send more agents?
The surge promise arose in response to New York’s plans to enact new constraints on ICE after the shooting deaths in Minneapolis and the public outrage they set off. Those plans finally gelled in the state budget in late May with steps that included a ban on ICE agents wearing masks on duty and a ban on formal cooperation pacts between ICE and local law enforcement agencies in New York.
Homan blasted the move, saying prohibiting 287(g) agreements with police would make immigration enforcement harder and less safe. But only 12 agencies throughout New York had signed such contracts and all were in upstate areas except for Nassau County on Long Island. No Hudson Valley police departments or sheriff’s offices had a 287(g) agreement.
Hochul and Attorney General Letitia James announced Friday, July 24, that a new state office had just notified the 12 agencies they must end their ICE agreements by Aug. 25. That Office of Immigrant Trust was also created by the budget enacted in May and it’s charged with investigating complaints about immigration enforcement and ensuring compliance with the new rules.
Where has ICE activity been reported in the Hudson Valley?
A stream of alerts can be found on the personal Facebook page of Ignacio Acevedo, an immigrant advocate. He posted three on Monday, July 27 alone: two early-morning ICE actions on North Main Street in the Rockland County town of Ramapo, near the villages of New Square and Spring Valley; and then a 1 p.m. stop on Bonnefoy Place in New Rochelle. The New Rochelle post included a photo of uniformed agents leading a handcuffed man into a vehicle.
One day earlier, Acevedo had posted photos of what he said were vehicles belonging to “la migra” on Croton Street in the village of Ossining, in northern Westchester County. Like nearly all of the reported ICE actions on his page, this visit happened early in the morning, at around 7:45.
Acevedo, who works for the New York Civil Liberties Union as its Hudson Valley organizer, couldn’t be reached to discuss his postings.
Police in Ramapo and Ossining told the USA TODAY Network they had gotten no notification about the reported ICE stops in their communities and couldn’t confirm that they occurred.
Monroe Police Chief Darwin Guzman did confirm another report, saying ICE had left a message about coming to his Orange County village before agents turned up on Half Hollow Turn on July 22, as Acevedo posted. But he said his department isn’t always notified before such visits and is never given specific addresses or the names of people being sought.
Peekskill Police Chief Adam Renwick confirmed that ICE agents arrested 21-year-old Bryam Deleg-Sucuzhanay on July 17, as the Peekskill Herald reported. ICE media representatives didn’t respond to questions about why Deleg-Sucuzhanay was arrested and where he was taken. He is listed as a 2023 graduate of Peekskill High School.
Chris McKenna covers government and politics for The Journal News and USA TODAY Network. Reach him at CMcKenna@usatodayco.com.
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Border czar promised a NY surge. Is the Hudson Valley seeing it first?
Reporting by Chris McKenna, New York State Team / Rockland/Westchester Journal News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Chris McKenna, New York State Team | USA TODAY Network
