U.S. Rep. George Latimer says he and other government officials have been struggling to find where people are being taken after they are seized from Westchester streets by ICE.
“A person who sees somebody swiped off the street, all they know is a guy was swiped off the street,” he told The Record. “The local police are not told where they’re taking them, the state police are not told, me, as the legislator, is not told.”
Using ground operations, detention facilities, and deportations to foreign nations, ICE has been operating at a breakneck pace. The Department of Homeland Security recently said 2,197 people had been arrested in New York state in about a month, The New York Times reported.
On Sept. 3, clergy, elected officials, and community members rallied at Veterans Memorial Park in Port Chester to denounce ICE and the Trump administration’s deportation campaign, LoHud reported. Among them was state Rep. Steve Otis.
Those in ICE custody are often shuttled from state to state, and their whereabouts are not systematically communicated to government officials or loved ones. Latimer said the agency, operating under presidential executive authority, is not required by protocol to disclose that information. The only thing ICE is required to report in a timely manner is deaths in custody.
That system, Latimer said, has been ensnaring his constituents.
Among those is Rafael Antonio Morales, a Port Chester High School student who was going to graduate this year until he was detained by ICE agents.
Latimer said the system is working the way the Trump administration intends.
“They want people to be afraid because you may disappear, and then you’re never seen again,” he said. “And that should make you afraid to stay here.”
Latimer’s office has worked on 16 cases concerning people detained by ICE. Most, Latimer said, come from large urban areas in the district, like Yonkers and New Rochelle. He added that further requests for help by friends and family are becoming a “continual flow” for caseworkers to handle.
While Westchester and the North Bronx are close to Newark’s Delaney Hall, the largest detention center on the East Coast, it’s unclear if most detainees from the area have been taken there.
“ There’s no pattern that we can discern,” Latimer said. “We have heard stories of people being detained in Delaney Hall for some length of time, we’ve heard stories of people being sent to detention centers in the South.
“If you move people around, if you make them hard to track, you’ll give up on them. They want a disincentive for people to be here.”
For family and advocates to get information from ICE and retain a lawyer, the person in custody has to sign a privacy release form.
That has led Latimer to encourage anyone who might be vulnerable to sign those releases preemptively, even if they don’t believe they will be seized anytime soon. He compared the practice to having your affairs in order before death, and called signing the privacy release form a smart thing to do. He said there has been modest success in getting those who are vulnerable to sign. He acknowledged that undocumented immigrants are often skeptical of signing forms requested by the government.
“ There’s a hesitancy,” Latimer said. “Some are dealing with it, but … it’s not where it needs to be yet.”
This call comes amid a larger push to try to improve conditions from within the immigration system. On Jul. 31, Latimer and Rep. Ritchie Torres visited Delaney Hall, which has been the site of protests amid reports of poor living conditions, and at least three deaths since it reopened in 2025. Their principal findings, detailed in a letter to Department of Homeland Security Inspector General Joseph Cuffari, revealed a lack of proper medical access.
According to Latimer and Torres, there was one doctor on-site and six nurse practitioners to assist 893 individuals in custody. No ICE personnel were present at Delaney, only GEO Group staffers were overseeing the population.
“We have been clear that Delaney Hall should not exist, and we reiterate our call for its immediate closure,” the letter reads. “But whether it closes tomorrow or operates another day, every person held inside it is entitled to medical care that meets the government’s own standards.”
Following their visit, they co-authored a bill called the “Families Deserve to Know Act” that would establish a timely emergency contact system for everyone taken to an ICE detention facility. His office, in an email, said they did not expect the bill to see the floor soon.
But Latimer says he doesn’t expect major changes now. With Republicans controlling both chambers of Congress, passing legislation meant to reign in ICE — and override a likely veto from President Trump — is an uphill battle.
Trump “has created a system almost completely through executive order with minimal influence by the Congress,” Latimer said, “and that system is a desensitizing system for human beings. You’re treating them like they’re commodities, and that can’t hold.”
For now, Latimer encourages advocacy at local community centers and food pantries, and for those at risk, signing privacy releases.
“ If the worst happens,” he said, “once they grab you and you disappear into thin air and I can’t get your signature on a document, then I can’t legitimately help you.”
