New York Gov. Kathy Hochul is demanding answers from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security over reports of three federal immigration detention projects planned across the state, the governor’s office said Monday.
According to a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin dated Sunday, Hochul cited reports that DHS wants to put in immigration detention cells in a building in Rochester that houses a daycare and federal court, as well as sites in Batavia and Newburgh.
Hochul said in the letter the public did not hear about the projects from the federal government but from press reports and procurement records.
“My long standing policy has always been that we will cooperate with law enforcement when crimes have been committed and there is a warrant for arrest or a court order, because we want our streets to be safe as well; but this unbridled aggression against law-abiding New Yorkers must stop,” Hochul wrote in the letter. “So I ask: is your Department building or expanding immigration detention facilities in New York? If so, where, to what capacity, and under what authority? And is this being done at your direction despite President Trump’s commitment that ICE enforcement operations in New York would not be expanded unless requested by the Governor?”
Hochul asked the department to provide transparency on the sites and also requested a chance to speak with Mullin on the subject.
Spectrum News 1 has reached out to DHS for comment.
Hochul and the Trump administration have had several disputes over immigration in the last year, including so-called sanctuary policies, threats of surges of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers from White House border czar Tom Homan, and over the state’s new law that bans state and local law enforcement from coordinating with federal immigration enforcement for non-criminal violations.