Do Business with ICE, Get Iced Out
By Mar Fitzgerald and Paolo Musto
ASSEMBLYMEMBER GRACE LEE.
Assemblymember Grace Lee represents the East Village and Lower East Side and is running for the State Senate in a district which encompasses most of Greenwich Village and SoHo. She recently introduced legislation that requires companies doing business with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to disclose their contracts to the state. Failure to disclose the relationship with ICE can result in disqualification from state contracts and a civil penalty of up to $5,000.
“In the communities I represent, ICE is a four-letter word,” said Lee. “If any company is doing business with ICE, especially those in any way helping support Trump’s mass deportation and degradation agenda against immigrants, New Yorkers deserve to know. If those companies fail to come clean, they should be disqualified from benefiting from any contract that involves taxpayer funding.”
The ICE Contract Transparency Act would increase transparency into the infrastructure supporting ICE’s operations. ICE conducts enforcement activities through an extensive system of private contracts, which includes detention centers, office rentals, transportation, and logistics services. To enhance transparency and ensure that information about federal contracts is publicly available, the legislation mandates that contracts with ICE must be filed with the Department of State.
Lee was inspired to propose the ICE Contract Transparency Act after learning that ICE was leasing parking spaces at Pier 40 on Hudson River Park in Lower Manhattan. This lease sparked outrage among local residents, leading to protests and renewed questions about how much of ICE’s footprint in New York remains hidden from public view. (Hudson River Park has responded that they are not renewing a contract with ICE when it expires on June 30 of this year.)
Similar concerns have emerged beyond the city. In the Hudson Valley town of Chester, ICE entered into a contract with a private warehouse to develop a detention facility capable of holding up to 1,500 people. The potential detention center has angered local residents, triggered protests, and spurred action to block the facility.
Over the past year, ICE agents have spread across the country to conduct what many describe as the largest deportation campaign in U.S. history. As they engage in sweeps across neighborhoods, raiding workplaces, schools, and health centers, ICE has detained and deported hundreds of thousands of immigrants regardless of their criminal record. Los Angeles, Chicago, and Minneapolis have experienced surges in ICE activity that have caused unrest, disruption, and violence. This culminated in the killings of Renée Nicole Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, which placed a spotlight on ICE’s tactics and increased pressure on New York state lawmakers to respond to the agency’s actions.
ICE has expanded its operations in New York and its methods are under heightened scrutiny. In March ICE agents used deceptive tactics to gain entry into a dorm at Columbia University to detain a student. In another case, ICE agents left a nearly blind refugee in Buffalo on the side of the road, where he later died. They have raided vendors on Canal Street. Foreign born residents, even those with proper papers, have felt terrorized. These and other incidents have spurred Albany legislators to introduce measures to increase oversight and accountability.
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Legislators are eager to pass sweeping measures to restrict the state’s ability to collaborate with ICE. As the state legislature negotiates a broader package of immigration-related measures with Governor Kathy Hochul, Assemblymember Lee has been working to ensure that the ICE Contract Transparency Act is included in ongoing discussions.
“This is about drawing a clear line,” said Lee.” New York will not stand by while ICE’s machinery of mass deportation terrorizes our communities. If companies choose to do business with ICE, they should expect to do it in full view of the public.”
Mar Fitzgerald is the female district leader for Greenwich Village. Paolo Musto is legislative director for Assemblywoman Grace Lee.
