In August of 1935, Caroline O’Day (a Rye resident) achieved her first major legislative victory as a newly elected member of Congress. Armed with evidence from her personal investigation of cases at Ellis Island, she won Congressional backing for her plan to stop the deportation of more than 2,000 immigrants who were about to be separated from 7,000 dependents.
Stating her case for liberalizing the immigration rules, Mrs. O’Day argued that “whether our ancestors came in the Mayflower or in the steerage, we are descendants of immigrants. The aliens whose cases we are considering tonight have lived all these years in America and have lived up to our laws, to our ideals and to our standards of living so far as they have been able to do so.”
Almost 90 years later, president-elect Trump has vowed to slash immigration, both legal and illegal, and ramp up deportations. Immigrants are racing to get ahead of the crackdown, especially those who entered the country illegally.
Rye is more than 2,000 miles from that border, but the deportation threats may affect residents of neighboring Port Chester and other communities in Westchester County.
Immigrants fill many jobs in Westchester. These jobs exist primarily in the service sector, especially in domestic work, home care, landscaping, construction, and food services. A substantial decrease in the number of people filling those jobs would adversely affect many suburban families.
The 2020 national census reported that 62.4 percent of the people in Port Chester were Hispanic (19,500 people). As of 2022, 43.1 percent of Port Chester residents were born outside of the United States, according to Data USA.
The Migration Policy Institute, an independent, nonpartisan think tank, estimates that 54,000 people living in Westchester County are undocumented, approximately 5 percent of the county’s total population. Although any child born in the United States is a US citizen, MPI estimates there are 17,000 undocumented parents in Westchester currently living with at least one child who is a U.S. citizen.
Various protections and services exist in Westchester for the benefit and protection of immigrants, e.g.:
County Executive George Latimer signed the Immigrant Protection Act into law on March 20, 2018. The measure prevents Westchester County from using any of its resources to assist in federal investigations based on race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, ethnicity, or national origin.
The Westchester District Attorney’s Office has said it will ensure that all community members, including non-citizens — regardless of their immigration status — are treated fairly and equally, and that, when possible, no one is unjustly affected by the criminal legal system. The Office has said will work with defense lawyers, when asked and where appropriate, to find immigration-neutral outcomes for noncitizen defendants, including offering programs that expand alternatives to convictions and incarceration.
It is the policy of the Port Chester Police Department not to ask about immigration status unless it’s pertinent to a criminal case. An example of this would be a human trafficking case in which the victim was threatened because of his or her immigration status. As municipal police officers, members of the Department are not authorized to detain or arrest people based on their immigration status alone.
Another important factor to know about Port Chester and its residents is that the current mayor, Luis Marino, emigrated from Peru to the United States in 1985 and has lived with his family in Port Chester for nearly 40 years. He became the first elected Hispanic village trustee in 2010 and, subsequently, the first Hispanic Village Mayor in 2021. Mayor Marino successfully won re-election for another two-year term in March 2023.