Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-NY) is vowing to oppose the renewed federal push to deploy Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers to New York.
Earlier this week, White House border czar Tom Homan threatened to “flood the zone” with a rapid ICE surge in New York and other states. Hochul did not take kindly to the threat as she unveiled a state budget that restricts cooperation between local law enforcement and federal immigration officers.
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“Their overreach and their excessive engagement and activities far beyond what was ever promised by the president or what Tom Homan has told me,” she said on Thursday.
After meeting together in March, Hochul said she and Homan agreed that there would be “no more” ICE raids or plans for immigration detention centers in the Empire State. President Donald Trump provided a similar assurance weeks earlier, telling the governor he would only push for a major immigration operation in states that want one.
Homan seemingly walked back on that agreement of understanding when he spoke about mass deportations of illegal immigrants at the Border Security Expo in Phoenix on Tuesday.
“So, what’s going to happen in places like New York … we’re going to flood the zone,” he said. “You’re going to see more ICE agents [than] you ever seen before.”
The border czar particularly took issue with New York’s legislative effort to limit 287(g) cooperation, which allows local police to work with ICE. Nassau County is one of nine New York counties that have signed 287(g) contracts with the federal government.
Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, who is running for governor against Hochul, is very much opposed to the state government’s push to limit immigration cooperation.
The incumbent is trying to get several anti-immigration proposals, included in the state budget, passed in the Democrat-controlled state legislature. The effort shows the governor is leaving nothing off the table when it comes to restricting federal immigration enforcement.
“I don’t take well to threats,” Hochul said. “They’re going to find that out.”
Apart from rolling back the 287(g) contracts through the state budget, Albany Democrats are working to deny ICE access to sensitive locations, such as schools or hospitals, without a judicial warrant. Legislative measures to ban ICE officers from wearing masks to conceal their identities and to pave a legal path for citizens to sue ICE are also in the works.
As expected, Republicans are criticizing Hochul for “obstructing” ICE while Democrats decry the renewed immigration push.
Following the state budget announcement, Homan made the rounds on Fox News to push back on Hochul’s anti-ICE messaging.
“This is what we have to do because she forces this position, and we’re going to do it,” he said on The Ingraham Angle before appearing on The Will Cain Show later Thursday. “They’re not going to stop us. They can put all the roadblocks they want, but we’re [going to] do this job.”
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Hochul has recently been ramping up her opposition to the Trump administration’s immigration agenda, especially after the officer-involved shootings that killed two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis this year.
In a letter sent to Homan last week, Hochul asked if the ICE officer who fatally shot Renee Good was reassigned to New York following reports that he had moved from Minnesota to a different state. As of Friday, there is no indication that the officer is operating in New York.
