Hochul herself vowed to sue localities such as Nassau County \u2014 where her Republican gubernatorial rival Bruce Blakeman serves as executive \u2014 that refuse to end cooperation agreements with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement.<\/p>\n
But the federal lawsuit led by Rensselaer County Sheriff Kyle Bourgault contends the law, signed by Hochul in May, is unconstitutional and wrongly impedes local officials, notably sheriffs, from making public safety decisions.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday, Kathy Hochul escalated her administration\u2019s war on the police and she expanded polices to put criminals before the citizens of New York,\u201d said Rensselaer County Executive Steve McLaughlin.<\/p>\n
![\"Gov.](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/governor-kathy-hochul-presser-new-138472740.jpg\")
Gov. Kathy Hochul vowed to sue counties that defy a new sanctuary state law taking effect Tuesday. Governor Kathy Hochul<\/p>\n
The governor held a press conference in Albany earlier Tuesday to tout the start of the \u201cLocal Cops, Local Crimes Act\u201d \u2014 arguing it\u2019ll keep New York police agencies focused on criminal cases, rather than helping the feds\u2019 work of civil immigration enforcement.<\/p>\n
\u201cAny police department or sheriff\u2019s office that disobeys this law, that maintains any agreement with ICE, will face legal action,\u201d Hochul declared from a podium in her ceremonial office in the state capitol.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd to those suing us, those trying to block the implementation of this law who\u2019ve tried before and failed, our law has already been upheld by the courts, but if you try me again, I say, \u2018Bring it on.’\u201d<\/p>\n
Blakeman, during his own news conference, which took place at the same time as Hochul\u2019s but in Delaware County, declined to say whether he would comply with the new mandate. <\/p>\n
He later told The Post he\u2019d \u201cprobably\u201d join the sheriffs\u2019 lawsuit. <\/p>\n
His running mate for lieutenant governor, Madison County Sheriff Todd Hood, is among the 15 plaintiffs on the case, which names Hochul, New York Attorney General Letitia James and the state as defendants.<\/p>\n
But the AG made clear she viewed Blakeman\u2019s inaction so far as defiance \u2014 and her office on Tuesday issued multiple subpoenas to Nassau County and its police department demanding details on their deal with ICE.<\/p>\n
Known as a 278-g agreement, the Blakeman-brokered deal set aside 50 jail cells<\/a> to house federal immigration detainees \u2014 a cooperative arrangement touted by the GOP pol as necessary for public safety.<\/p>\n Roughly a dozen or so counties and municipalities also had entered into 278-g agreements with the feds, mostly centered around using their jails to hold detainees for ICE.<\/p>\n But Hochul, a Democrat, moved to scotch the deals amid a backlash against heavy-handed tactics by ICE nationwide \u2014 and the back-to-back killings of Renee Nicole Good<\/a> and Alex Pretti<\/a> by feds in Minneapolis.<\/p>\n The governor, who is seeking re-election to a second, full four-year term in November, pitched banning the local agreements on top a mix bag of other anti-ICE measures earlier this year. <\/p>\n The Democratic-led state legislature complied.<\/p>\n James\u2019 staff also sent out subpoenas to the sheriffs\u2019 offices in Broome, Steuben and Rensselaer counties \u2014 where officials hadn\u2019t yet confirmed whether they\u2019d comply with the law.<\/p>\n Broome and Steuben County officials later indicated they would end their agreements, but the former\u2019s sheriff, Frederick A. Akshar, was also a plaintiff on the suit. Hood has also previously said he\u2019d end Madison County\u2019s deal with ICE.<\/p>\n Bourgault, the sheriff for Rensselaer County, emphasized his agreement only pertains to the local jail and allows guards to run detainees through a federal database to see if they\u2019re wanted on immigration offenses.<\/p>\n \u201cOur deputies are not out driving around looking for undocumented immigrants. They are not conducting immigration checkpoints,\u201d he said. \u201cThey are not making immigration-related traffic stops. They are not riding around our communities with ICE agents looking for people to arrest.<\/p>\n \u201cOur participation occurs inside the Rensselaer County jail, and let me say it again, involving individuals who have already been arrested.\u201d<\/p>\n Most of the counties with 287-g agreements are similarly focused on jails, Bourgault said.<\/p>\n But Nassau County\u2019s deal also deputizes local law enforcement officers, authorizing 10 trained detectives to perform certain immigration enforcement functions.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\tStart your day with all you need to know\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMorning Report delivers the latest news, videos, photos and more.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\tThanks for signing up!\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n Blakeman, when asked by The Post last week if he\u2019d follow the new law, said he was checking his options with his attorneys and that he hadn\u2019t decided yet if he\u2019d comply, ignore the mandate entirely, or take it to court.<\/p>\n Hochul, for her part, danced around specifics Tuesday on how she would fight if Blakeman refuses to wind down his agreement.<\/p>\n \u201cNo county executive should think that they are above the law in the state of New York,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cHowever, if they do thwart the laws that are duly enacted by this legislature and the governor, the Attorney General will be fully responsible for enforcement.\u201d<\/p>\n A US Department of Homeland Security spokesperson argued that nearly 7,000 immigrants with criminal records were released in New York because of the state\u2019s failure to honor ICE detainers.<\/p>\n \u201cGovernor Hochul must stop putting politics above public safety,\u201d the spokesperson said. \u201cThis type of insanity leads to more crimes and more innocent victims.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2014 Additional reporting by Josh Christenson <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ALBANY \u2013 Don\u2019t sue me, I\u2019ll sue you. More than a dozen New York sheriffs filed suit over…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":330809,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1626,2035,426,2850,776,57,774,9,11,10,49,51,50,13895,58],"class_list":["post-330808","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-bruce-blakeman","tag-ice","tag-kathy-hochul","tag-lawsuits","tag-long-island","tag-metro","tag-nassau-county","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-new-york-state","tag-new-york-state-headlines","tag-new-york-state-news","tag-ny-governor-election-2026","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330808","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=330808"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330808\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/330809"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=330808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=330808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=330808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Bruce](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/bruce-blakeman-nassau-county-executive-137436668.jpg\")
Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman vocally supports working with ICE. REUTERS<\/p>\n