Tensions driven by the federal program to deport millions of immigrants here illegally were displayed in Westbury Tuesday when an angry group surrounded a car crash involving a federal agent in an unmarked vehicle. Close to 100 people shouted at police and federal officials to leave their community. Quickly, Nassau County Police Department vehicles, ambulances and cops on horseback materialized. The group dispersed. Clearly, the county was anticipating trouble from the ongoing immigration crackdown.

But the incident reveals something else. A scenario requiring instant police backup was not part of the picture drawn by County Executive Bruce Blakeman on Feb. 6 when he made a gesture at dousing concerns about Department of Homeland Security operations. The concerns were aroused two days earlier when the county executive, an effusive booster of President Donald Trump, “enthusiastically” prepared to assist the newly consecrated U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Blakeman and Police Commissioner Patrick Ryder had said 10 county detectives would be deputized to work with ICE agents.

Facing worried inquiries, Blakeman briefly shifted his tone to suggest a very limited role for county cops in the operations ahead. On Feb. 6, he released a video addressed to the Latino community, with a Spanish speaker translating beside him. Carefully worded, the presentation sounded awkward and reticent.

“To those individuals who may not be documented as in the U.S. legally, you can rest assured there will be no sweeps, raids or stops of individuals in the community to determine whether or not someone is here legally,” Blakeman said then.

But raids have now begun in the county. Blakeman on Wednesday repeated his assurance from February that the county won’t raid schools, hospitals or houses of worship — this time adding, “unless there’s an emergency or a threat.”

On Feb. 6, Blakeman said: “This program is exclusively designed to remove criminals from our communities who are here illegally. It is not designed to target law-abiding waiters, busboys, landscapers and others who are not criminals even though they may not be in the United States legally.”

By “this program,” the county executive clearly meant the cross-designation of county detectives, not the national mass deportation effort or its impact on Long Island. Before and since the video, there has been local word of waiters, busboys and others who are not criminals disappearing from jobs, leaving small businesses struggling. Assurances that the agents are after “criminals” only, and not just any “illegals,” can no longer work as an official line.

The feds’ whole approach has since morphed. White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller reportedly shouted at ICE agents in a meeting that they must arrest 3,000 people per day to boost deportations. That means snaring people without criminal convictions. The arrests of day workers at a Home Depot triggered violence in Los Angeles.

Because of its shifty strategy, ICE is seen now as an interloper in communities nationwide. This gives Blakeman, like other elected officials, a choice. Will he talk and act independently or only in lockstep support of the MAGA-run federal bureaucracy?

The county executive is said to be weighing a run for governor, but first, he’d have to be reelected in November. Depending on how the crackdown divides people, Blakeman, like other elected executives, may have to face a dicey leadership challenge.

n COLUMNIST DAN JANISON’S opinions are his own.