On May 27, 2026, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul signed into law one of the most sweeping state measures aimed at obstructing federal immigration enforcement, marking the latest chapter in a yearslong effort to restrict federal immigration enforcement and President Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda.
The bill, known as S9005C, erects unprecedented obstacles to immigration enforcement at every level and represents the modern Left’s playbook for shielding, harboring, and prioritizing criminal illegal aliens over American citizens.
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We cannot and should not accept this reality. Recently, the Department of Justice filed a lawsuit challenging the bill’s provisions that terminate cooperative law enforcement agreements and criminalize federal law enforcement officers for wearing masks. Additional legal challenges should be considered for other provisions of the bill.
America, pay attention. This is the blueprint for the return to mass illegal immigration, amnesty, and open borders.
First, S9005C prohibits state and local law enforcement agencies from entering into new cooperative agreements with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, known as 287(g) agreements, and terminates all existing agreements.
Second, the law prevents New York jails and prisons from renting detention space to federal immigration agencies and authorizes “sensitive locations” to deny immigration agents access to non-public areas.
Third, it creates a new state-based cause of action allowing individuals deemed “within the jurisdiction of the U.S.,” which most Americans would call “illegal aliens,” to sue officials for the deprivation of constitutional rights.
Fourth, it bars state and municipal employees from disclosing information about illegal aliens to immigration authorities, including names, Social Security numbers, physical descriptions, addresses, telephone numbers, financial or medical information, and places of employment or education.
Fifth, it prohibits state and municipal employees from questioning an illegal alien based on an immigration warrant or detainer.
Sixth, it prohibits state and municipal employees from inquiring into or collecting information about an individual’s citizenship, immigration status, nationality, or country of origin, except when necessary to administer public benefits or to conduct voter registration.
Finally, and perhaps most concerning, given the unprecedented levels of death threats against ICE agents, the law also criminalizes the wearing of masks by federal, state, and local law enforcement officers while on duty in public.
The goal of this new law is clear: to eliminate every conceivable avenue for cooperation with federal immigration officials. Hochul’s policy prioritizes shielding illegal aliens in New York from removal, regardless of criminal status. Other open-borders politicians will see this legislation as a model to follow nationwide, thereby attempting to turn America into a Sanctuary Nation.
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For almost a decade, criminal illegal aliens have learned that New York’s leadership will do everything in its power to protect them from federal law enforcement. Over the past decade, other, less restrictive sanctuary policies adopted in New York through executive orders have already resulted in the mass release of thousands of murderers, terrorists, and sexual predators back into the streets.
Indeed, due to New York’s sanctuary policies, the state of New York released nearly 7,000 criminal aliens in 2025 alone. The crimes committed by these aliens include hundreds of homicides, assaults, burglaries, robberies, drug and weapons offenses, and predatory sexual offenses.
At the start of 2026, there were another 7,000 criminal aliens in New York’s custody, yet ICE has been unable to convince New York to cooperate with the agency to remove them.
Thus, ICE has typically had to act alone. Since 2025, ICE has arrested dozens of illegal aliens in New York who were convicted of serious offenses, including murder, assault, possession of child pornography, and sexual conduct with a child. While notable, these arrests represent only a fraction of the violent, convicted criminals that remain at large throughout New York.
Trump has long recognized the dangers posed by sanctuary policies and has fought to stop them. After years of litigation and attempts to condition federal funding, states like New York continue to openly obstruct federal immigration enforcement.
Congress must act. It should ban states from interfering with immigration enforcement, prohibit states from barring the collection and sharing of information on aliens in state or local custody, prohibit states from banning the participation in 287(g) agreements, and impose meaningful consequences on jurisdictions that shield criminal illegal aliens from removal — including the withholding of federal funds.
‘THE RIGHT WAY FORWARD’: IMMIGRATION AND NATIONAL IDENTITY
Here’s what Americans, who believe in the rule of law, public safety, and national sovereignty, should take away from the actions of the political elite in New York: The primary goal of the modern Left is not just opposition to Trump — it’s the complete cessation of border security and immigration enforcement.
Americans should study this playbook carefully, expose it for what it is, and stop the radical Left before they bring more chaos, crime, and economic decline to the American homeland.
Chad F. Wolf serves as Chair, Homeland Security and Immigration at the America First Policy Institute. He previously served as acting Secretary of Homeland Security during President Trump’s first term.
Todd Lyons serves as Senior Fellow, Homeland Security and Immigration at the America First Policy Institute. He previously served as the Senior Official Performing the Duties of the Director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.