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.
Although Jack Martins is entitled to his own opinion based on the benefits of our constitution, he is not entitled to his own facts..
Here is a lesson he should learn…
Mr. Martins.
My name is Luis Mendez, I came to the US over 35 yrs ago from El Salvador, brought here by my parents when I was a minor. My family settled in Westbury where we bought our first home, and were my sister and I went to school and became part of our community.
I later married a US citizen, we have 5 children, A set of triplets who are 23 yrs old and persuing their master’s and doctor degrees, also we have a 17yr old that is one year away from graduating HS and going to Nursing school and a 12yr old who wants to be a doctor.
I have served my local fire department as a Volunteer EMT, even helped save a man’s life , I am a taxpayer, a homeowner. I even volunteer as an sensitivity trainer for the NCPD for the last 12yrs. (This class, must be completed by every PO that works for NC).
Here is why, you Mr. Martins do not get to make a statement that condems a local polititian who supports the work of these so called “radical” entities, just so that you can score points with those who feel that Trump policies should be an excuse to discriminate on the basis of status or origin…
You see Mr. Martins, despite all I have done amd acomplished, if entities like the ones you negatively single out as “radicals”, do not fight for immigrants like me, more people will lash out and label us “Gang members” or a bad “ombres”. You seemed not to realise why we can’t allow Trump policies to be just pushed upon our immigrant communities.
You failed to understand that I and those who “look” like me, are the target of harrasment, profiling and harsh treatment by just driving while Latino, standing while Latino and more, we cannot escape that! Its now even more prevalent since Trump was elected…
I/we dont have ” I am legal” tattooed into our foreheads, therefore those “radical entities” as you call them, have to fight to ensure our kids who have exactly the same rights as your kids, don’t get profiled, because they don’t look European..
If my son wears a cross around his neck and puts on baggie jeans to go to the mall, like any other kid can, he could be label a gang member. Especially if he gets into an altercation or someone picks on him, the system will then treat him like an undocumented inmigrant and perhaps even try to deport him, even though he was born in Nassau County just like your kids.. .
(Yes, immigration has deported US citizens from LI before and even forced Americans into encampments in case you dont know our own US history)
In any case, your actions of trying to score points with “Trumpers” by lashing out at the first women ever to run for the nomination of a party for the highest office in the county, at the expense of the immigrant communities of Nassau, is unbecoming of a Candidate seeking the executive chair…
just in case you might not know, over 20% of our county residents are of inmigrant background
Shame on you!.. you are no different then this county’s corrupt establishment…
Although Jack Martins is entitled to his own opinion based on the benefits of our constitution, he is not entitled to his own facts..
Here is a lesson he should learn…
Mr. Martins.
My name is Luis Mendez, I came to the US over 35 yrs ago from El Salvador, brought here by my parents when I was a minor. My family settled in Westbury where we bought our first home, and were my sister and I went to school and became part of our community.
I later married a US citizen, we have 5 children, A set of triplets who are 23 yrs old and persuing their master’s and doctor degrees, also we have a 17yr old that is one year away from graduating HS and going to Nursing school and a 12yr old who wants to be a doctor.
I have served my local fire department as a Volunteer EMT, even helped save a man’s life , I am a taxpayer, a homeowner. I even volunteer as an sensitivity trainer for the NCPD for the last 12yrs. (This class, must be completed by every PO that works for NC).
Here is why, you Mr. Martins do not get to make a statement that condems a local polititian who supports the work of these so called “radical” entities, just so that you can score points with those who feel that Trump policies should be an excuse to discriminate on the basis of status or origin…
You see Mr. Martins, despite all I have done amd acomplished, if entities like the ones you negatively single out as “radicals”, do not fight for immigrants like me, more people will lash out and label us “Gang members” or a bad “ombres”. You seemed not to realise why we can’t allow Trump policies to be just pushed upon our immigrant communities.
You failed to understand that I and those who “look” like me, are the target of harrasment, profiling and harsh treatment by just driving while Latino, standing while Latino and more, we cannot escape that! Its now even more prevalent since Trump was elected…
I/we dont have ” I am legal” tattooed into our foreheads, therefore those “radical entities” as you call them, have to fight to ensure our kids who have exactly the same rights as your kids, don’t get profiled, because they don’t look European..
If my son wears a cross around his neck and puts on baggie jeans to go to the mall, like any other kid can, he could be label a gang member. Especially if he gets into an altercation or someone picks on him, the system will then treat him like an undocumented inmigrant and perhaps even try to deport him, even though he was born in Nassau County just like your kids.. .
(Yes, immigration has deported US citizens from LI before and evenforced Americans into encampments in case you dont know our own US history)
In any case, your actions of trying to score points with “Trumpers” by lashing out at the first women ever to run for the nomination of a party for the highest office in the county, at the expense of the immigrant communities of Nassau, is unbecoming of a Candidate seeking the executive chair…
just in case you might not know, over 20% of our county residents are of inmigrant background
Shame on you!.. you are no different then this county’s corrupt establishment…