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ICE Continues To Spread Terror Locally In Spring Valley, Haverstraw, Suffern
Over 7,000.
That’s how many times judges nationwide have ruled ICE illegally detained or deported someone last year, and that’s only the cases we know about, when those charged could afford a lawyer. The real number is far higher.
Here in Rockland, people think ICE is far away. They’re not. They’ve been here for over a year, spreading terror in neighborhoods like Spring Valley, Haverstraw, and Suffern, tearing over a hundred people a month from our communities. Oftentimes these seizures occur when they show up to their immigration hearings, thus ICE intimidates even more into self-deportation, like my partner who fled to Europe last month after a White House memo directed ICE to start targeting transgender people.
And we can see the results in our local economy: so many empty storefronts, delis and restaurants closing, landscaping crews that stop showing up, caregivers who aren’t there for our children and elderly. Even our schools emptying out with a 10% absentee rate in East Ramapo directly tied to immigration fears.
As a disabled veteran who served alongside immigrants willing to put their lives on the line for the chance at the citizenship I was born into, I know what our American values are worth and what it costs when we abandon them, one closed storefront and one empty classroom at a time. Nobody is free until everybody is free.
There’s a bill currently in committee at our county legislature poised to give our communities their freedom back: the Safety & Dignity for All Act. Westchester has had a similar law for 8 years, and crime rates have gone down while keeping ICE out.
Our legislature must pass this bill. Our entire community’s safety and economy depend on it. Please call your and tell them to pass SADA.
Tae-eun Hartley
Valley Cottage, NY
