(dramatic music) - Ice arrests on Long Island.

A Newsday investigation exposes a new place where agents are going after immigrants.

The cell phone ban in schools, the benefits teachers and students are seeing because of it.

Democrats like Zohran Mamdani stole the national spotlight on election night, but on the island, big GOP victories made sure the Republican Party stayed in the driver's seat.

Welcome to Island Insider, I'm Macy Egeland.

This half hour, we're going to dive into the issues that affect the everyday lives of Long Islanders.

We're also taking a hard look at the impact of the latest election.

In 2026, Republicans are taking control in just about every leadership post in Nassau County government.

Here's how it will look.

The county executive, the county legislature, all three town supervisors, and for the first time in more than a half a century, the entire city council in Long Beach will all be GOP controlled.

So how did they do it?

We spoke with Republican leaders about what they say made the difference.

I know that there's 110,000 more Democrats than Republicans in Nassau County.

So it's the independents.

And they clearly came across to us this year.

I made it my business to broaden our base, to go into communities that Republicans haven't gone into before, and to talk about issues in an honest way.

And Newsday TV's political analyst Joy Brown is with me now.

Joy, we heard the big party bigwigs talk about how they pulled this off, but Newsday has these interactive maps that detail the changes in voting trends that made this GOP victory a reality.

Walk us through those.

Well, let's take a look at 2021.

Bruce Blakeman stuns by winning over incumbent county executive Laura Curran.

Did it by a little over 2,000 votes.

And if you look at a map, you see a whole lot of blue.

Let's take it to 2025, where Blakeman wins by more than 10 points over his Democratic challenger.

In all three towns, Republicans made big gains.

Or Hempstead, Oyster Bay, North Hempstead was interesting because it showed fewer Dems voted.

Glen Cove, if you go up north and take a look at Glen Cove, you can see that between 2021 and 2025, what was blue turned red.

- Seeing a lot of red on that map that you're seeing on your screen right now for 2025.

So why did this happen?

Is this independent voters?

Is this new people in the area?

Just a change in political beliefs?

What started this?

- Here's what happened.

They're not enough Republicans to do this.

There are a lot of Dems who could do what they wanted.

In this particular instance, it was the Blanks and Dems that stepped forward and say, hey, we've heard a convincing message from the GOP, and they heard convincing messages all across the county.

- An interesting shift.

Thanks for breaking it down for us, Joy.

We appreciate it.

- Thank you.

- All right, so even though Bruce Blakeman won another term as county executive, he has already announced that he's considering a run for governor, but he'll have to get around a big roadblock.

And that roadblock is upstate Congresswoman Elise Stefanik.

She has declared she's looking for the party endorsement.

Now, Stefanik has the backing of the state, uh, the state party chairman, as well as a majority of New York's GOP leaders.

So does that mean there would be a primary?

What I do see is that there's an enthusiasm for two things.

Number one, to take out Kathy Hochul and replace our governor.

Number two is that we're all talking the same language, united.

We want to avoid primaries.

We want to work together.

Now, there's a new legal challenge to a state law that calls for most races to be held on even years.

The new rules mean big changes for candidates, the parties and the public.

For example, this is what the ballot might look like in twenty twenty eight in Nassau County.

People would be casting votes for president, U.S.

Senate, your local representative in the House, New York State Senate, New York Assembly, county executive, county legislator, town supervisor, judges, and statewide or local propositions.

That is a long list.

Now, Newsday TV's Joy Brown explains why there's strong opposition to this new law.

If that's where it goes, that's where it goes.

All the way to the United States Supreme Court, that is.

The Republican Party in Nassau and Suffolk are fighting to scrap the even-year election law.

The Democrat-led state legislature recently approved a change, shifting many local elections from odd to even-numbered years.

That puts them on the same ballot with major state and national races, including New York State Governor and President.

They unilaterally, without any input from county legislators or town boards, decided to move local elections to even years.

Supporters say the change boosts voter turnout.

Critics say it drowns out local concerns.

And when the fight ended up in state courts, the supporters won.

We never thought we were going to get an even shake in the state system.

We knew we had to take it to the other option, the federal option, which is far more transparent and far fairer.

Under the current law, Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, who is considering a run next year for governor, will serve three instead of the usual four years.

