Hochul defies sheriffs' lawsuit over NY law restricting ICE cooperation

On Tuesday, a new New York law took effect that fundamentally altered how local police can work with federal immigration authorities. The Local Cops, Local Crimes Act, signed by Governor Kathy Hochul in May, prohibits law enforcement agencies across the state from entering into agreements with ICE to assist with civil immigration enforcement. It also bars them from housing civil immigration detainees, with existing detention agreements required to end within three months. The law allows officers to help ICE only when violent crimes or other serious offenses are involved—not for immigration matters alone.

Within hours of the law's activation, more than a dozen New York sheriffs filed a federal lawsuit challenging its constitutionality. Led by Rensselaer County Sheriff Kyle Bourgault, the suit argues that the law unlawfully strips elected sheriffs of their ability to enter into federally authorized immigration-enforcement partnerships. Rensselaer County Executive Steve McLaughlin framed the dispute in stark terms, saying Hochul had "escalated her administration's war on the police" and prioritized criminals over citizens.

Hochul responded with defiance. At a Tuesday press conference, she declared that any police department or sheriff's office maintaining an ICE agreement would face legal action from the state. "No county executive should think that they are above the law in the state of New York," she said. When asked about the pending lawsuit, she issued a direct challenge: "If you try me again, I say, bring it on." She framed the law as a matter of resource allocation—keeping local officers focused on serious crime rather than civil immigration enforcement. "We need local cops hunting down criminals, not kindergartners. Breaking up drug rings, not breaking up families. Arresting gun runners, not grandmas," she said.

New York Attorney General Letitia James amplified the pressure by issuing subpoenas to sheriff's offices in Broome, Steuben, Nassau, and Rensselaer counties, as well as the Nassau County Police Department, demanding they confirm plans to end their ICE agreements or face civil litigation. The subpoenas targeted agencies that either refused to confirm compliance or provided responses the attorney general's office deemed unsatisfactory.

The confrontation has become entangled in state politics. Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, Hochul's Republican challenger in the upcoming election, has agreements with ICE in his county. While he did not immediately commit to joining the sheriffs' lawsuit, he later told the New York Post he would "probably" do so. Blakeman has defended ICE cooperation, claiming that roughly 2,000 individuals in his county subject to removal have criminal records. At a recent event with President Trump, he challenged Hochul directly: "Where do you want those guns? What neighborhood do you want to destroy? Where do you want those drugs? What community do you want to destroy?" He framed the law as a threat to public safety.

The Department of Homeland Security weighed in against the law, with a spokesperson telling the New York Post that Hochul was "putting politics above public safety" and that such policies lead to "more crimes and more innocent victims." The legal and political battle reflects a fundamental disagreement over whether local law enforcement should be enlisted in federal civil immigration enforcement—a question that has divided states and counties across the country. Courts have previously upheld similar restrictions in New York, but the sheriffs' new challenge suggests the fight is far from over.