Gov. Kathy Hochul on Friday said that she would push to bar police departments in New York from forming partnerships with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the latest in a recent effort by Democratic leaders to limit cooperation with President’s Trump immigration crackdown.
The proposed legislation, called the Local Cops, Local Crimes Act, would ban participation in so-called 287(g) agreements, which allow ICE to deputize local police to enforce civil immigration law. Though police officers in New York City are prohibited from collaborating with federal agents on civil immigration matters under the city’s sanctuary policies, a handful of counties in the state have passed such agreements.
Last fall, the federal government announced that ICE would begin reimbursing local agencies that participate in the agreements, including by paying the annual salary and benefits of eligible officers.
“We’re sending a strong message to ICE,” Ms. Hochul said during a news conference at her offices in Manhattan on Friday morning. “You will not weaponize local police officers against their own communities in the state of New York.”
She was flanked by Jessica Tisch, the police commissioner, and an array of district attorneys and other police officials. The announcement comes as anger over the killing of two people by federal agents in Minneapolis in connection with the Trump administration’s immigration agenda has convulsed New York and the country. It follows a wave of similar initiatives in recent days by leaders and lawmakers in several Democrat-led states, including Massachusetts and Maryland.
The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Abigail Jackson, a White House spokeswoman, said in a statement that ICE agents were protecting American communities.
“Local officials should work with them, not against them,” she said in part. “Anyone pointing the finger at law enforcement officers instead of the criminals is simply doing the bidding of criminal illegal aliens.”
Ms. Hochul’s move on Friday was a remarkable show of dominance by the governor against the counties that have bucked Democratic power to collaborate with ICE. Key among them is Nassau County, where Ms. Hochul, who is seeking re-election this year, is likely to face the county executive as an opponent in November.
The executive, Bruce Blakeman, is a Republican and has repeatedly voiced his support for ICE’s actions, calling the protesters in Minneapolis paid agitators and boasting that Nassau County worked with ICE to remove 46 people with criminal records in the past month.
Ms. Hochul has come to take the opposite approach.
A centrist from Buffalo, Ms. Hochul gained notoriety as the Erie County Clerk who threatened to have undocumented immigrants seeking drivers licenses arrested. She has become increasingly vocal in her criticism of federal immigration officials during the second Trump administration, even as she has maintained that it is important to collaborate on criminal matters.
The proposed act would prohibit state and local police from acting as federal agents in civil immigration enforcement or using taxpayer-funded resources to carry out such operations. It would also bar federal agents from using local jails and detention centers for raids or transporting detainees, curtailing their ability to enact large-scale immigration operations like the one seen in Minneapolis, she said.
Local police would continue to help federal agents with criminal investigations, Ms. Hochul said, but they would not be diverted from their local duties to aid the recent civil immigration efforts that have “terrorized communities” across the country.
“The people in this country are not confused; they’re not naïve. They know the difference between public safety and public displays of brute force simply meant to instill fear,” Ms. Hochul said. “That is what has been unleashed in cities across America.”
The presence of Commissioner Tisch, who spoke briefly at the news conference, provided a powerful, if symbolic, show of support from the leader of the country’s largest police force, even as the city’s sanctuary policies already effectively prohibit 287(g) agreements.
“Plain and simple: In 2026, local police departments should not be turned into federal immigration agents,” Commissioner Tisch said.
So far, six states have restricted the use of 287(g) agreements between state and local law enforcement and ICE by state law or policy: California, Connecticut, Illinois, New Jersey, Oregon and Washington, according to information provided by D.H.S. and the National Conference of State Legislatures. Another half dozen — including New York — have proposed similar legislation, according to State Futures, a group that organizes progressive state legislators. And several other states — Delaware, Hawaii, Rhode Island and Vermont — do not have any active or pending 287(g) agreements in place at all.
Some Republican-controlled states have gone the opposite direction. A bill in the South Carolina legislature would mandate that all county sheriffs enter into formal agreements to work with ICE. And Tennessee Republicans want government agencies to check the legal status of all residents in order for them to receive public assistance, as well as to verify the immigration status of elementary and secondary school students, despite a decade-old Supreme Court ruling forbidding it.
On Friday, Ms. Hochul framed her own legislation not only as immigration policy but as a check on Mr. Trump and what she described as a “dangerous, blatant” abuse of power.
“We are called to act in this moment of tyranny,” she said.
David W. Chen contributed reporting.
Maia Coleman is a reporter for The Times covering the New York Police Department and criminal justice in the New York area.
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