Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-NY) is asking White House border czar Tom Homan to confirm whether the Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer who fatally shot Renee Good in Minnesota earlier this year was reassigned to New York.
If Jonathan Ross is found to be operating in the Empire State, Hochul is demanding his removal.
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“If Jonathan Ross has been reassigned to work in New York, I demand that he be immediately removed and not redeployed unless cleared after a full, independent investigation,” she wrote in a two-page letter to Homan. “I have no confidence that Ross can be trusted to safely interact with the public. Nor should you.”
The letter was made public on Thursday, but it was submitted the day before. A copy of the message was sent to Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin.
It remains to be seen whether Ross was relocated from Minnesota to New York by the Trump administration.
Recent reports reveal he moved to another state and resumed working despite his involvement in the January shooting that killed Good, a 37-year-old U.S. citizen and mother who lived in Minneapolis prior to her death.
The specific state to which Ross moved hasn’t been reported, but he was apparently placed on administrative leave for three days after the shooting.
Alarmed by the lack of punishment for Ross, Hochul demanded accountability for his actions.
“I have repeatedly stated that any agents involved in these types of incidents must be properly investigated and held accountable to the fullest extent of the law — not simply reassigned to administrative or investigative duties or shuffled to other states,” the governor said.
Hochul has previously expressed concern about federal immigration enforcement operations putting civilians in harm’s way.
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One such instance occurred in Buffalo, where a partially blind, non-English-speaking refugee from Myanmar was found dead after Border Patrol agents dropped him off at a closed coffee shop in the middle of winter. In the letter, Hochul cited this case as an example of the “unchecked power and systemic abuse carried out by agents over the course of just a few months.”
During a meeting with Homan in early March, Hochul was open about her immigration demands in light of the refugee’s death. The two came to an understanding that there would be no federal immigration enforcement surge in New York unless Hochul requested it. The Democrat said she never would.
