New York Attorney General Letitia James acknowledged her office’s investigation of the city of Oswego’s handling of a federal immigration enforcement case in an interview with WRVO Public Media. James said she “can’t give you a time frame” for when the investigation might be complete.
“We've got a number of active investigations,” she said. “They take time.” James' office has requested documents and body-worn camera video from the city.
The Sept. 30 incident, in which two roofing company employees stayed out of the reach of Border Patrol officers by perching on the roof of a two-story home until the agents gave up and left, is being investigated by a new unit of the Attorney General’s office created after approval of the “Local Cops, Local Crimes Act,” which prevents local police departments from many types of cooperation with federal immigration agencies.
Oswego Mayor Rob Corradino said at the time that Oswego Police and Fire Department staff rushed a ladder to the scene of the standoff at the request of Border Patrol. He said at the time and maintained in a public meeting Tuesday that the city was not cooperating with the federal effort.
Several members of the public, speaking during the public comment portion of the meeting, disagreed.
“To suggest giving a ladder to people committing such inhumane violence to help them do it better is disgraceful,” said Kyle Zinser. “What would happen if, when ICE or CBP [Customs and Border Patrol] called and said, ‘Hey, we need a ladder over here on 7th Street,’ somebody said, 'Lowe's is located at the top of 104 across from Burritt Motors. Help yourself.’ Click.”
Corradino made a brief statement about the issue before the public’s comments: ”The Attorney General has made an inquiry of the City, and the City plans to cooperate with that inquiry. It would not be prudent for any of us to get ahead of the Attorney General's inquiry at this time. A full and transparent report will be made available once the AG's office has finished its inquiry, and the Division of Immigration Trust in the AG's office is conducting that inquiry.”
Oswego’s Common Council voted during the meeting to hire an outside law firm, Barclay Damon of Syracuse, to help with the inquiry.
