Southold Town Weighs Local Law Governing Police Response to ICE

Southold Town officials signaled Wednesday they are edging toward establishing formal guidelines for how local police should handle operations by federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents within town limits, even as board members remained divided on whether to pursue a binding local law or an internal departmental policy.

During a standing-room-only special Town Board session Wednesday morning, immigration advocates, members of the Public Safety Task Force and local residents called on the board to enact a measure drafted by OLA of Eastern Long Island, a Latino advocacy organization. Supporters contended that only enforceable legislation — not voluntary internal guidelines — can ensure transparency, accountability and rebuild the community trust that has eroded following immigration enforcement actions in Greenport and across the East End.

In a separate disclosure, Southold Police Chief Steven Grattan said his department is already working on an internal directive that would send officers to the scene of reported ICE activity to maintain order. Grattan said the draft grew from conversations with the task force, but he cautioned that federal authorities do not always notify local police before moving in.

"We take public safety very seriously, and these can be very contentious exchanges as we've all seen across this country," Grattan said. "Having members of law enforcement there for peacekeeping efforts is important to us."

The OLA-drafted proposal would obligate Southold officers responding to ICE activity to alert town leadership, create a written record of each incident, make themselves known at the scene, engage with federal agents present and — where feasible — ask those agents to produce identification. The measure would also give formal standing to the existing public safety task force.

Critics warned the proposal could open the town to lawsuits and strain its relationship with federal authorities. Mattituck attorney Stephen Kiely urged the board not to act hastily, arguing the legislation could overlap with police powers already on the books and generate legal liability. Republican Congressman Nick LaLota has previously cautioned that towns enacting such policies risk losing access to discretionary federal funding.

Task force member Magda Rodriguez, an elementary school teacher, offered a stark illustration of the community's anxiety, recounting that on the morning ICE conducted a February sweep through Greenport, none of her students showed up to class. It was not discussed what role adults played in causing small children to have anxiety about ICE enforcement.

Supervisor Al Krupski said the board plans to take up the issue again at its Aug. 11 work session. No vote was held Wednesday.