Hudson officials create 2nd ICE task force: Immigrant Community Safety Committee

Hudson County officials have created the second task force this week to put further restrictions in place in the event that there is a raid by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

By Dan Israel/Hudson County View

The Hudson County Board of Commissioners voted unanimously (9-0) to approve a resolution establishing the Immigrant Community Safety Committee at yesterday’s meeting.

“Let’s start the task force. Let’s meet, and then we can adopt as many additional resolutions to do what we need to do … to allocate funding,” noted Hudson County Commissioner Bill O’Dea (D-2), the resolution sponsor.

This follows an executive order by Hudson County Executive Craig Guy issued after the commissioners caucus meeting on Tuesday, creating the Safe Communities Committee.

Guy previously signed an order banning ICE and U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) from operating on county property, amid similar moves by municipalities including Jersey City and Kearny.

County spokesman Mark Cygan told HCV that the difference between the two committees is that the first one created by the executive order will be focused on interdepartmental communication.

Meanwhile, this second committee established via resolution will be for communicating with the community at large.

According to the resolution, this committee will be a volunteer advisory body dedicated to: “the integration, well-being, and rights of immigrants within the Hudson County community; discussing issues affecting immigrant residents including access to health, education, and legal services; and acting as liaisons between the community and local government.”

This committee will be compromised of: O’Dea, Cygan, Commissioners Fanny Cedeno (D-7), Commissioner Yraida Aponte-Lipski (D-4), Commissioner Al Cifelli (D-9), Carmen Mendiola, Deputy County Counsel Reana Garcia, Courtney Walker of Knitty Gritty JC, Monico Aguilar of Action 21, Ryan Heisinger of Spirit of Liberation, Priscilla Monico Marin of the NJ Consortium for Immigrant Children, Julia Bernal of We are One, Joel Torres of the Latino Action Network, and Mark Bloomberg of Estamos Unidos Centro Comunitario.

The resolution states that the commissioners will continue to develop the committee and appoint members from the community to develop policy and guidelines for interaction with immigration officials.

Despite these actions against ICE by both the county executive and commissioners in recent weeks, advocates took to the podium to disagree with the committee as it stood calling it largely “symbolic.”

Even some members of the public who would be on the committee argued it was not enough, calling for clear enforcement mechanisms, defined goals, a hard timeline, and allocated funding to give the entity some teeth.

“While I appreciate this body’s willingness to commit to create the committee in response to public feedback, I cannot support the resolution in its current form,” Walker stated.

“This resolution has no teeth. It’s extremely broad with no specific goals and no measurable outcomes. It also allocates no funding or resources, which makes it hard to see how this committee could have any real impact on our community.”

According to Walker and others opposed to the committee in its current form, while this should have already been done in July when they first started attending meetings, the board needs to ensure the committee is being formed correctly now.

They repeated calls for allocating funds for an emergency fund for Hudson County families impacted by ICE detentions and or a resource navigator position at the county level.

“I’ve spoken with people who’ve served on past county task forces and in their words, ‘Elected officials show up to the first meeting, take the credit, and provide no resources to actually do the work,’” Walker added.

“I also want to emphasize that most of what we’ve seen from the county so far has been words, not implementation. Resolutions and ordinances have been passed, but key details remain unclear.”

In response to their concerns, O’Dea noted this is the first step. He said that while this should have happened sooner, the board is acting now- and he has long opposed ICE since he first voted against the ICE contract for the county jail in Kearny since 2017.

“I see this is task force as a beginning. I see the fact that we’ve named you and several other members whose names we actually asked for to be part of it, it’s a beginning. The task force will meet,” he stated.

“If, and I believe you will, need resources, the task force will come up and suggest what resources. And you have my commitment and the commitment of all the members of this board that sit on it that will work to make that stuff happen.”

In response to the proposed emergency fund, O’Dea said that the committee will explore whether existing programs can address the needs of those individuals or if they will need to sponsor funds for that and how much that will be.

Regarding the resource navigator, he said that the county can likely take an existing staffer and assign them the duties of that role.

Board Chair Anthony Romano (D-5) agreed with O’Dea that perhaps Hudson County Department of Corrections Director of Community Reintegration Frank Mazza could help find someone already working at the County to be the resource navigator.

He was also confident these details would be worked out once the committee begins meeting.

“I think that the executive branch and the county executive, as well as this board, realizes the severity of the situation. As we get to these meetings and the task force starts, these things will be broached,” Romano expressed.

Mazza confirmed that he can assign an existing employee to be the resource navigator, continuing that there are a variety of monies available that could be used to facilitate this.

“Some of this should have been done sooner. No excuse. But now we’re focused on it and I think … just give us a little trust. Some of us have been strong in our position on this not in the last year but for the last nine years,” O’Dea concluded.