Trump border czar: Expect 'flood' of agents if NYS won't help ICE

President Donald Trump’s border czar threatened Tuesday to "flood" New York with federal Immigration and Customs agents if the State Legislature approves a bill banning local cooperation with ICE.

Tom Homan, Trump’s point man on immigration, delivered his remarks at a national border security expo, just days after Newsday and other news outlets reported that Gov. Kathy Hochul and state lawmakers are closing a deal on a bill to ban 287(g) cooperative agreements between counties and the federal government.

Trump has said he wants to deport millions of undocumented immigrants, focusing particularly on those with criminal records. But Hochul and others have said ICE agents have gotten out of control, going well beyond their original mandate of pursuing violent criminals.

Homan said the Trump administration will react quickly if New York enacts a ban.

"You know what’s going to happen in places like New York that pass this ridiculous legislation not to work with us?" Homan said in livestreams of the expo posted online.

"We’re going to flood the zone. You’re going to see more ICE agents than you ever seen before," Homan said. "So congratulations. ... You’re going to see more ICE agents in your neighborhood."

Hochul, speaking at the State Capitol just after Homan’s remarks, repeated a conversation she said she had with Trump — he promised to increase ICE's presence in New York only if the governor asked for it.

"All I have to say to Tom Homan is, Donald Trump himself said he would not send a surge of ICE agents to the state of NY unless I ask," Hochul said. "I’m not asking."

Minnesota deaths

Criticism of ICE agents has risen this year after federal immigration agents shot and killed two people in separate incidents in Minnesota. In New York, Hochul and the Democrat-led Legislature are in the final stages of hammering out an agreement to limit ICE actions in the state.

Besides outlawing 287(g) agreements between counties and the feds, the 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 immigration enforcement officers from concealing their faces — which the Trump administration calls unconstitutional. 

Hochul and house leaders are expected to announce a deal on legislation this month.

Homan said a ban on collaboration agreements would increase "collateral arrests" of people ICE isn't targeting but who are in proximity of those it pursues.

If the Trump administration wanted to block New York's actions, it would have to sue in federal court to get, for example, the 287(g) provision declared illegal. That's in part because counties aren't compelled to cooperate with the feds on immigration enforcement, but some choose to, state officials said.

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.

'Good partnership'

Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, the Republican nominee for governor, has touted his county's 287(g) agreement with ICE, contending it was a "good partnership" that has resulted in the roundup of thousands of illegal immigrants who are wanted for alleged crimes.

More than 2,600 immigrants were held on behalf of ICE last year at the Nassau County Correctional Center in East Meadow, Newsday has reported. That included alleged criminals but also many people with no criminal record.

Blakeman met with the president in Washington Tuesday and, afterward, didn't directly respond to a question about Homan's threat to flood New York with federal agents. He did reiterate his vow to sue, as a county executive, to overturn any ban on cooperation agreements. 

 "My county has a right to share information with federal law enforcement and to cooperate with federal law enforcement, and Kathy Hochul and the  State Legislature can't tell me, as the county executive of my county that my local police department and local sheriff department can't cooperate with federal agents," Blakeman said. "That they cannot do, and I will take them to court over that."

Newsday's Laura Figueroa Hernandez contributed to this report.

By Yancey Roy

yancey.roy@newsday.com@yanceyroy