New York to monitor Trump’s deportation efforts with new legal observers

By Jonathan Allen

NEW YORK, Feb 3 (Reuters) – New York is creating a team of legal observers that will don purple vests to monitor and record the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement officers as they seek to detain and deport migrants, the state’s attorney general said on Tuesday.

The announcement follows weeks of sometimes violent tumult in Minneapolis, where U.S. President Donald Trump has deployed thousands of armed, masked agents as he tries to deport more migrants than any of his predecessors.

New York Attorney General Letitia James said the state’s new legal observers would be volunteer employees from her office, trained to observe, without interfering, whether Trump’s immigration enforcement “remains within the bounds of the law.”

“I am proud to protect New Yorkers’ constitutional rights to speak freely, protest peacefully, and go about their lives without fear of unlawful federal action,” James, a Democrat, said in a statement. “We have seen in Minnesota how quickly and tragically federal operations can escalate in the absence of transparency and accountability.”

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, said James was putting New Yorkers in danger by not working with ICE.

“ICE law enforcement wouldn’t have to be in the field in New York if we had state and local cooperation,” Tricia McLaughlin, a DHS spokesperson, said in a statement.

TRUMP LINKS DEPORTATIONS WITH CRIME REDUCTION

Trump, a Republican, has reserved his most aggressive surges in immigration enforcement for states governed by his political opponents, particularly California, Illinois and Minnesota. New York is home to one of the biggest and busiest DHS field offices, but Trump has not announced any major enforcement surge in the state.

He says the deportations of many migrants, including some who were legally admitted into the U.S., are necessary to reduce crime, although his argument is often contradicted by crime data.

In Minneapolis, residents have come out in protest, many blowing whistles and recording video as immigration agents in military-style gear roam the streets. Twice in January, immigration agents fatally shot U.S. citizens who had come out to protest or observe: Renee Good and Alex Pretti.

Leaders in Minnesota, Illinois and California have accused the Trump administration of going too far and violating the constitutional rights of both migrants and U.S. citizens, including their rights to observe and protest government actions.

Congressional Democrats convened a hearing in Washington on Tuesday in which they called for greater accountability for DHS officers and heard the testimony of U.S. citizens who described abuse including being shot, shot at or manhandled by immigration officers. 

Among them was Marimar Martinez, who was shot five times in her vehicle in Chicago on October 4 as agents accused her of ramming her car into theirs. After being taken to the hospital, Martinez said she was rushed so quickly from there to federal processing that blood soaked through her bandages and she needed to be taken back for more treatment. Federal prosecutors dropped charges after reviewing video and officer statements.

“I was under federal indictment and facing felony charges and potentially years in federal prison over a minor car accident where the other driver was at fault and attempted to kill me,” Martinez said. “It was terrifying.”

In New York, small groups of legal observers are common at street protests, sometimes wearing the bright green hats of the National Lawyers Guild, focused on whether local police are violating rights or laws that protect freedom of speech. 

But a formal state-organized effort to deploy legal observers to monitor federal law enforcement appears to be new. James, an outspoken foe of Trump who successfully sued him and his real estate firm for financial fraud, says she will use information gathered by the observers to decide whether to bring legal challenges. 

(Reporting by Jonathan Allen in New York; Additional reporting by Ted Hesson in Washington and Daniel Trotta in Carlsbad, California; Editing by Rod Nickel and Nia Williams)