GENEVA \u2014 Organizers said about 100 people turned out over the weekend to protest federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations in the city, including a Friday-morning incident that prompted a response from the city\u2019s police chief and mayor.<\/p>\n
The rally, organized by the Finger Lakes Rapid Response Network, took place Saturday afternoon in the city\u2019s Public Safety Building parking lot.<\/p>\n
In a press release, the group said some of its volunteers witnessed Friday\u2019s ICE operation in Geneva. They said the rally\u2019s goal \u201cwas to show the City of Geneva, our community, and especially our immigrant neighbors that ICE is not welcome here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Melina Ivanchikova, one of the organizers of the rally, said in the release that the rally was being held in the Public Safety Building parking lot because that is the spot masked ICE agents gathered in unmarked vehicles to debrief Friday\u2019s operation. That debriefing followed a 7:13 a.m. call on Friday received by Geneva police for a report of an ICE vehicle being rammed by a suspect vehicle in the area of Pulteney and Milton streets, Chief Ron Eveland said in a statement just hours after the crash.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was learned that ICE agents had attempted to stop a motor vehicle on Pulteney Street, which led to a federal vehicle being struck,\u201d he said, adding that suspects in the vehicle were arrested by ICE, while one fled the area on foot, leading to a foot chase with ICE agents before being apprehended.<\/p>\n
Eveland said his officers were there to investigate the crash, not assist with the operation.<\/p>\n
Speakers question the chief\u2019s account.<\/p>\n
\u201cICE consistently lies about their activities and that there are countless examples from across the country of ICE claiming to have been rammed by a car when, in fact, ICE agents caused the accident,\u201d said organizer Columba Salamony. \u201cImmigrants are not making our community unsafe \u2014 ICE is.\u201d<\/p>\n
Organizers demanded that ICE leave Geneva and the Finger Lakes, that no city resources be used for ICE operations, and that there be no collusion between ICE and the police department.<\/p>\n
Eveland said in his Friday statement that department policy is that members will \u201cnot assist ICE with the enforcement of someone\u2019s civil immigration status by sharing of information, detaining, or questioning,\u201d but that they will assist, if asked, with ICE investigations \u201cso long as it is accompanied by a judicial warrant signed by a federal magistrate.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, Finger Lakes Rapid Response said some Geneva residents questioned at the rally whether this policy was being followed. One speaker claimed some Latine Geneva residents had been questioned recently about their country of origin and immigration status during everyday interactions with city police.<\/p>\n
Eveland could not be reached for comment on the allegation as of Monday morning.<\/p>\n
On Friday, Mayor Jim Cecere reiterated the city\u2019s stance on immigration operations conducted by federal agents in the city.<\/p>\n
\u201cGeneva\u2019s policy is clear and longstanding in that our police department does not engage in civil immigration enforcement,\u201d he said. \u201cOur officers focus on local public safety responsibilities and act in accordance with New York State law. I fully support Chief Eveland and our department\u2019s adherence to that policy. I also support community efforts to monitor and record any activities, as they are exercising their constitutional rights. While the city does not control federal operations, our priority remains the safety, transparency, and trust of our community.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cecere said the police department \u201cresponded appropriately to the accident to ensure public safety and to complete the required accident reporting. They were not notified of any action being taken by federal authorities, nor did they participate in any arrests or federal enforcement actions.\u201d<\/p>\n
Finger Lakes Rapid Response Network said that at the Ontario County Board of Supervisors meeting Thursday night, residents urged members to pass legislation affirming that the sheriff\u2019s office \u201cwill not collude with federal immigration officers and that no county property, facilities or equipment will be used for federal immigration enforcement activities.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another rally organizer, Karen Frost-Arnold, said at Saturday\u2019s gathering that \u201cpeople in this country are rejecting ICE and standing together. Responders showed up Friday to witness and hold ICE and GPD to account. You are all here today. We will win this fight because we are getting organized and we will get ICE out of our communities.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"GENEVA \u2014 Organizers said about 100 people turned out over the weekend to protest federal Immigration and Customs…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17030,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[7],"tags":[4553,1655,10322,10321,65,70,11816,11818,68,67,10320,10323,4425,72,69,8488,11819,11817,11815,5049,66],"class_list":["post-17029","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-geneva","tag-arrest","tag-crime","tag-criminal-justice","tag-criminal-law","tag-geneva","tag-government","tag-immigration-enforcement","tag-immigration-officer","tag-justice","tag-law","tag-law-enforcement","tag-legal-action","tag-national-security","tag-police","tag-politics","tag-protests","tag-public-sphere","tag-sheriffs-in-the-united-states","tag-social-conflict","tag-social-issues","tag-united-states-immigration-and-customs-enforcement"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17029","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17029"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17029\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17030"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17029"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}