ALBANY – Gov. Kathy Hochul is getting pulled even further to the left on New York’s sanctuary policies – now saying she supports banning nearly all cooperation between local law enforcement and ICE.
Hochul, who proposed a slate of anti-ICE measures at the start of this year, on Thursday unveiled several new restrictions that she wants to put into state law as part of the ongoing budget negotiations with the Democrat-controlled Legislature.
“I just want to have more protections in place that I think are long overdue. So I’m anxious to get this done,” she told reporters at a quickly assembled press event in Albany Thursday afternoon.
Among the newly announced measures was a ban on police cooperating with federal immigration enforcement agents — unless it involves a criminal conviction or cops have “probable cause” to suspect someone of a misdemeanor or felony offense.
“Local cops should be focused on local crimes, keeping our streets safe … not doing ICE’s job,” she said.
Hochul also wants to ban US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents from wearing masks, though it’s unclear how the state would be able to enforce such a mandate. The proposed legislation would make it a misdemeanor for an ICE agent to wear a mask.
And it would expand the list of public areas where ICE is prohibited from operating without a judicial warrant, to include virtually any public land like parks, shelters and “housing accommodations.”
Hochul also said that ICE agents, for example, wouldn’t be allowed to operate alongside a local police DWI checkpoint.
“We’re talking about basically separating out civil infractions, vehicle and traffic law, for example, and other areas that they’ve been using as ruses,” she said.
“There’s sometimes ICE officers, are at a DWI stop, are at a traffic stop. Like why are they there? Explain to me why they’re there,” she questioned.
The new policy would also create an overarching ban on any public employee using state resources, including their working hours, to aid federal immigration authorities.
It means New York would essentially have a blanket sanctuary state law on its books. Hochul, during her tenure, has continued to extend an executive order signed in 2018 by then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo barring state employees and law enforcement from helping immigration authorities.
The Democratic incumbent is now expanding her initial anti-ICE proposal unveiled in January following talks with the legislature coinciding with her $263 billion spending and policy plan, which was due April 1.
At the beginning of the year Hochul, rolled out a pitch to give New Yorker’s the ability to sue federal agents in state courts for legal violations.
She also said she wanted to ban local governments from signing formal agreements with ICE to deputize their officers — like the one inked by her Republican gubernatorial opponent Bruce Blakeman, the Nassau County executive.
Just last year, Hochul pained herself to push back on the notion that New York was a sanctuary state while getting grilled on illegal immigration by a House of Representatives panel in Washington.
“FALSE CLAIM: New York is a sanctuary state that hinders the ability of federal law enforcement to arrest and remove violent criminals from its streets,” her office wrote in a memo ahead of the testimony.
Legislative leaders like Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins (D-Westchester) have been demanding a deal based on the most sweeping sanctuary proposal bouncing around Albany – the so-called New York 4 All Act.
Hochul scheduled her announcement as lawmakers were huddled in closed-door conferences discussing the new immigration policy Thursday afternoon, according to sources familiar.
“The governor’s absolutely moved on certain things,” Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie (D-Bronx) told reporters later.
“One of the toughest places for us to land is on is the unmonitored, unregulated ability for local law enforcement to reach out to ICE, even in spite of the fact that it could be a case that a [district attorney] wants to look at,” Heastie said.
He acknowledged that the legislature wants even tougher restrictions on when law enforcement can contact ICE, with some far-left pols claiming the “probable cause” requirement pitched by Hochul would lead to racial profiling.
“Allowing cops to decide if they will collude with ICE on this basis is giving them carte blanche to racially profile NYers,” Democratic Socialist Assemblymember Emily Gallagher (D-Brooklyn) posted on X.
Senate lawmakers also expressed similar concerns behind closed doors, according to sources.
Hochul said the talks were “still evolving” and could even drop from the budget deal altogether.