Gov. Kathy Hochul on Friday announced legislation prohibiting state and local police from taking on federal civil immigration enforcement duties. The legislation would make null-and-void the Niagara County Sheriff’s Office’s existing agreements with Immigration and Customs Enforcement to have trained sheriff’s deputies and correction officers do some immigration law enforcement.
“Over the last year, federal immigration agents have carried out unspeakable acts of violence against Americans under the guise of public safety. These abuses, and the weaponization of local police officers for civil immigration enforcement, will not stand in New York,” Hochul said. “I’m announcing new actions that will safeguard our communities against dangerous federal overreach and ensure that New York law enforcement is focused on keeping New Yorkers safe, not doing the job of ICE.”
Hochul said the proposed Local Cops, Local Crimes Act would also prohibit federal agents’ use of local jails for civil immigration enforcement, mass raids or the transportation of ICE detainees.
That’s another arrangement the Niagara County sheriff had with ICE, until about two weeks ago, when Sheriff Michael Filicetti said he informed the feds that the local jail is no longer available to hold ICE detainees who aren’t linked to a criminal offense. In concert, Filicetti said, NCSD’s participation in the 287(g) program was to be limited going forward.
Last year the department entered into two immigration law enforcement agreements with ICE, one covering deputies and the other covering correction officers, through which 12 employees were trained to carry out some immigration enforcement duties. The community activists who pressed Filicetti to limit the intake of ICE detainees at the county jail had also appealed to him to reassess the 287(g) agreements. Filicetti decided the trained local officers would be limited to serving immigration warrants only, and no additional officers would receive training.
NCSD is one of 14 law enforcement agencies across nine counties that have signed 287(g) agreements with ICE, according to the governor’s office. If the legislation is passed, all of those agreements will be void.
Seven other states — Washington, Oregon, California, Illinois, New Jersey, Delaware and Connecticut — already prohibit 287(g) agreements.
The Local Cops, Local Crimes Act would not prevent state or local police working with federal law enforcement in criminal investigations, the governor’s office said.
Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, an announced Republican candidate for Governor in this year’s election, panned the proposed law as “pro-criminal.”
“By banning local law enforcement partnerships with ICE, Hochul is allowing dangerous criminals to return to our neighborhoods,” Blakeman said in a written statement following Hochul’s announcement. Referring to 287(g) agreements, he asserted, “These critical agreements have long helped remove violent offenders — including murderers, sex traffickers, gang members, and other dangerous criminals — from our streets, and assisted police in keeping them in custody when Hochul’s bail law would otherwise force their release.”
Meanwhile, the New York for All Coalition suggested the Local Cops, Local Crimes Act doesn’t go far enough to stop local law enforcement “collusion” with ICE.
“The Governor’s proposal only addresses the most formal collusion between ICE and local law enforcement. Even without a 287(g) agreement, local law enforcement can and do freely share information with ICE to abduct New Yorkers, and coordinate the transfer of New Yorkers to ICE where they suffer horrific abuses,” the coalition stated.
The coalition is campaigning for passage of the proposed New York For All Act, which would prohibit police officers, peace officers, school resource officers, probation agencies, state entities, state employees, and municipal corporations from asking people about their citizenship or immigration status, and regulate the disclosure of information relating to immigration status.
Earlier this month, Hochul announced a pair of proposed laws to counter what her office called “unprecedented escalations in aggressive federal immigration enforcement”: a measure authorizing individuals to sue, in New York State courts, federal officers who violate their U.S. constitutional rights, and legislation that would prohibit federal officers from entering “sensitive locations,” including homes, without a judicial warrant.