New York Attorney General Letitia James sent subpoenas Tuesday to several counties she says haven’t complied with a new state immigration law limiting cooperation with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement — including the home of Republican gubernatorial candidate Bruce Blakeman.
Local law enforcement officials have until Tuesday to end formal 287(g) cooperation agreements with ICE. The law, signed by Gov. Kathy Hochul in May, also prohibits local jails from detaining immigrants for ICE.
The Democratic governor and other supporters of the law say it protects immigrants from aggressive enforcement by the Trump administration and increases public safety by letting local police focus on local crimes.
Hochul praised the law and said the holdouts would face consequences, though she didn’t share details.
“Starting today, ICE can no longer use locally funded police to carry out the Trump administration's aggressive immigration agenda,” she said. “To those suing us, to those trying to block the implementation of this law … our law has been already upheld by courts.”
Republicans oppose the law, and at least one GOP official — Rensselaer County Executive Steve McLaughlin — said he won’t comply with it. Blakeman, the Nassau County executive and Hochul challenger, hasn’t said if he will dissolve his county’s extensive agreement with ICE.
Blakeman’s spokesperson declined to comment on the subpoena. The county executive again denounced the new law at a campaign event and said cooperating with ICE helps his county take immigrants with criminal convictions off the streets.
“We removed them from America, and we made safer communities by doing so,” he said.
Rensselaer, Broome and Steuben counties also received subpoenas, a spokesperson for James’ office said. Officials in Broome and Steuben counties have both previously indicated they would end their contracts with ICE.
A federal judge earlier this month issued a preliminary ruling that rejected a Trump administration challenge to the state’s new restrictions on immigration cooperation. The judge struck down a provision in the state law intended to prevent ICE agents from covering their faces while on duty.
McLaughlin said he was holding firm in his opposition and the county plans to join a lawsuit challenging the law. The Rensselaer County sheriff’s department screens all people taken into the county jail through an ICE database; officials say that check would be prevented by the new law.
“Immigration is the purview of the federal government,” McLaughlin said in a recent interview. “We don't view us using tools at our disposal as breaking the law.”