We have a lawsuit pending right now in federal court.

We'll see what happens.

Whether it's three years or four years, I'm going to give it my best.

-Meanwhile, Nassau GOP Chairman Joe Cairo says he's ready for whatever the federal courts decide.

-If the rules are changed, we'll play by those rules.

If the rules -- If the federal court does something else, then we'll play by those rules.

-For now, however, the even-year election timeline remains in place.

Joy Brown, Newsday TV.

On the national level, the Trump administration stance on immigration and arrests made by ice has triggered protests on Long Island.

This is one of many demonstrations put together in recent months.

These protesters wanted ice to halt operations on the east end where there are many migrant workers.

The demonstration followed this arrest.

A lawyer for the Guatemalan man lying on the ground there says the man was partially pinned under that vehicle.

Ice and South Hampton police deny that, saying the man was not run over.

As Newsday TV's Andrew Anger found out, ice isn't just arresting people on the streets.

I can't even remember if I was running, if I was walking, if I was screaming, but I remember that I was crying.

Saida Faqirzada describing what happened on October 14th when her brother Ali was detained at Homeland Security's US Citizenship and Immigration Services office in Bethpage.

Ali had previously worked on projects for the US-backed Afghan government and escaped the country with his family after the Taliban took over several years ago.

His asylum application was in process here in the US so Faqirzada wasn't expecting any trouble when he arrived for a scheduled credible fear interview in Bethpage.

Saida waiting for him in another part of the office.

One minute later he sent me a text saying they're taking me.

This is the new flashpoint.

Newsday reporter Bart Jones says ICE arrests of immigrants outside federal courtrooms in Manhattan and in other cities are becoming more commonplace.

But in Bethpage?

Previously, it was very rare for anybody to be arrested in this office.

Faqirzada was eventually taken to an ICE facility in New Jersey, even though, according to his attorney, he was a student at upstate Bard College, working legally in the U.S., following all the rules.

If you'd been living your life in a law-abiding way, which Ali certainly had, you wouldn't expect to be arrested.

The asylum program is a scam.

President Trump has criticized the asylum process over the years, saying immigrants are taking advantage of the system.

Lawyers, they tell them what to say.

But as Newsday has learned, more and more asylum-seeking immigrants are being detained at this regional immigration office, one of only 11 in the country, while their cases are working their way through the system.

It's very disturbing.

Abdulloy Bah says his friend Ibrahima Barry from Guinea was told to come to Bethpage recently for an asylum interview, but was surprised with handcuffs.

So they said to us, "We're from ICE.

We have a warrant for you, Mr.

Barry.

Today we're here to take you in."

Newsday reached out to ICE, but it has not commented about the detentions at Bethpage.

Ali's sister says since her family came to the United States to escape the Taliban, she now fears if her brother was deported back to Afghanistan, he could be killed.

We trusted the United States process.

We trusted the justice and the system.

We want him back home.

In Bethpage, Andrew Enger, Newsday TV.

It's supposed to save lives, but at the same time, the bus camera ticket program is generating millions of dollars.

How a Newsday investigation found evidence a company running the program was offering cash incentives to one district just to sign on.

Doug Geet has more.

There are claims against the company that runs the Town of Hempstead's school bus camera ticket program.

According to court documents obtained by Newsday, it offered to compensate at least two districts to join the program.

Newsday TV's Virginia Huey has the story.

Nine months after a Newsday investigation found the town of Hempstead wrote more than 80,000 school bus camera tickets worth about $20 million in school districts that didn't authorize the program, court documents show a new development.

We found that even though the town of Hempstead has been saying that the tickets issued in school districts that don't participate in its school bus camera program are valid, we found that behind the scenes they've been attempting to get these non-participating districts to sign up, in some cases going as far as offering financial incentive for them to join the program.

While reviewing a temporary injunction filing on the bus patrol program, Newsday investigative reporter Peyton Guyen found bus patrol offered large sums of money earlier this year to at least one school district to sign on to the bus camera program.

Those documents show that bus patrol and the town of Hempstead were offering to Hempstead School District 10% of net revenues from tickets issued in that district to them if they were to join the program.

