Dear Editor,
After reading Supervisor Ed Lachterman's August 6 Yorktown News article, “A Tragedy That Demands Hard Questions,” (Page 22), I felt compelled to offer the perspective of someone who spent 31 years as a corrections officer.
I watched the old system work, and I see what happens when government gets in its own way.
In the past, when an inmate who was in the country illegally was committed to our custody, a judge could include instructions on the commitment paperwork to notify federal immigration authorities before that inmate's release. About a week before release, notification could be made so ICE could determine whether it wanted to take custody.
If ICE did, the transfer happened where it should happen: inside a secure correctional facility.
The inmate was already in custody. We knew who the person was, where the person was, and when the release would occur. ICE could take custody in a controlled environment without chasing anyone through a neighborhood, showing up at a workplace, or conducting an arrest on a public street.
That's not politics. That's common sense.
It also kept immigration enforcement focused on individuals who had already entered the criminal justice system. ICE didn't have to go into immigrant communities looking for someone who could have been transferred directly from one law enforcement agency to another.
When state and local government refuse to cooperate with federal immigration authorities concerning criminals already in custody, they don't make the problem disappear. They move the problem from the jail into the community.
Once that person walks out the door, ICE may have to find and arrest that individual somewhere else. Now federal agents are potentially making an arrest at a home, workplace, or on a street, where officers, families, neighbors and innocent bystanders can become involved.
How exactly does that make anyone safer?
It doesn't make law enforcement safer. It doesn't make the public safer. And it certainly doesn't help immigrant communities when federal officers who could have taken custody of one criminal offender at a jail instead have to enter a neighborhood to find that person.
After 31 years in corrections, I learned that there is a big difference between a policy that sounds compassionate in a political speech and a policy that actually works on the ground.
This isn't about rounding up immigrants. It's about criminals who are already in custody.
We can argue about immigration policy all day long. But when someone has already been arrested, prosecuted, incarcerated, and is wanted by federal immigration authorities, refusing to communicate with those authorities makes no sense.
Law enforcement used to have a practical system for handling these cases. The transfer could happen safely, professionally, and without unnecessary confrontation. Government policy has made that harder.
When you prevent law enforcement agencies from communicating, you don't eliminate enforcement. You simply force it out of a controlled correctional facility and onto our streets.
I give Supervisor Lachterman credit for having the common sense to say so publicly and for being willing to ask the difficult questions when public safety is involved. He understands something those of us who have spent our careers in law enforcement understand very well: policies written in Albany have real-world consequences for the men and women who have to enforce them and for the communities they are sworn to protect.
That is also why I understand the strong support Supervisor Lachterman has received from members of the law enforcement community. He listens to the people who do the job, respects their experience, and understands that supporting law enforcement means more than saying the right words — it means supporting policies that allow them to do their jobs safely and effectively.
After 31 years wearing the uniform, I know the difference between political rhetoric and common-sense public safety.
On this issue, Supervisor Lachterman has it right.
-Salvatore Ficarrotta, Retired Corrections Officer, 31 Years of Service
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