A collection of student organizations organized a demonstration outside of the Broome County Jail on Saturday to denounce the sheriff’s office’s partnership with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The protest was organized by Binghamton University’s chapter of the Young Democratic Socialists of America, the Latin American Student Union, SHADES, the Mexican American Student Association and Corazoncitos. Several local groups like Citizen Action of New York, Indivisible Binghamton, Justice and Unity for the Southern Tier and the Broome County Democratic Party also joined the protest.

August Rey, the political activist chair of SHADES and a sophomore majoring in political science, helped moderate the protest.

In a speech, a member of the YDSA said the Trump administration has been “lying nonstop about immigration” and claimed the jail was complicit in ICE’s “kidnapping and in their deportation” of immigrants.

“Our fight is not only against Donald Trump, but also a fight against the American system that has enabled him, the American system that has elected him and the American system that allows him to have support to this very day,” they said.

Barbara Mullen, co-lead of Indivisible Binghamton, told the crowd she was reassured to see young people at the protest and drew parallels to the political movements that energized many Baby Boomers in the 1960s and ’70s.

Along with advocating for the termination of Broome County’s 287(g) agreement with ICE, several speakers urged the state legislature to pass the New York for All, Dignity Not Detention and Mandating End of Lawless Tactics acts. New York for All aims to ban state and local government agencies from working with ICE, while Dignity Not Detention would prevent contracts with immigrant detention centers from being made or renewed. MELT would ban ICE agents and federal immigration officers in New York State from wearing plainclothes or masks during civilian immigration tasks.

Last month, Gov. Kathy Hochul proposed the “Local Cops, Local Crimes” Act, [HYPERLINK: https://www.bupipedream.com/news/gov-kathy-hochul-proposes-new-legislation-to-limit-local-and-state-cooperation-with-ice/174837/] which would ban 287(g) agreements in New York. Advocates at the protest differentiated this legislation from the legislation they discussed because the Local Cops, Local Crimes Act does not prohibit local or state police from working with federal law enforcement in criminal investigations.

The model of 287(g) agreement that Broome County has [HYPERLINK: https://www.bupipedream.com/news/ice-will-train-some-corrections-staff-in-executing-civil-immigration-warrants/164491/] allows local law enforcement to be trained by ICE to execute warrants on behalf of the agency.

Throughout the protest, attendees shouted chants like “ICE out” and “we want ICE out of our state.”

Local candidates Daniel Norton and Daniel Livingston, both Democrats running for Donna Lupardo’s 123rd assembly seat, were present at the protest. Livingston, a former member of the Binghamton City Council [HYPERLINK: https://www.bupipedream.com/news/local-democrats-join-race-to-replace-assemblywoman-donna-lupardo/174168/], told the crowd that ICE was “tormenting upstate communities” and voiced his support for the New York for All and MELT acts.

“We watched ICE agents relish as they commit acts of violence and cruelty toward citizens and noncitizens alike, while hiding cowardly behind masks,” Livingston said. “As a community and as a country, we have to come back to our moral center and acknowledge that we are all just people trying to get through these tough times the best way we know how and that starts by doing what we’re doing here today.”

After the protest, Norton told Pipe Dream that ICE’s enforcement actions have turned into “the moral crisis of our time.”

Matthew Ryan, the Democratic mayor of Binghamton from 2006 to 2013, also spoke at the vigil. Ryan recently announced he plans to run against Broome County Sheriff Fred Akshar in this year’s election. In 2018, Ryan also ran for the position and lost to David Harder, who served as county sheriff from 1998 until retiring in 2022.

In an interview with Pipe Dream, Ryan said he supports scrapping the sheriff’s office 287(g) agreement.

Speakers representing LASU, JUST, Asian Outlook, Students for Justice in Palestine and the Working Families Party also spoke at the rally.

Christina Zawerucha ‘05, the project manager of Humans of ICE and lecturer and conversation pairs coordinator at the University’s English Language Institute, spoke at the rally and, with another volunteer, highlighted the testimony of an Iranian man held at the Broome County Jail. According to Humans of ICE, the man worked as an information technology specialist for the Iranian police during the 2022-2023 protests against that country’s mandatory hijab law.

After allegedly refusing to follow an order to harm protestors, he was court martialed and later fled the country.

“I’m grateful that everybody is here to rally at the protest, but we need more volunteers to come and help with the day-to-day support for the people detained by ICE in the Broome County Jail,” Zawerucha said.