Thread: Bloomberg Backs Obstacle to Deportation

In Change, Bloomberg Backs Obstacle to Deportation

By SAM DOLNICK
Published: September 30, 2011

In a significant reversal, the Bloomberg administration said Friday that it would support a City Council bill that would hamper federal authorities’ ability to detain, and eventually deport, foreign-born inmates on Rikers Island who are about to be released.

The decision is an important victory for the Council speaker, Christine C. Quinn, the sponsor of the bill, which is now almost certain to become law, and for immigrant advocates, who have long assailed the city’s cooperation with immigration agents based at the prison.

Corrections Department officials routinely share lists of foreign-born inmates with immigration authorities, who then take custody of, detain and deport thousands of people who had been charged with misdemeanors and felonies. The arrangement is common across the country.

The bill would not end the practice, known as the criminal detainer program, in New York City. But it would prevent corrections officials from transferring inmates to federal custody, even immigrants in the United States illegally, if prosecutors declined to press charges against them, and if they had no convictions or outstanding warrants, had not previously been ordered deported and did not show up on the terrorist watch list.

As a result, the immigrants would be released if they were not defendants in criminal cases, regardless of whether federal officials wanted them deported.

“The criminal detainer program had become the immigrant dragnet program,â€

All New York City Council Members

NAME DISTRICT BOROUGH POLITICAL PARTY
Maria del Carmen Arroyo 17 Bronx Democrat
Charles Barron 42 Brooklyn Democrat
Gale A. Brewer 6 Manhattan Democrat
Fernando Cabrera 14 Bronx Democrat
Margaret Chin 1 Manhattan Democrat
Leroy G. Comrie, Jr. 27 Queens Democrat
Elizabeth Crowley 30 Queens Democrat
Inez E. Dickens 9 Manhattan Democrat
Erik Martin Dilan 37 Brooklyn Democrat
Daniel Dromm 25 Queens Democrat
Mathieu Eugene 40 Brooklyn Democrat
Julissa Ferreras 21 Queens Democrat
Lewis A. Fidler 46 Brooklyn Democrat
Helen D. Foster 16 Bronx Democrat
Daniel R. Garodnick 4 Manhattan Democrat
James F. Gennaro 24 Queens Democrat
Vincent J. Gentile 43 Brooklyn Democrat
David G. Greenfield 44 Brooklyn Democrat
Sara M. Gonzalez 38 Brooklyn Democrat
Daniel J. Halloran 19 Queens Republican
Vincent Ignizio 51 Staten Island Republican
Robert Jackson 7 Manhattan Democrat
Letitia James 35 Brooklyn Democrat
Peter Koo 20 Queens Republican
G. Oliver Koppell 11 Bronx Democrat
Karen Koslowitz 29 Queens Democrat
Brad Lander 39 Brooklyn Democrat
Jessica S. Lappin 5 Manhattan Democrat
Stephen Levin 33 Brooklyn Democrat
Melissa Mark-Viverito 8 Manhattan Democrat
Darlene Mealy 41 Brooklyn Democrat
Rosie Mendez 2 Manhattan Democrat
Michael C. Nelson 48 Brooklyn Democrat
James S. Oddo 50 Staten Island Republican
Annabel Palma 18 Bronx Democrat
Christine C. Quinn 3 Manhattan Democrat
Domenic M. Recchia, Jr. 47 Brooklyn Democrat
Diana Reyna 34 Brooklyn Democrat
Joel Rivera 15 Bronx Democrat
Ydanis Rodriguez 10 Manhattan Democrat
Deborah Rose 49 Staten Island Democrat
James Sanders, Jr. 31 Queens Democrat
Larry B. Seabrook 12 Bronx Democrat
Eric Ulrich 32 Queens Republican
James Vacca 13 Bronx Democrat
Peter F. Vallone, Jr. 22 Queens Democrat
Jimmy Van Bramer 26 Queens Democrat
Albert Vann 36 Brooklyn Democrat
Mark Weprin 23 Queens Democrat
Jumaane D. Williams 45 Brooklyn Democrat
Ruben Wills 28 Queens Democrat



See Any common trait here? Think they would jump at any chance to remove criminals from being released back onto the streets. The stupidity of humans still amazes me , and I have seen a lot of it.