Over 25 people attended a conversation on law enforcement and justice at the Robert H. Jackson Center on January 13, 2025
With a new administration being sworn in on Monday, the question has been raised about what will happen to asylum seekers in the United States.
President-Elect Donald Trump is expected to issue a flurry of executive orders aimed at speeding the deportation process on the day he takes office on January 20.
According to the Associated Press, he has long said he wanted to deport millions of migrants but never deported more than 350,000 a year in his first term. Only 41,500 detention beds are funded this year, so carrying out massive deportations has significant logistical hurdles.
Trump’s top aides say Immigrants with criminal records will be his first priority for deportation.
At a community discussion on law enforcement held at the Robert H. Jackson Center on January 13, participant Linnea Haskin put forth that Chautauqua County has a large immigrant population who is scared about what’s happening at the national level, “I think a way for us to combat whatever is to come at the national level is really to acknowledge that the local sheriff’s department is the last line of defense when a federal government or a state government says, ‘Will you go door to door and violate national immigration law and deport families and children.'”
Sheriff Jim Quattrone responded that should an executive order be made, his department would not go door to door to assist in the deportation of migrants.
He said those who should be deported are those who are committing new crimes, “Somebody who is a violent criminal. And that’s, unfortunately, what we hear a lot about are those violent criminals that are committing violent crimes. And maybe people know immigrants who are here legally or illegally and are using that to paint a broad picture of ‘this is all of our immigrants.'”
County Executive PJ Wendel has regularly extended two emergency orders, first issued in 2023, to block a New York City program from relocating people, including asylum seekers, to Chautauqua County.
One of the orders, titled “Local State of Emergency, Emergency Order No. 2 on Sustainable Migration,” is in response to New York City’s expanded “Fighting Homelessness and Eviction Prevention Supplement (City FHEPS)” program. This program provides five years (or more) of rental vouchers to homeless NYC residents who agree to relocate upstate.
The emergency order prohibits any person, business or entity within Chautauqua County to accept a rental voucher as payment for housing, without obtaining prior written authorization from the County Executive.
Anyone who may knowingly violate this Emergency Order is subject to a criminal charge by the Chautauqua County Sheriff’s Office, a class B misdemeanor.
In New York State, only Albany, Ithaca, New York City, and Westchester County have various sanctuary policies in place. These municipalities or counties have passed laws, resolutions or another kind of measure to prevent local law enforcement from cooperating with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
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