ALBANY — State court officers, who provide security at every county courthouse in New York, have been advised by their union leader to keep the buildings open to federal Immigration Customs Enforcement agents.

Dennis Quirk, president of the New York State Court Officers Association, said he issued the directive after legal-aid lawyers in New York City told the officers that ICE agents should not be allowed to enter courthouses in search of undocumented immigrants.

“We’re not going to selectively, at the front end of the building, decide who can come in and who can’t come in,” Quirk said in an interview.

He said the union has no position on the Trump administration’s policy of stepping up enforcement actions against people suspected of being in the country illegally.

“These are public buildings, and anyone is entitled to access them,” he said.

SENSITIVE SITES

The ICE website states that federal agents should avoid engaging in enforcement actions at “sensitive locations,” including schools, health-care facilities, places of worship and public demonstrations and marches.

Courthouses are not mentioned in the list.

An ICE spokesman, Khaalid Walls, said he had no immediate comment on the union president’s directive.

FRUSTRATED

Supporters of undocumented immigrants residing in New York are expressing deep concern with ongoing efforts by ICE agents to detain undocumented workers residing in upstate communities.

On Thursday, Steven Choi, director of the New York Immigration Coalition advocacy group, voiced frustration that Gov. Andrew Cuomo had not invested state funds into a legal project whose stated aim is to help those being rounded up by federal agents.

“We want him to make this a priority and fight for it,” Choi said.

ICE agents have detained several upstate immigrants recently in what Choi characterized as the “twisted mandate” from the Trump administration.

The locations where immigrants were detained include the Delaware County community of Fleischmanns, home to a cluster of families from Central America, and Livingston County, where a farmworker identified by the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle as José Coyote Pérez has been held for five weeks.

LIBERTY PROJECT

Last Friday, Cuomo’s office announced that the state was backing creation of the Liberty Protection Project, which it billed as a $15 million public-private partnership aimed at extending free legal services to immigrants regardless of their legal status in this country.

But so far, the project has just $1 million in private funding and no money from the state, Choi said.

The immigration coalition this week urged supporters of immigrants to call Cuomo’s office and insist that the governor “put his money where his mouth is.”

STATE SUPPORT

A Cuomo spokesman argued that the governor has been generous in providing state assistance to new immigrants.

“They should do their homework and read the budget,” said spokesman Richard Azzopardi. “The Governor’s Office for New Americans has been funding immigrant services, with a constant funding stream of state money, for years.

“The Liberty Protection Project supplements this ongoing work with private funds and bono representation from more than 180 advocacy groups,” he added.

Joe Mahoney covers the New York Statehouse for CNHI’s newspapers and websites. Reach him at jmahoney@cnhi.com