Republican Nassau County executive candidate Jack Martins slammed one of his Democratic opponents Friday for accepting support from what he calls “radical” immigration rights groups.
Martins, a former state senator, said county Legislator Laura Curran should speak out against groups that have endorsed her campaign but also fought recent federal crackdowns on undocumented immigrants that have led to the arrests of MS-13 gang members.
The groups include Make the Road Action, the Long Island Progressive Coalition, the Working Families Party and the Service Employees International Union Local 32BJ.
“Laura Curran and the radical organizations that support her are out of touch with the values shared by Nassau County families,” Martins said in a news release. “We cannot and will not stay silent or resort to political correctness when faced with violent gangs in our communities.”
Martins’ call came the day President Donald Trump visited Brentwood, where MS-13 gang members murdered four people in April, to tout his immigration enforcement and anti-gang efforts.
The groups Martins condemned were among more than two dozen that issued a joint statement Thursday saying Trump and U.S. Rep. Peter King (R-Seaford) have “utilized their positions to scapegoat entire segments of the population for their own political gain.”
They also called for more investment in the immigrant communities that gang violence has primarily affected.
“As we commit to repairing and healing our communities, we know that Trump’s divisiveness and xenophobia will not make us safer, nor will it help us achieve the structural changes that long-neglected communities like Brentwood and Central Islip need,” the groups’ statement said.
Under Trump, federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers have conducted regular sweeps for people targeted for deportation. The raids have swept up members of the brutal MS-13 gang, along with immigrants who have no prior criminal histories.
ICE agents arrested 114 undocumented immigrants across New York on Monday, including two on Long Island, according to an ICE news release.
The agency announced in June that it had arrested 39 members of MS-13 in the preceding month, including six on Long Island who had violent criminal histories.
The gang, whose members predominantly hail from El Salvador and other Latin American countries, is reportedly responsible for several recent Long Island murders. Trump said Friday that MS-13 had turned the Island into “blood-stained killing fields.”
Martins pledged to work with law enforcement officials to continue fighting MS-13. But Curran said police need to build trust in immigrant communities to do just that.
“It is disgraceful that Jack Martins would use the senseless murders of our young people to score political points,” Curran said in a statement.
Nassau Comptroller Geroge Maragos, Curran’s Democratic primary opponent and an immigrant himself, said he opposes the Trump administration’s “aggressive” immigration enforcement efforts.
He wants the county Legislature to adopt a county-level immigration policy that protects immigrants’ due process rights and public safety.
“Martins’ policies advocate for a police state that can deny due process and deportation to a detainee on the simple suspicion of undocumented status, while Laura Curran has shown zero leadership on the immigration issue,” Maragos said in a statement.
