Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-NY) is defending a newly enacted New York law barring local law enforcement agencies from entering into or maintaining agreements with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, setting up a legal and political confrontation with sheriffs and local officials who oppose the measure.
The law, known as the Local Cops, Local Crimes Act, prohibits local governments and law enforcement agencies from entering into or maintaining agreements that allow local officers to assist with federal immigration enforcement. Local law enforcement agencies can still assist federal authorities in nonimmigration matters, but they are prohibited from participating in immigration enforcement carried out as part of the Trump administration’s deportation efforts.
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The law took effect this week, prompting backlash from several counties and law enforcement officials.
“Today, Kathy Hochul escalated her administration’s war on the police and she expanded policies to put criminals before the citizens of New York,” Rensselaer County Executive Steve McLaughlin said Tuesday.
“And to those suing us, those trying to block the implementation of this law who’ve tried before and failed, our law has already been upheld by the courts, but if you try me again, I say, ‘Bring it on,’” Hochul said to her opponents.
Hochul has threatened to sue localities that refuse to end their cooperation agreements with ICE, setting up a possible confrontation with Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, the Republican nominee for governor, whose county has such agreements with the federal agency.
“No county executive should think that they are above the law in the state of New York,” Hochul said at a Tuesday press conference.
She added that police departments and sheriff’s offices that ignore the law and maintain agreements with ICE would face legal action.
Blakeman told the New York Post that he would “probably” join the sheriffs’ lawsuit.
Hochul and Attorney General Letitia James have since defended the law.
“As we have said from the start, the ‘Local Cops, Local Crimes Act’ keeps New Yorkers safe by ensuring public safety resources go toward combating crime in our communities, not carrying out the work of ICE,” Hochul and James said in a joint statement.
The two officials accused ICE of carrying out “indiscriminate raids” and said local law enforcement agencies should focus their resources on fighting crime within their communities.
“Many of the 12 entities with these agreements have complied without incident, and the vast majority of New York’s law enforcement agencies were already successfully protecting their communities without any collaboration with ICE,” they said.
They also dismissed the sheriffs’ lawsuit as a “frivolous waste of taxpayer dollars,” arguing that courts had already declined to block the law and expressing confidence that it would survive the latest challenge.
Kathy Hochul’s bill banning local police from working with ICE to take effect
The Department of Homeland Security opposed the law, saying Hochul “must stop putting politics above public safety.”
“This type of insanity leads to more crimes and more innocent victims,” a department spokesperson told the Washington Examiner.
