Local and Federal Officials Should Communicate

As Putnam County’s representative in Congress, it is my duty to ensure that the federal government works closely with local law enforcement to keep our communities safe. Communication is an essential component of this relationship—federal agencies must understand the needs of the County and local law enforcement must be aware of the federal tools available to them. However, a recent article in the Journal News led me to question how well local law enforcement and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), a federal agency, have been communicating with one another.

On June 7, 2009, I read an article in the Journal News that stated: “But after Brewster police arrested Segundo Ordonez-Tanay, 26, on Friday on a misdemeanor charge of driving while intoxicated, ICE was not called because it doesn’t take calls on the weekend, Undersheriff Peter Convery said. As a result, Ordonez-Tanay…was released after posting the $5,000 bond.”

A report that ICE was unreachable on the weekends, resulting in the release of an illegal immigrant who had been arrested, obviously deeply concerned me. So I contacted this federal agency to determine why “they could not be reached on the weekend.”

On June 9th I met with top officials at ICE to convey my concerns. I was told that while ICE’s regional office in Dutchess County may not have been reachable over the weekend, the National Law Enforcement Support Center (LESC) is reachable 24 hours, 7 days a week, and 365 days a year. Furthermore, this service has only been utilized twice in Putnam County in the past 9 months—a number smaller than in every other county I represent by far. For example, Westchester County used this service 589 times. Orange County used this service 142 times. But Putnam only used it twice. With these facts it became clear there was a breakdown regarding how to best communicate after hours with ICE’s LESC, an unacceptable situation when the safety of our community is at stake.

I thought the best way to fix this problem would be to bring federal officials to the Hudson Valley to discuss the services they provide, hear directly from local law enforcement about the unique needs of our community, and foster a better working relationship. Regardless of how well Sheriff Smith’s office works with the regional ICE office on weekdays, criminals don’t always keep regular hours. The lines of communication between local and federal law enforcement are paramount to keeping us safe. A failure to maintain them is nothing less than a failure of leadership.

Mr. Hall is a Democrat representing New York’s 19th Congressional district.