Queens State Senator Julia Salazar, who was the primary sponsor of the original bill that banned agreements between ICE and local jails, said the ban was an important first step. But, she called on the state to take further action by preventing ICE from entering into informal agreements with all state agencies.
“There are several local jails in our state that shamefully jail New Yorkers for ICE, directly supporting the federal administration’s efforts to violently round up our neighbors, separate families from their communities, and ship people off, often with little to no due process,” Salazar said in a statement. “While the State has now banned formal agreements with ICE, it has not yet banned informal collusion between State and local law enforcement and ICE.”
ICE previously detained around 3,200 people at the Nassau County Correctional Center in East Meadow from February 2025 to March 10, 2026, according to Salazar’s office.
On Aug. 7, Salazar and other state elected officials carried out a surprise inspection of the Nassau County jail to see if the facility had begun removing ICE detainees ahead of the ban. Salazar’s office said four ICE detainees were discharged from the facility before they had arrived, but no others were found during the inspection.
The laws also required already established 287(g) agreements to end.
New York Attorney General Letitia James had previously informed the 12 local law enforcement agencies in the state that still maintained these agreements they needed to end them by Tuesday.
Of those 12, two had not yet given the AG a response, according to the governor.
“We expect all law enforcement agencies in New York to uphold New York’s laws,” James said in a statement. “Through the Office of Immigrant Trust, my office will continue to work with law enforcement professionals across the state to ensure they understand their obligations, and we are prepared to enforce the law if those responsibilities are not upheld.”
The ban on 287(g) agreements comes after over a year of federal immigration crackdowns across the country sparked rage and protests from immigrant advocates and elected officials alike. According to the agency’s data, ICE agents have arrested more than 43,000 people nationwide in June, averaging more than 1,500 arrests a day.
ICE sightings have become especially more common in Queens, the most diverse borough in the country with high concentrations of immigrant communities.
In a lawsuit filed last April by the Legal Aid Society and the New York Civil Liberties Union, ICE was accused of violating New Yorkers’ constitutional rights by conducting warrantless immigration arrests made without probable cause. The lawsuit also claimed ICE had established checkpoints in Corona, Jackson Heights and Flushing, where they would wait in unmarked cars near commercial thoroughfares to arrest passing pedestrians.
At a rally held in Corona Plaza on Aug. 11, Queens elected officials warned residents of increasing ICE agents sightings throughout New York City and the World’s Borough in particular, and told residents to make emergency plans if they or a family member is detained by ICE.
Murad Awawdeh, the president and CEO of the New York Immigration Coalition, said during the rally that the past year has brought out a surge of New Yorkers from immigrant communities seeking resources and legal representation.
On Tuesday, Awawdeh said the ban on 287(g) agreements was a “critical victory” that also serves as a warning to local government and law enforcement who have yet to end their agreements with ICE.
“The termination of 287(g) agreements is a critical victory for immigrant New Yorkers and for public safety across the state,” Awawdeh said in a statement. “As ICE continues to ramp up its enforcement tactics and spread fear among immigrant New Yorkers, ending these agreements sends a powerful message that New York will not allow its local police to be used as an extension of Trump’s mass deportation agenda.”
Following the announcement on Tuesday, 15 sheriff’s departments in the state filed a lawsuit against the new state ban. Hochul and James called the suit a “frivolous waste of taxpayer dollars.”