Following two shootings by ICE agents this month, one in Maine on Monday and one last week in Texas, the appearance on Monday of two Suffolk County Sheriff vehicles parked with a U.S. Customs and Border Protection truck on Long Wharf in Sag Harbor created a stir.
As it turned out, though, the Border Protection truck was not there as part of an immigration enforcement team, but for another reason.
“It was Operation SHIELD, a multi-law enforcement marine operation we conduct on the East End to inspect foreign vessels to make sure they are in compliance,” Victoria DiStefano, the public information officer for the County Sheriff’s Office, wrote in an email.
According to that agency’s Facebook page, the collaboration between state and federal partners patrols the county’s 1,000 miles of coastline, focusing on 20 villages with navigable waters, ensuring public safety and disrupting potential terror threats.
Still, the federal vehicle drew members of the “rapid response team” of Organizacion Latino Americana. Once an OLA responder began filming, said Minerva Perez, its executive director, “the border patrol vehicle left immediately.”
“I do find it concerning that there can’t be a respectful call made to the leadership of a town or village to say they’re going to be in the area, given the panic and confusion that specifically the border patrol vehicle can cause,” she texted.
Indeed, an early morning phone call from The Star to Tom Gardella, mayor of Sag Harbor, highlighted the lack of communication between jurisdictions. He was unaware of the presence of the federal law enforcement vehicle, he said, and had to make some calls himself, to the sheriff, before he understood its role in his village.
“It’s another reason why we need Sag Harbor to adopt the OLA public safety and accountability law,” texted Ms. Perez. “If we had that law in place, the first action that would happen would be that law enforcement would go to the site to assess the situation and report back to the mayor. That would stop this whole game of telephone. I’m roaming around the streets of Sag Harbor to see if I can find these vehicles. That should not be something that I’m doing.”
The mayor said the village had considered the OLA law but didn’t “feel it was appropriate” to adopt it.
“We knew the state was looking at it, and they came up with a similar type of legislation, and now that legislation covers the whole state,” he explained. “The part I was most concerned with was the task force. You get community residents together, they’re passionate, and they mean well, but my biggest fear is that they would confront law enforcement, get overzealous, and if someone got hurt, I would feel responsible.”
New York State did pass laws similar to the East End Public Safety and Accountability Law, which were to have taken effect at the end of June, however they have been challenged in court by the Trump administration.
Representative Nick LaLota, a Republican, said recently that he would not support sending federal dollars to East Hampton as long as the East End Accountability law remained on the books.
