Rep. John Hall’s ICE Meeting Gets Heated

Gross ( Congressman John Hall (left) talks with ICE Unit Chief Dr. David Palmatier (right) and Sheriff’s Department Chief Investigator Gerald Schramek (center) following the meeting. Pedestrians walking on Carmel’s main thoroughfare Tuesday stopped to gawk.

“What happened? Did someone get murdered? Why all these police cars?” asked Anthony Porto, owner of the popular Smalley’s Inn when observing as many as 18 marked and unmarked police vehicles parked on Gleneida Avenue and Fair Street in the vicinity of the Cornerstone Park.

Inside the building at Cornerstone, three dozen members of the law enforcement community gathered at the behest of Congressman John Hall for a briefing by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials. The press was barred from the meeting, described by one source as “hot and heavy.” Rep. Hall had called the meeting in response to concern about Putnam County’s interaction with ICE, the primary federal agency charged with detaining and reporting criminals who are found to be in the U.S. illegally.

Sheriff Don Smith, who did not attend the session but was represented by officials from his department, told the Courier Wednesday morning, “We certainly don’t need a tutorial from Congressman John Hall on how to deal with ICE and illegal immigration, but it’s certainly always helpful for public officials to meet with law enforcement on this challenging issue. It’s important to note that Putnam County already has an outstanding relationship with ICE. We work together on a daily basis and the facts speak for themselves.”

In a press release issued prior to Tuesday’s meeting, Congressman Hall said the Carmel session and another one held earlier in the day in Orange County were designed to “inform local law enforcement officials how to work most effectively with ICE regarding detention and deportation.”

Several members of the local law enforcement community exited the session and rolled their eyes when asked for a comment. Not a single member of any city, town, or village department issued a statement although a source indicated discussion was “hot and heavy at times” inside the closed meeting.

ICE Unit Chief Dr. David Palmatier was also asked for his reaction to the interaction between federal agents and local law enforcement from communities throughout Putnam and Westchester and said simply, “We don’t talk to the press.”

Congressman Hall told the Courier that “ICE personnel presented a wide range of services that can be offered to our state, county, and local law enforcement. ICE offers several toll free numbers for law enforcement that are available 24 hours a day 365 days a year. Conversations are still going on around the room so I’m pleased because the object of the meeting dealt with communication.” Congressman Hall did not elaborate.

Putnam Sheriff’s Department Chief Investigator A. Gerald Schramek was asked for his reaction to the two hour long session: “It’s always worthwhile to grasp information about this very volatile topic.”

When asked why the meeting was so secretive, Schramek replied: “I don’t know. I guess ICE wanted it that way.”

Schramek did say as far as Putnam County was concerned “the Putnam County Sheriff’s Department has developed a protocol which in the opinion of the ICE officials here today is ‘seamless’—a procedure developed by ICE, Sheriff Smith and his administrative team. Since the protocol has been in place, more than 569 illegal criminal aliens have been reported to the federal agency with more than 200 deported. The program works well. It was reiterated over and over again today by ICE. The federal officials called the Putnam program a ‘model’ for others to follow.” Undersheriff Peter Convery agreed that the Putnam Sheriff’s Department has a “seamless transition. The correctional facility’s booking staff is very well trained and all criminal aliens arrested are automatically reported to ICE.”

“Unfortunately without more action at the national level to secure the national borders the local level efforts are in vain. Many of the criminal illegal aliens keep returning after deportation,” Smith said.