SARANAC LAKE — For months, the village board has debated a resolution which would keep local police from being used to enforce federal immigration law or to question or arrest someone based solely on their immigration status. On Monday, an altered version of that bill — one with fewer commitments — passed. But it wasn’t the resolution originally proposed.

There were two resolutions the board discussed that night.

One resolution affirmed existing police policies to give everyone equal access to services and safety, without fear of harassment or detention based solely on their immigration status. It passed with a narrow vote.

The other would have had more specific language keeping local police from being used to enforce federal immigration law or to question or arrest someone based solely on their immigration status. It was not passed.

Since February, Trustee Aurora White has proposed this more specific resolution several times. It has consistently failed in 2-3 votes with her and Trustee Kelly Brunette voting for it and Mayor Jimmy Williams, Deputy Mayor Matt Scollin and Trustee Sean Ryan voting against it.

On Monday, White’s resolution failed 2-3 along the same lines as before. This time, Scollin proposed an adapted resolution which kept the paragraphs broadly reaffirming existing village and police policies and removed the paragraphs specifically detailing what the police should and should not do.

This resolution didn’t satisfy Williams’ concerns and didn’t have enough of the language White wanted, but was a satisfactory compromise for Scollin, Ryan and Brunette to pass it 3-2.

Both resolutions can be read at tinyurl.com/47e29nen starting on page 15.

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The resolutions

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Scollin’s resolution kept paragraphs assuring equal access to public safety and treatment by law enforcement without fear of harassment or detention based solely on their immigration status. It also stated that the federal government is best suited to enforce immigration law.

It removes the “shall not” paragraphs of White’s resolution — that local police shall not use resources to do the job of federal immigration agents or assist them, and shall not inquire about the immigration status of people unless they are being investigated for criminal activity.

White said Scollin’s resolution takes out the “heart” of her resolution.

She tried to make several amendments to individually add back in different paragraphs from her resolution that were not included in Scollin’s resolution. Each amendment failed 2-3, with White and Brunette voting for them and Williams, Scollin and Ryan voting against them.

White’s resolution was aimed at soothing the minds of local legal immigrants, some of whom are concerned about being caught up in the federal government’s current mass deportation efforts. It was also meant to keep local dollars from being spent on federal initiatives and to ensure local police are not made to enforce federal law.

A majority of board members have had concerns the resolution would dictate which laws the police department enforces, be unnecessary and risk federal grants coming to the village.

Several supporters of White’s resolution said they know immigrants here on visas, work permits or green cards who stay home nowadays because they are concerned about being detained by masked, unidentified immigration agents and brought to one of the detention camps the federal government is building around the country.

Saranac Lake Police Chief Darin Perrotte has emphasized that local involvement in immigration enforcement is not an issue currently facing the community. He said village police do not currently question people about their immigration status when they come to the police for help.

A petition supporting White’s bill gathered 140 signatures. Residents who spoke during public comment recited the “First They Came” poem by German pastor Martin Niemoller about the rise of the Nazis and told trustees to not help the federal government solve a problem it created with a “broken” immigration system.

Village resident Doug Haney felt it was “bad faith” and “petty politics” to have two bills on the issue, instead of the board working together on having one bill to satisfy the issue.

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Different perspectives

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Williams feels the Saranac Lake community is open-minded and one of most welcoming in the region. It isn’t doing anything wrong and has nothing to prove, he feels.

He believes the resolution is low frequency and high severity. Low in the frequency of incidents it would address and high in the severity of risk of losing federal funding. He wants to avoid “catastrophic” funding cuts.

Williams said the village can’t choose which agencies it works with or doesn’t work with.

White said she understands Williams’ funding concern, but said her bill does not obstruct federal agents from enforcing immigration law, which would risk federal funding. She said the idea that it would is a “false narrative.”

As has come up several times over several other issues, Williams and White both spoke to the village attorney, came away with different interpretations of the legal opinions and accused each other of asking leading questions to get their answers. Williams said the attorney told him the proposal was not legal. White said the attorney didn’t see anything wrong with it.

Williams believes both resolutions would put the village’s federal grants at risk.

He said he voted against Scollin’s resolution because he’s “not risking it.” He has not personally heard any concerns over local law enforcement being asked to enforce federal immigration law and that telling them not to is a “gray area” he doesn’t want to be in.

Williams asked to remove the reference to immigration status and have the resolution be more general, saying that all residents are guaranteed equal services and due process.

White said they cannot guarantee people will be given due process by federal agents. That is out of village control.

Williams questioned what the resolutions offer Saranac Lake.

If immigration law is not changed and due process is not guaranteed during immigration detentions, he wondered if making a proclamation of where Saranac Lake wants to be is the best use of their energy when they already have policies saying the police should treat everyone equally.

White said they have a different perspective on protecting residents.

She cited a study from Griffith University titled “His and hers: Differing views on safety in public places” on how men and women view public safety differently. According to the study, men think of catastrophic events when talking about safety. Women, who live with harassment, she said, think about safety in everyday life. Things like walking to work or the store.

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The landscape

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Because of the intensity and occasional errors made in the mass deportation effort, supporters of the resolution said even people who have all the correct documentation to be here are concerned they’ll be caught up in the furor.

White said there are many different types of immigration statuses. While a lot of focus has been on undocumented immigrants, she said people can have other statuses like full citizenship, visas, pending documentation, green cards, parole or temporary protected status.

Village resident Tamara Peary said two Saranac Lake women wearing hijabs were recently harassed by citizens while walking to Grand Union. She said the women, who are legally in the U.S., were afraid to report the harassment to the police because they did not want to draw the attention of immigration agents.

There are numerous instances of U.S. citizens or legal permanent residents being detained by immigration agencies, and numerous lawsuits about their rights being violated. Job Garcia, a U.S. citizen was tackled, arrested and detained for filming an ICE raid; George Retes, a U.S. Army veteran, was tear gassed, burned and detained for three days following an ICE raid at the farm he worked at; Elzon Lemus, a U.S. citizen and New Yorker, was detained during a traffic stop because agents said he resembled a man they were looking for; Miguel Silvestre, a U.S.-born citizen, has been illegally deported several times because the U.S. Department of Homeland Security incorrectly lists his birthplace as Mexico; Leonardo Garcia Venegas, a U.S.-born citizen, was wrestled to the ground and arrested for filming an ICE raid; Wilmer Chavarria, a Vermont school superintendent and naturalized U.S. citizen, was detained and interrogated at an airport for hours for unknown reasons after seeing family in Nicaragua.

This is a consistent problem for organizations like U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which arrested 674, detained 121 and removed 70 potential U.S. citizens between 2015 and 2020, according to a report form the U.S. Government Accountability Office. This office’s recommendations were implemented, but the problem persists.

The “Big Beautiful Bill,” passed in July massively increases the costs to legally immigrate and adds $150 billion to the mass deportation agenda.

Village resident Steve Erman said he’s certain the immigration crackdown efforts will ramp up and asked the board if they would agree to help these federal agencies with village resources. When that question is asked, that’s when pressure is on, he said.

It’s a “moral question” every community will have to face, he said.