NEWBURGH — Under an occasional faint drizzle, about 300 Hudson Valley residents and elected officials gathered in Algonquin Park on the evening of July 7 for a “No ICE in Newburgh” rally.
With a long line of vehicles parked along the grass perimeter, the protesters at 54 Powder Mill Road carried signs condemning U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, some featuring strong disapproval and mocking caricatures of President Donald Trump.
Messages on the posters included “No human is illegal,” “No ICE, no Gestapo,” “Warehouses are for pallets/products/packages not people” and “Abolish ICE now.”
Those gathered chanted, “Show me what democracy looks like! This is what democracy looks like!” “Whose streets? Our streets!,” “ICE out now!” and “Hey, hey, ho, ho! Donald Trump has got to go!”
Organized by a coalition of advocacy groups, the protest was attended by a large group of public officials, including U.S. Rep. Pat Ryan, Assemblymember Jonathan Jacobson, Orange County Legislator Genesis Ramos, Town of Chester Supervisor Brandon Holdridge and Orange County Democratic Party Chairman Zak Constantine.
The speakers touted their prior mobilization efforts and protests over canceled federal plans for an ICE detention site at a warehouse in Chester.
Ramos cited the fatal shooting of a Mexican immigrant, Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, in Houston by ICE earlier in the day and called ICE a “rogue” agency in need of oversight. She called dissent patriotic and vowed to prevent the opening of a detention facility in Newburgh and asked the broader community to engage and consider the anti-immigrant rhetoric and animus.
“Has a single deportation made your life better?” Ramos said. “Has one inhumane detention center improved your circumstances and conditions? Has terrorizing our streets, tearing apart families, has any of it made your life easier, your wages higher, or your communities stronger? No, it hasn’t and it won’t.”
Jacobson spoke of choosing compassion over fear and rejected the presence of a detention site in Newburgh — “Not now, not ever.” Citing the recently passed “Dignity Not Detention” legislation he supported against civil detention, Jacobson said, “The state, counties and local governments cannot contract with ICE, including hosting detention facilities or renting out jails.”
The implementation of the legislation remains unclear as the Department of Homeland Security sued New York, challenging the state’s attempts to end long-standing 287(g) cooperation agreements and unmask federal enforcement officers.
Ryan said the possibility of a mass detention site conjured the darkest moments in human history and it was not a coincidence Orange County was targeted twice.
“Now twice here in our own backyard,” Ryan said, “the very people elected by the American people have turned their backs on that declaration, on our Constitution, on our Bill of Rights, on our patriotic values as Americans that we care for everyone. And when we say liberty and justice for all, it means actually all.”
A day earlier, Ryan’s opponent in the upcoming November election for New York’s 18th Congressional District, Jackie Auringer, also opposed a Newburgh ICE facility in an email statement, but attributed the possibility to the recent Albany legislation that limits cooperation with ICE.
“Albany Democrats did not make immigration enforcement more humane, they made it more chaotic,” Auringer said. “They passed laws that defy federal immigration law and block cooperation with federal immigration enforcement which does nothing to reduce the need to process illegal immigrants. It only pushes Washington toward more costly options, away from existing local capacity, and into a system that makes life harder for those being detained.”
The reaction comes after reports during the past week pointed to a possible detention site at a warehouse lease related to the U.S. General Services Administration, though the federal government has not announced anything.
Located near Stewart International Airport, the site in question is at 800 Corporate Blvd. off state Route 17K in the Town of Newburgh. It is a 60,143-square-foot, single-story building on 9.5 acres. The owner of the property is listed as 4.5 Associates on Liberty Street in New York City, according to county property records.
The possibility of using the site as a detention center likely stems from the use of “detainee buses and vans” and need for a secure sally port/garage in the procurement summary for a GSA solicitation in the area of Newburgh.
The Corporate Boulevard address is listed as “New lease – DHS ICE” in GSA’s Inventory of Owned and Leased Properties dated July 3, with the location tag (NY7716).
ICE media representatives have not returned multiple requests for clarification.
Contact reporter Vandana Saras at vsaras@usatodayco.com and @orangecountynyreporter on Instagram.
This article originally appeared on Times Herald-Record: Officials join hundreds of protesters at ‘No ICE’ rally in Newburgh
Reporting by Vandana Saras, Middletown Times Herald- Record / Times Herald-Record
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Vandana Saras, Middletown Times Herald- Record | USA TODAY Network
