Middletown council endorses effort to keep ICE agents away from courts in NY state

The immigrant rights group Nobody Leaves Mid-Hudson is spearheading the effort to have 10 municipalities across the Mid-Hudson Valley pass a resolution in support of the state act. Besides Middletown and Poughkeepsie, the group is seeking support from Ulster County; the cities of Kingston, Newburgh and Beacon; the towns of New Paltz and Woodstock; and the villages of New Paltz and Warwick.

“On April 10, ICE detained one person in Kingston and tried to take multiple other community members,” said Diana Lopez, Ulster County coordinator for Nobody Leaves Mid-Hudson. “We need ICE out of our courts and out of our cities.”

Alfredo Pacheco, Orange County organizer for the group, said plainclothes ICE agents, “without a judicial warrant, ambushed a man in Middletown last week as he went to court only for a traffic infraction. This has to stop.”