U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is renting office space in Woodbury for what could be as many as 40 agency attorneys, Newsday has reported. The move is drawing concern from immigration advocates and prompting calls for transparency from local officials.
Last month, ICE began leasing offices in a four-story building at 88 Froehlich Farm Blvd., according to Craig J. Padover, president of the Hauppauge-based Aresco Management, which owns the property. The space, Padover said, is being used for legal offices, but he did not confirm the size or extent of the lease, nor could he verify how many ICE attorneys would ultimately work there.
He added that the space would not be used to house detained immigrants.
The expansion comes as controversy intensifies over President Trump’s deportation campaign. ICE received nearly $80 billion in funding through Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill,” passed last July, increasing the number of agents from roughly 10,000 to 22,000 this year, making it the largest-funded federal law enforcement agency.
ICE already maintains a presence at the federal courthouse in Central Islip and at the Nassau County Correctional Center in East Meadow, where detained migrants are housed. Agents covering Long Island are based primarily in New York City offices.
“One of the most important things to remember is that the Department of Homeland Security and [Secretary] Kristi Noem has not been transparent about what’s going on,” Sylvia Livits-Ayass, a partner at Livits Ayass Baskin PLLC and the immigration chair of the Nassau County Bar Association, said.
In Central Islip, marked and unmarked vans have been seen near district courts. Attorneys from ICE’s Office of the Principal Legal Advisor represent the Department of Homeland Security in immigration-removal proceedings, and can facilitate warrants and enforcement actions.
“My guess is that there will be a ramp-up in ICE presence in Nassau and Suffolk, and they’re probably going to try and facilitate these enforcement actions through warrants and by supporting these operations,” Livits-Ayass said, emphasizing that that remains speculation.
She explained that there are different types of warrants. An administrative warrant is not reviewed by a federal judge, and is often signed by an ICE officer or agency official. A judicial warrant, by contrast, must be signed by a U.S. District Court judge and typically identifies the court, the name and birth date of the subject of the warrant, and the address to be searched.
“Just because they have a warrant doesn’t mean they can go wherever they want,” Livits-Ayass said.
Because immigration court for downstate New York is at Federal Plaza in Manhattan, she added, the Woodbury lease is surprising. She suggested that it could signal expanded enforcement operations, but also noted that it could simply be cost-effective for ICE to house its attorneys on Long Island. “The bottom line is we don’t know,” she said, “because they’re not telling anybody.”
In a letter to Noem, Rep. Tom Suozzi asked if the lease was accurate and how ICE has engaged with local governments.
In a statement to the Herald, Suozzi wrote, “Expanding deportation operations in safe communities creates fear and undermines trust in local enforcement, and would be a bad policy. Our focus should be on removing dangerous criminals while protecting families who contribute to our local economy and way of life.”
ICE offices in New York City did not respond to the Herald’s request for comment.