Initially, actually, we were told by the spokesman for Hempstead District that instead of a percentage of revenue, they offered a million dollars.

The email chain between Bus Patrol and the district shows that the document offering 10% of bus ticket revenue to Hempstead District, if signed, would be effective retroactively to December 1, 2022, even though it was created recently.

Municipal law expert Paul Sabatino says that's problematic.

What's problematic about the retroactive date is that the general principle of law in our country and in New York state is that laws should be prospective in nature, whether you're adopting them at the county level, school district level, village, town, city, state, because people need to know what the rules of engagement are on a prospective basis so that they know whether they're crossing that line or not.

Bus patrol and the town of Hempstead declined comment.

Reporting for Newsday TV, I'm Virginia Huey.

All right, joining me now to talk more about this, Newsday investigative reporter you just saw Peyton Guyon.

And also joining us, State Senator Celia Bino of Westbury.

Your district includes Hempstead, so thanks both for being here.

Peyton, a lot here, pretty eye-opening.

Number one, I think most Long Islanders don't realize that school districts had to opt into this kind of program.

They assumed it was just blanket, but that's the case, right?

Yeah, both state and local law requires that in order for bus cameras to operate on behalf of a school district, the district has to explicitly agree to participate.

And what we reported earlier this year was that there were four districts within the town of Hempstead.

It's Baldwin, Hempstead, Lawrence, and Valley Stream 13 never agreed to participate in the program.

Still, over the last two years, 80,000 school bus camera tickets were issued within those districts.

that in itself is that improper?

Were they not supposed to do that or is that like a gray area?

The attorneys that we've spoken to seem pretty convinced that that would be that is not in line with what the law says.

The law says that it's not in line.

Yeah so so you know not maybe for me to say improper but we have spoken to people who are raising very serious questions about whether or not that is how it was supposed to go.

All right Senator let's bring you in before your life in Albany you were a county legislator and introduced this bill at the county level?

Absolutely along with legislator Arne Drucker and we did it in the interest of protecting students in so much that we didn't allow for any additional fees to be attached to those tickets.

We wanted to make sure that kids could embark or disembark from buses safely.

And this was the purpose of the bill.

Okay, and just so our viewers understand, you tried to pass it on a county level, it didn't pass, but each town, each of the three towns in Nassau did approve their own program.

So we opted Nassau County in, utilizing the legislation that we passed in the county legislature.

It just so happened that each town then decided to run their own program.

Gotcha.

Okay.

So what do you think of this, if this happened, if financial incentives were offered?

I think it's unfair.

We should be just in how we administer government.

And I think that to try and do it retroactively is not fair and just to those drivers who would have had tickets, you know, pushed on them through these cameras three years ago.

It's just not the way to administer this program.

And that's in part what got Nassau County in trouble with those speed zone cameras at schools.

We have to administer government in a way that's transparent and fair and I don't think this would be fair at all.

Yeah, Peyton you've been investigating this for months, right?

What was initially the town's response?

So the day after we reported about the 80,000 school bus camera tickets in those four districts, the town, former supervisor Don Claven came and said any of these improperly issued tickets need to be either voided or refunded.

And then we didn't hear anything from the town about what was going on with that.

And then a few months later we heard from the town that, oh, after a conversation with bus patrol we've determined that perhaps these tickets were not improperly issued.

How much money are we talking about, roughly?

For 80,000 tickets, I mean, if paid, we're talking $20 million.

And all that to the town or it's split with the company?

The town splits with bus patrol.

The town gets 55 percent, bus patrol gets 45 percent of that ticket revenue.

Okay, and the money allegedly offered by the company would have come out of both pools or that's unclear?

Our understanding is that the offer being made that this either the 10 percent or the million dollars that was offered to Hempstead District that it would have come from the town's share of the revenue.

- Okay, are you hearing from constituents, you know, in that district about this?

Or maybe not this specific issue, but just school bus cameras.

- Yeah.

- 'Cause I know that's a thing that really irks a lot of Long Islanders.

- Absolutely, you know, people don't like money grabs.

They don't like anything that appears to be money grabs.

And that's why the spirit of this legislation was for the purpose of safety.

As a former school board member, I know that many school boards across the state, they worry about their students, not only when they're in the four walls of the building, but how will they get there and traverse there safely.

