Outraged residents in a New York town have demanded the resignation of a school board member they claim is an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer.
Christopher Harrigan is a trustee on the Mahopac Central School District’s Board of Education. He had been a resident of Mahopac since 2012 and has nearly 20 years of law enforcement experience, according to his member profile.
Harrigan has been at the center of a recent controversy about his day job. A group protesting immigration enforcement in Putnam County has claimed that Harrigan has been participating in ICE arrests. The Independent could not verify that Harrigan is an ICE agent and has reached out to him for comment.
Things got heated at a school board meeting on Thursday when some attendees raised concerns about a conflict of interest with Harrigan as a trustee.
"How can you ensure safety when one of your own is working for an organization that is terrorizing children and families?" Mahopac resident Laura Ferrelli said, per ABC7.
President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown in cities across the United States has caused tensions to rise between anti-ICE protesters and federal agents. Most recently, there has been public outcry after a five-year-old boy and his father were detained by ICE agents in Minnesota.
Liam Ramos and his father, Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, who the Department of Homeland Security has called an “illegal alien from Ecuador,” were detained Tuesday afternoon as they returned home from the child’s preschool. DHS said Conejo Arias had fled, abandoning Ramos, when federal agents approached him and that, for the child’s safety, an ICE officer “remained with the child while the other officers apprehended Conejo Arias.”
The family’s lawyer, Marc Prokosch, told reporters that the father was not an “illegal” migrant and that he was seeking asylum. Mary Granlund, the school board chair for Columbia Heights Public Schools, who witnessed the ICE operation, told reporters that another adult who lived at the family’s house said they would take Ramos.
Meeting attendee, Bailia Lemonik, told Mahopac’s school board Thursday, “We cannot have an individual who is responsible for that fear on our school board,” ABC7 reported.
But the majority of attendees supported Harrigan.
"A trustee's career outside district duties should not be weaponized against them," Mahopac resident Kate Bellantoni said, according to the news outlet.
The school board has also backed Harrigan. Board President Michael Mongon said at the meeting, "This Board of Education stands united behind trustee Chris Harrigan and will not be entertaining his removal.”
