New York\u2019s law prohibiting law enforcement throughout the state from working with federal immigration agencies to make civil immigration arrests violates the US and state constitutions, a group of 15 county sheriffs said in a federal lawsuit. <\/p>\n
The sheriffs want a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction against the ban and another law that give Attorney General Letitia James (D) the authority to investigate sheriffs that cooperate with ICE. Both statutes were signed into law by Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) in May as part of a sweeping budget package<\/a> that places limits on local law enforcement officials\u2019 ability to carry out immigration enforcement activities. <\/p>\n \u201cTogether, these provisions do more than express a policy preference. They nullify the ability of independently elected constitutional officers to enter into contracts authorized by federal law. In doing so, they subject those officers\u2019 core law-enforcement judgments to centralized state oversight and control,\u201d says the complaint<\/a> filed Tuesday in the US District Court for the Northern District of New York at Albany.<\/p>\n