Hochul: NYS will move ahead in ending local cooperation pacts with ICE

ALBANY — Gov. Kathy Hochul said Thursday that local deals to work with federal authorities to detain migrants whether they have criminal records or not are "just wrong," and she said New York is moving ahead with a plan to ban the agreements.

Her proposal puts her in direct conflict with her Republican challenger, Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, who is working with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement under what is known as a 287(g) agreement to assist in civil immigration efforts.

Hochul said she has broad agreement with the legislature on a budget plan that would ban those agreements and put guardrails on how ICE agents can operate in the state.

President Donald Trump's border czar, Tom Homan, said earlier this week he would "flood" New York with ICE agents if the state moves ahead with the ban. But Hochul said she's not backing down.

She said it was easy to discern between people who have committed a crime and migrants who are not suspected of any wrongdoing. "Those who are just here, why are they rounded up and treated like animals ... it's just wrong," she said.

Blakeman has repeatedly touted his county's agreement with ICE, saying it has resulted in the roundup of thousands of immigrants living in the country illegally who are wanted for alleged crimes. He said earlier this week that he would sue if the state banned local cooperation agreements.

Besides outlawing cooperation agreements between counties and ICE, Hochul's package would restrict agents from going into "sensitive" locations such as schools and churches without a judicial warrant, and establish a right to sue federal officers for constitutional violations.

It also would prohibit law enforcement officers from concealing their faces.

If the ban is enacted and a county tries to sign a cooperation deal anyway, it would be up to the state attorney general to enforce the prohibition.

Assembly Minority Leader Edward Ra said Hochul’s plan would make New Yorkers less safe.

"Putting up roadblocks between local, state and federal law enforcement is never a good idea, and it's never going to make us more safe," he said.

Meanwhile, immigration groups criticized Hochul for not going far enough to wall off local law enforcement from working with ICE.

Yasmine Farhang, executive director of the Immigrant Defense Project, said Trump’s crackdown is causing widespread fear throughout immigrant communities in the state.

"Yet, the immigration package being finalized by the governor and leaders in the legislature continues to give law enforcement carte blanche to collude with ICE, using discriminatory and aggressive policing to surveil, racially profile and target immigrant New Yorkers," she said.

Newsday reported this week that less than 5% of the thousands of immigrants held in Nassau County jail through the partnership with ICE had been convicted of violent crimes.

Hochul was highly critical of ICE’s practices, noting the agency had detained nursing mothers, students and young children.

"Come on, that's not who we are, not as New Yorkers, not as Americans," she said. "States like New York can and must be a guardrail against ICE overreach."