Representatives of immigrant groups such as Workplace Project, The Central American Refugee Center, and American Friends Service Committee organized a press conference to oppose the “deputization of Suffolk Police” at Suffolk County Legislature in Riverhead, New York, on Dec. 7.

Several immigrant community organizations are protesting Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy’s proposal to give county police officers powers of immigration agents.

“A majority of those who will be affected by this are Latinos but South Asians make a sizable community here,” Arif Ulla, a Bangladeshi protester, told News India-Times.

According to the Bangladeshi protester, it was mystifying that when crime rate is going down alongside an increase in immigrant population, the county executive should come up with such a proposal. “I don’t say there is a correlation but...,” Ulla added.

However, Levy attributed a 9 percent drop in crime to reforms introduced in the police department.

“This [decline in crime rate] is evidence that the drop in crime in Suffolk is not merely a result of demographic shifts,” Levy said.

“It’s obvious that many of the reforms implemented by our Police Department, including the common sense plan of redeploying officers which freed up money and allowed the deployment of officers for high crime periods, has paid real dividends,” he said in a press release.