And so in speaking with other school board members across the district, they don't feel that this is fair or just, that they would be looking to retroactively penalize people for a program that was not lawfully allowed to even administer tickets.

So this is, you know, listen, there's a thing, one of my mentors told me a long time ago, there's three different decisions you can make when you're an elected official.

The good political decision, governmental decision, or what's right.

And this is wrong.

And I'm happy that Hempstead School Board has said no, we will not be on the wrong side of this issue.

Okay, interesting.

Final thought?

I should add that, yeah, part of the reason that the Hempstead School District said no was that when they came to the table with Bus Patrol about this, they said, "Okay, we might join if the terms are right, but you have to get rid of all of these tickets that were issued previously before we agree to this."

And evidently when Bus Patrol came back to the table, that wasn't part of the agreement, and so the district said no.

Wow.

The story a lot of people probably not unaware of, but very eye-opening.

Thank you both.

All right.

All right.

Now to a change in policy that's affecting children in schools across the island and the state.

Newsday TV looks at the impact so far of the school cell phone ban.

I'm Jasmine Anderson.

At the start of this school year, students across the island came to class without something very familiar to them, their phones.

That's because the state's bell-to-bell cell phone ban went into effect.

It requires public school students put away their smartphones for the entire day.

Now that the school year is well underway, how is the rollout going?

Joining me now to talk more about this is Newsday Education reporter Dandan Zoe, Bret Strauss, Valley Stream Memorial Junior High School principal, and John Caulfield, a middle school counselor and president of the Levittown Teachers Union.

Thank you all for joining me.

I want to begin with Dandan.

Explain more about the cell phone ban and how is it actually being enforced?

So right now there are about two approaches.

So students when they get into the school the first thing they do is put it away in their lockers or in the lockable pouch.

And they retrieve it at the end of the school day either from their lockers and for their pouches they open it at the end of the school day.

Okay so there's some options there.

And Bret, how does your school enforce the ban and were you worried about it at first?

So we enforce the ban by requiring students, as Dandan said, by putting them in their lockers.

We expect students as they enter the building, once the first bell rings, all the cell phones are away and we shouldn't see them for the end of the day.

If we do happen to see a child with a phone, we take the phone away.

The first time we have to take a phone, the student gets it back at the end of the school day.

If the student has their phone out a second time, their parents have to come pick it up.

We've been very fortunate in that we haven't had any instances where there's been third or fourth time repeated.

If that's the case, we hold the phone for a longer period of time until the parent can come pick it up.

When we first heard about the cell phone ban, we were all nervous.

We thought it was going to be a full-time job, collecting phones, fighting with students, fighting with parents.

But it hasn't been that at all.

Everybody's been on board and it's been terrific.

We're about two months into this, so off to a good start.

That's good to hear.

Well, John, I want to bring you into the conversation.

Was there pushback from parents?

What about the students?

If so, how was that handled?

Yeah, I look, I think the more appropriate word is probably anxiety, you know, but our district, especially our central office administration, our building level of administration did such a fantastic job of involving all the major stakeholders in Levittown to have conversations about what this might look like as September approached.

And I think that there was just a lot of reassuring going on on the phone with parents, reassuring them that there will be ways to still keep in contact with their kids.

You know, I think it was more of an anxiety because the phones provided some connections still between home and school.

And, you know, unfortunately, I remember a day and age where I worked in Levittown and cell phones didn't exist.

So there were always ways historically to get in touch with a parent or get in touch with your child if you needed to.

We have ways to bring them down to the main office and use a landline phone or through the school counseling department.

We could still get kids in touch with their parents and vice versa if needed.

So I think it was not so much pushback but anxiety and we just did a lot of reassuring in the months leading up to the start of the school year.

So communication, communication is what I'm getting there.

And Dandan, we know New York's policy is part of the growing trend.

Let's talk about that.

Right.

So New York this year is one of 17 states to begin new restrictions in school and there are many other states nationwide who have already done it.

Florida was the first state to implement the law, a similar restriction.

So yeah, we've seen this kind of growing everywhere.

Okay.

Governor Hochul pushed for the ban saying it will minimize distractions and improve youth mental health.

