Rising tensions over federal immigration enforcement will be a top issue in this year’s gubernatorial race — and where New Yorkers stand on President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown will likely influence who they vote for in November.
Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, the only Republican challenging Gov. Kathy Hochul, continues to support the president’s increased deportations of undocumented people with a criminal history. He also told reporters in Albany on Wednesday that he backs the decision of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer to fatally shoot a woman in Minneapolis last week.
“When you look at both videos, it looks like the invidivudal that was shot, that that person was trying to run down the ICE officer, but I think you have to wait until there’s a full investigation,” Blakeman said. “But let me say this: The atmosphere in Minneapolis is something that could happen here under Gov. Hochul, and quite frankly, Mayor [Zohran] Mamdani where there is a lack of respect for law enforcement.”
Blakeman is campaigning by touting his county’s comprehensive agreement to work with federal immigration officers to detain undocumented people with criminal backgrounds. Meanwhile, Hochul is pushing back on ICE enforcement in New York to show potential voters she’ll stand up to Trump’s immigration agenda.
Last week’s shooting of 37-year-old Renee Good prompted Hochul to propose prohibiting ICE from entering protected areas like schools, hospitals or houses of worship without a judicial warrant, and to allow people to sue federal agents in state court if their constitutional rights are violated.
“We will not allow masked federal ICE agents to storm into our schools, daycares, hospitals and houses of worship for civil immigration raids unless they have a judicial warrant, meaning signed by a judge; and when boundaries are crossed, accountability matters,” Hochul said Tuesday during her fifth State of the State address. “No one from the president on down is above the law. Let me repeat: No one.”
Blakeman said Hochul’s proposals to counter Trump’s immigration agenda are misplaced.
“I don’t want to put any shackles on ICE if someone has a warrant, whether it be simple or criminal, these people would be removed from our communities,” he said. “…I think there has to be more balance in the discussion about the cost-benefit of having ICE, and so far, I can tell you right now, the benefits far outweigh any of the negative comments that are being made by people who just want to inflame the public because they have a political agenda. The results have been startlingly good.”
Blakeman, a close ally of Trump’s, told reporters Wednesday he supports nearly all of the president’s decisions, including Trump’s announcement he will start to withhold federal funding Feb. 1 from sanctuary cities — like New York — that have laws barring local police from working with ICE.
“You want to be a sanctuary city, you want to violate federal law, there are consequences,” Blakeman said. “They can turn that around in one day by changing those policies.”
Blakeman has declined to say which of Trump’s decisions, if any, that he disagrees with.
Hochul told reporters Wednesday she isn’t afraid of the president’s threat to intimidate states like New York to submit to his immigration agenda.
“You touch any money in the state of New York, we’ll see you in court,” the governor said at unrelated event in the Hudson Valley.
Hochul’s campaign also responded to Blakeman’s comments.
“What Bruce Blakeman said today should horrify every New Yorker: He’s blaming a 37-year-old mom for her own killing at the hands of a masked federal agent,” Hochul’s campaign spokesman Ryan Radulovacki said in a statement. “Blakeman as governor would remove ‘any shackles on ICE,’ letting the Trump administration trample on New Yorkers’ rights and terrorize our communities – as Gov. Hochul said, it’s time to start holding these people accountable. Bruce Blakeman never will.”