The Partial Observer by Paula DiPerna

An Open Appeal to Community Leaders, in Opposition to the 287(g)

Editor’s Note: Paula DiPerna’s letter to community leaders was dated December 19, 2025 and has been edited by the author for length.

Dear Leaders of Cooperstown and Otsego County:

I write to you as a resident and taxpayer of our beloved Cooperstown and Otsego County, as well as one who travels…far and wide in my professional life and who…sees daily how revered our system of democracy has been and how, on the other hand, people worldwide are shocked and dismayed to see the dismantling of core expectations of decency and due process on matters of immigration to our country.

I write to you also because you are highly strategic and visible leaders in our area, as employers, economic bulwarks, and ambassadors to the world for what we stand for, and the welcome we offer to tourists, workers, and professionals across all sectors.

This critical value of “welcome to visit, live and work in Cooperstown” is now under assault by what appears to be an ad hoc action taken by Sheriff Devlin in the name of the Otsego County Sheriff’s [Office], instigated on his own, to “enter into agreement with ICE” to enhance “community safety” and stipulating the local enforcement agencies (LEAs) would be available to cooperate with ICE in matters related to locating criminals who might be in the community, i.e., immigrants who may rightly or wrongly, without due process, be subject to interdiction and/or detention and/or public questioning and/or capture by ICE.

Sheriff Devlin’s action threatens the economic and social well-being of our overall community, and could cut directly into your efforts to recruit and retain staff, as well as to attract visitors to our numerous cultural events.

His initiative is counter to all efforts being made to highlight our area as a hub of welcome and “the perfect village.” It has the potential to significantly erode our reputation, as well as our inherent sense of community and compassion.

The agreement was entered into by Sheriff Devlin without authorization or request by the Otsego County Board of [Representatives], and without any explicit budget appropriation dedicated to ICE support that would have had to be voted upon by the board…

Sheriff Devlin’s initiative sets up worrying situations:

1. Potential for conflict and danger on the streets of Cooperstown, as police forces and ICE try to work out who is in charge of any given matter related to ICE, especially if someone picked up by ICE resists.
2. Concern among visitors that ICE is on the watch, and we all know that too often ICE has been picking up people either because of their skin color or employment sector.  Already at least one summer worker at The Otesaga Resort Hotel has suffered indignities and erroneous deportation orders due to mistaken paperwork on the part of ICE and the intermediary employment agency as far away as Florida.
3. The idea that ICE would be patrolling in Cooperstown based on the initiative of just one man, acting on his own if on his authority, flies in the face of the atmosphere of welcome and diversity our area has been developing for decades.
4. Threats to your ability to recruit and retain staff, not to mention to attract tourists to our numerous offerings, including our museums, Glimmerglass Festival, etc.
5. Flies in the face of due process guaranteed by our Constitution, as Sheriff Devlin’s statement does not call for due process or judicial certification to establish in advance that any person potentially picked up by ICE on our streets actually has a criminal record and that there is an actual warrant outstanding.

This means ICE is free to confront any person it chooses to inquire to see papers, passports, etc.

• On a personal note, this year I wrote a column for “The Freeman’s Journal” on our wonderful HoF weekend this past summer, where the fantastic baseball player from Japan, Ishiro Suzuki, was inducted. The weekend was a celebration of openness, and yet when I interviewed various people, many of them said they almost did not come this year for fear of ICE. Fear at HoF weekend? Unheard of.
• Overly empowers one elected official, in this case the sheriff who, as an elected official, apparently can enter into local-national relationships on his own—which seems like an abuse of power at the least especially on matters such as this that touch all sectors of our society and economy.

As you know, fear is not a motivator and ordinary people should not have to live with it. ICE has overstepped its bounds and guidelines nationwide, as we see and know, given media coverage and the numerous wrongful detentions that are now part of the judicial record in state after state, city after city.

Finally, Sheriff Devlin’s accusation smears our public image and reputation and, if media attention follows, could significantly damage the economy and employment prospects of our area.

In short, I respectfully request that you communicate urgently with the Otsego County Board of [Representatives] to require them at the very least to issue a parallel statement that effectively negates Sheriff Devlin’s initiative and/or at least states that it will apply only in matters where a judicial warrant has been issued and a finding of criminal record has been explicitly established by a sitting judge.

Thank you and I will be glad to speak with you as a group or individually about this issue.

Paula DiPerna is an author and global environmental policy advisor. Her most recent book is “Pricing the Priceless…” (Wiley).

Update from the author: Since I wrote the letter on December 19, Sheriff Devlin has stated that the agreement with ICE applies only to persons “already in our jails” and that the agreement is needed so that he would not have to release “dangerous criminals” into our community because of “sanctuary” status.  This is even more confounding, since there is no way a “sanctuary” status would over-ride legal convictions, and therefore no conceivable circumstances that would force the sheriff to release a convicted person already in jail, let alone a dangerous criminal.  Also, since I wrote this letter, in Minneapolis, we have all seen a masked ICE agent fire through a windshield three times and killing an American citizen, a mother, who was turning her car away from the agent, and also shoot a man, an American citizen and Veterans Hospital nurse, in the back, killing him when he was already pinned to the ground. We’ve seen images of ICE protesters being sprayed with pepper spray in the face and, wearing equipment made for armies in action on a hot battleground, rushing the door of a woman in her doorway at a ratio of nearly 10:1.  This is ICE at war with us, all of us, regardless of our views of immigration or protests, behaving like a renegade domestic military, trained for combat and apparently answerable to no one.  We should not voluntarily bring them anywhere near our community and a belief that such agreements improves public safety is unfounded and scary.   

THE VIEWS EXPRESSED BY CONTRIBUTORS ARE THEIR OWN AND NOT NECESSARILY THE VIEW OF ALLOTSEGO AND ITS AFFILIATES.