Editor’s note: This press release was provided by the Pelham Town Board.

There seems to be a great deal of misinformation about the issues raised in a “Media Advisory — Electeds & Community Rally to Protest ICE Presence at Pelham Town Court & Demand Drivers Licenses for Immigrants” issued late last night to media throughout the region. Nor has there been any meaningful effort by organizers of any such protest to solicit from the Town critical facts regarding the matters addressed in that communication with the media.

For example, though the Town of Pelham has nothing to do with the Village of Pelham Manor Police Department, as your Town Board understands matters, the Pelham Manor Police did not, as the Media Advisory erroneously states, call ICE to inform them of the recent arrest of what the “Media Advisory” labels an “undocumented resident.” Rather, the village Police simply fingerprinted the individual and entered the fingerprints, as they are required to do and as they do for every such arrest, into a nationwide database. New York State and Federal law enforcement have standard access to that database and apparently became aware of the arrest in that fashion, with Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents thereafter attending a Town Court session at which a hearing in the individual’s case was adjourned.

Additionally, our two Town Justices became aware of the New York State Office of Court Administration Rule (Directive No. 1-2019) immediately upon its April 17, 2019 effective date and telephoned the Office of Court Administration to understand the guidance and to confirm to the OCA that they planned to follow that guidance – long before the “Media Advisory” that went out last night was distributed without any prior consultation with Town officials or any other efforts to obtain the facts.

The policy of the Town Justices previously has been to follow such State guidance in the administration of their own Town Courts even when such guidance is applicable only to State courts and not to Town and Village courts. In this case, they determined last week when the directive became effective that they would apply the directive in their courthouse – which is entirely within their purview just as any Justice or Judge may implement lawful court rules applicable to their court. Under that directive, no arrests of persons shall occur inside a State courthouse in the absence of a judicial warrant or judicial order issued by a federal judge or federal magistrate judge (and reviewed by a UCS judge or court attorney to confirm compliance with said requirement).

We have deemed that decision by our Town Justices appropriate particularly in the context that the State Senate and State Assembly have pending bills (the so-called “Protect Our Courts Act,” Senate Bill S425 and Assembly Bill A06071) that would extend such a directive to all courts within the State without regard to whether such courts, including Town and Village courts, are subject to the guidance of the OCA. On Tuesday, April 23 Governor Cuomo announced that he supports the proposed legislation or any other “lawful action” to achieve a substantively similar result.

Because the Town Justices control their courtrooms, we respect their determination and have provided the OCA directive to the Chief of Town Constable Police with the directive to follow that guidance.

Peter DiPaola, Town Supervisor
Dan McLaughlin, Deputy Town Supervisor
Rae Szymanski, Councilwoman
Blake A. Bell, Councilman
Tim Case, Councilman