Hochul's Position on State Cooperation With ICE Shows 'Democrats Have Learned Nothing'

Leah Barkoukis | March 25, 2025 8:35 AM

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul vowed to continue fighting against President Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration, saying the state would not cooperate with federal efforts to enforce immigration law, even if “renegade counties” are.

"We’re not going to allow this mass deportation," Hochul said Sunday on the David Pakman Show. "So our state policy, our state law, does not allow for our state police to be involved in those situations. Now, what we have are some renegade counties in New York because individual counties can sign a pact with ICE, and we have a lot of them, some on Long Island, some in upstate New York, where there’s different political views. They are cooperating with their local police departments, but what I control is the state police, and they will not cooperate in that.”

The Broome County Sheriff’s Office, Nassau County Sheriff’s Office and Nassau County Police Department all signed agreements in the last three weeks to help ICE, according to federal agency records.
Previously, the Rensselaer County Sheriff’s Office was the only law enforcement agency in New York with an official agreement to collaborate with the federal agency on immigration enforcement activities.
Law enforcement agencies in Broome and Nassau counties are part of a surge in departments signing up for official partnerships with ICE since Trump took office in January. More than 200 agencies approved memorandums to cooperate since Trump’s inauguration, increasing the number of participating departments to 360 as of Monday, according to ICE. (Times Union)