fbpx
  • Subscribe & Support
  • Print Edition
    • Get Home Delivery
    • Read ePaper Online
    • Newsstand Locations
  • HV1 Magazines
  • Contact
    • Advertise
    • Submit Your Event
    • Customer Support
    • Submit A News Tip
    • Send Letter to the Editor
    • Where’s My Paper?
  • Our Newsletters
  • Manage HV1 Account
  • Free HV1 Trial
Hudson Valley One
  • News
    • Schools
    • Business
    • Sports
    • Crime
    • Politics & Government
  • What’s UP
    • Calendar Of Events
    • Subscribe to the What’s UP newsletter
  • Opinion
    • Letters
    • Columns
  • Local
    • Special Sections
    • Local History
  • Marketplace
    • All Classified Ads
    • Post a Classified Ad
  • Obituaries
  • Log Out
No Result
View All Result
  • News
    • Schools
    • Business
    • Sports
    • Crime
    • Politics & Government
  • What’s UP
    • Calendar Of Events
    • Subscribe to the What’s UP newsletter
  • Opinion
    • Letters
    • Columns
  • Local
    • Special Sections
    • Local History
  • Marketplace
    • All Classified Ads
    • Post a Classified Ad
  • Obituaries
  • Log Out
No Result
View All Result
Hudson Valley One
No Result
View All Result

Woodstock tussles with local immigrant protection policy

by Nick Henderson
January 30, 2025
in Politics & Government
0

Alan Weber, a vocal critic of Woodstock’s town government, has removed himself from a human-rights resolution he himself had proposed, claiming references to immigrants were removed.

In response to the Trump administration, Weber had proposed a human-rights resolution to protect those most vulnerable, including LGBTQ+ and undocumented immigrants. He accused councilmember Laura Ricci of removing references to immigrants from a version of a resolution to be approved by the town board.

“I negotiated with her in good faith, making several changes more than I personally would have liked in an attempt to overcome her concern about potentially disobeying the law by the town’s refusing to cooperate with immigration police,” Weber said. “I thought we had made progress. Now it has come to my attention that she decided to just drop any mention of immigrants entirely from the resolution — which otherwise remains, in my exact words, ‘clearly the two most immediately threatened groups are the trans and immigrant populations.’”

He said Ricci was uncomfortable with the section on immigrants. He termed exempting immigrants from the specific umbrella of populations whose human rights Woodstock supports “is an act of moral cowardice.”

Councilmember Anula Courtis, former chair of the town’s Human Rights Commission, said she had been working on a human-rights document with Ricci that incorporated some of what Weber proposed.

“We want to be very careful in talking about reproductive rights and address it in a more aligned manner with the state. So if the state should update the reproductive section of their human rights laws, we automatically will be updated with them. And we also want to align ourselves with the United Nations,” Courtis said. “We want something that is going to be updated, that is going to keep us modern, and something that I think of it as a living document.”

Ricci said it was Courtis’ idea to incorporate the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the United Nations in 1948. “I really appreciate Anula’s idea that says let’s tie in with what’s already there federally,” Ricci said. “Let’s tie in with what’s already there by the state. And so we’re still doing the thinking of what’s already there and what do we need to add.”

In 2017, the town passed a human-rights resolution. The commission worked with the police department to limit its cooperation with federal immigration authorities. The town police will only cooperate with a directive signed by a judge that has a suspect’s name.

The town, however, has no power over other law-enforcement agencies and cannot prevent ICE or other immigration authorities from carrying out their duties.

Recently, the Trump justice department ordered investigations of state and city law-enforcement officials who refuse to carry out the administration’s immigration-policy directives.

Tags: members
Join the family! Grab a free month of HV1 from the folks who have brought you substantive local news since 1972. We made it 50 years thanks to support from readers like you. Help us keep real journalism alive.
- Geddy Sveikauskas, Publisher

Nick Henderson

Nick Henderson was raised in Woodstock starting at the age of three and attended Onteora schools, then SUNY New Paltz after spending a year at SUNY Potsdam under the misguided belief he would become a music teacher. He became the news director at college radio station WFNP, where he caught the journalism bug and the rest is history. He spent four years as City Hall reporter for Foster’s Daily Democrat in Dover, NH, then moved back to Woodstock in 2003 and worked on the Daily Freeman copy desk until 2013. He has covered Woodstock for Ulster Publishing since early 2014.

Related Posts

Woodstock to review police jobs as costs rise
Community

McKenna takes the heat again

June 22, 2025
Woodstock music option draws ire
Politics & Government

Back to the future for Woodstock noise ordinance 

June 19, 2025
Highest state court considers Kingston’s rent regulation
Politics & Government

Big Kingston rental-law win!

June 18, 2025
Arts under attack: Trump cuts Endowment funding for Ulster County’s cultural institutions
Art & Music

Arts under attack: Trump cuts Endowment funding for Ulster County’s cultural institutions

June 18, 2025
Consolidation consultant contract approved; council comments to come
Politics & Government

Mayor sees similarities in consolidation and dissolution

June 17, 2025
Public hearings planned for proposed zoning change for the Winston Farm development
Politics & Government

Public hearings planned for proposed zoning change for the Winston Farm development

June 16, 2025
Next Post
Climate change got worse in 2024

Climate change got worse in 2024

Weather

Kingston, NY
77°
Cloudy
5:19 am8:36 pm EDT
Feels like: 77°F
Wind: 0mph SSE
Humidity: 88%
Pressure: 30.03"Hg
UV index: 0
TueWedThu
100°F / 72°F
93°F / 70°F
81°F / 63°F
powered by Weather Atlas

Subscribe

Independent. Local. Substantive. Subscribe now.

×
We've expanded coverage and need your support. Subscribe now for unlimited access -- free article(s) remain for the month.
View Subscription Offers Sign In
  • Subscribe & Support
  • Print Edition
  • HV1 Magazines
  • Contact
  • Our Newsletters
  • Manage HV1 Account
  • Free HV1 Trial

© 2022 Ulster Publishing

No Result
View All Result
  • News
    • Schools
    • Business
    • Sports
    • Crime
    • Politics & Government
  • What’s Happening
    • Calendar Of Events
    • Art
    • Books
    • Kids
    • Lifestyle & Wellness
    • Food & Drink
    • Music
    • Nature
    • Stage & Screen
  • Opinions
    • Letters
    • Columns
  • Local
    • Special Sections
    • Local History
  • Marketplace
    • All Classified Ads
    • Post a Classified Ad
  • Obituaries
  • Subscribe & Support
  • Contact Us
    • Customer Support
    • Advertise
    • Submit A News Tip
  • Print Edition
    • Read ePaper Online
    • Newsstand Locations
    • Where’s My Paper
  • HV1 Magazines
  • Manage HV1 Account
  • Log In
  • Free HV1 Trial
  • Subscribe to Our Newsletters
    • Hey Kingston
    • New Paltz Times
    • Woodstock Times
    • Week in Review

© 2022 Ulster Publishing