This is the common goal here.

John, are you seeing that?

Yeah, you know, there's been a significant positive outcome here already.

I think the long term effect on mental health is still to be seen, but the ban has already increased what we believe to be so many positive things that will ultimately have positive impacts on kids' mental health.

For example, the student engagement has gone up significantly in just a couple of months.

You see kids interacting and engaging in the hallways between periods, in the cafeterias.

You see when they're packing up their belongings because the bell is going to ring and the next period is on the way, they're engaging with one another.

So the improvement or increase in social interaction and student engagement with one another has been tremendous.

And I think ultimately over time, yes, you will see what is a positive impact on students' mental health.

I think it's just a little too early in this event and in this endeavor to really see if yet there is an overall positive impact on mental health.

But we're certainly well on our way and there are indicators that are pointing us right in the right direction, no doubt.

Well, Bret, what changes are you seeing in your students?

I hear they're spending a lot more time outside.

So one of our bigger concerns was the lunchrooms.

Students didn't have their phones to go on and they were finished eating.

They had 45 minutes on what they were going to be doing.

So we initiated a program where kids could go outside and have recess.

And it's been amazing.

I mean, kids are outside, they're playing, they're on the field, they're laughing together.

We've also seen students less inclined to be alone.

We were talking to one student who talked about where she would have typically been on her phone in the cafeteria.

She was off her phone.

She saw another student who was sitting alone.

She went up to them and now they're friends.

So we're seeing students engage with each other, talk to each other, and the playing outside is amazing.

And just hearing the kids laugh and playing and just being kids, it's really nice.

- And making new connections.

- It's remarkable.

- That's what we wanna see.

Dandan, are there any exemptions to this rule?

'Cause I'm sure there are parents out there who, like you said, maybe they're on the fence.

What are some of the exemptions?

- Right, so the exemptions are for medical, family, and educational reasons.

For example, if you have a medical condition, you need to monitor through your phone, you're exempt.

And or if you have to arrange care for a family member, or if you're an English language learner, you need the phone for translation services, so those are exempt.

- Okay, so there are exceptions to the rule.

- Right.

- Well, I wanna end the conversation with you, John and Bret.

One more question for you.

John, I'll start with you.

Do you eventually think this will become the new normal?

I really do think that's possible.

I think you heard Brett say it at the beginning of our conversation.

We were anxious about what this would look like and how our teachers in their classrooms would manage it, how our administrators in the buildings would manage it.

I think there was a lot of anxiety around that.

But we've seen such a buy-in, and we've seen so much compliance with the new rule, that I think that this could be the new norm, that this will be compliance across the board.

I do believe that that is sustainable over the course of time.

I also think because the rule applies to everyone, that you got so much buy-in.

So a lot of the anxiety, again, that we had as educators, especially our classroom teachers leading up to the school year, has been alleviated because we've seen so much compliance and buy-in from the students, it's made management all that more easy, for sure.

Yeah, I could see it being the new norm.

>> Brett?

>> I agree 100% with John.

So, you know, I think this was the hardest part, because kids were used to bringing their phones.

Now as we cycle through year after year, this becomes what the expectation is, and they know coming in it's not going to be.

They never had it that way.

I think it was harder for the students who were in our school last year who expected they would come in and it would be the exact same way versus a student who was a new, the seventh graders who were newer to our school and that was just something that they just did.

Now every year that will be just what they do.

I think John also mentioned that everybody's doing it.

So there's no, nobody's worried about what they're missing on social media, what their friends are saying because everybody's off of it.

So I think the fact that nothing's happening while they're off their phones prevents the concerned about what's going on.

So they're locked into the classroom, locked into new connections, and just overall, just it's an opportunity for everyone to work together as one and get work done in the class.

That's it.

That's it.

Well, it will be interesting to see what changes come from all of this.

This band in the future will follow this very closely.

Maybe at the fourth quarter we'll check in with everyone.

My thanks to Don Donzo, Bret Strauss and John Caulfield for this conversation.

You can read more about this on our website on Newsday.com.

And from all of us at Newsday, thank you for joining us for Island Insider as we explore the issues that affect Long Islanders.

For all the stories you've just seen and a whole lot more, go to our website, Newsday.com.

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