Outraged residents in the New York town of Mahopac have demanded the resignation of a school board member they claim is an agent of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency. Christopher Harrigan, a trustee on the Mahopac Central School District’s Board of Education, has been at the centre of a recent controversy over his alleged day job.
A group protesting immigration enforcement in Putnam County has accused Harrigan of participating in ICE arrests. The Independent could not independently verify whether Harrigan is an ICE agent, and has reached out to him for comment.
Tensions came to a head at a school board meeting on Thursday, where some attendees raised concerns about a potential conflict of interest with Harrigan serving as a trustee. “How can you ensure safety when one of your own is working for an organisation that is terrorising children and families?” said Mahopac resident Laura Ferrelli, according to ABC7.
However, the majority of meeting attendees voiced their support for Harrigan. “A trustee’s career outside district duties should not be weaponised against them,” said Mahopac resident Kate Bellantoni, the news outlet reported.
The school board has also backed Harrigan, with Board President Michael Mongon stating: “This Board of Education stands united behind trustee Chris Harrigan and will not be entertaining his removal.”
President Donald Trump’s crackdown on immigration across the United States has heightened tensions 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 on Tuesday afternoon as they returned home from the child’s preschool. The family’s lawyer has stated that the father was not an “illegal” migrant and was seeking asylum.
The detention of the young child has sparked further outrage among those opposing the Trump administration’s hardline immigration policies.
