Nassau County fails to comply with new state law ending agreements with ICE

ALBANY — Nassau County is one of the last two counties refusing to come into line with a new state law that went into effect Tuesday banning formal cooperation agreements with federal immigration officials, setting up a showdown with the governor and attorney general.

The state Attorney General’s Office of Immigrant Trust has issued subpoenas to the Nassau County sheriff and police departments, and Gov. Kathy Hochul promised legal consequences for agencies that refuse to wind down their agreements with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement under the Local Cops, Local Crimes Act.

"Let me be clear: any police department or sheriff's office that disobeys this law, that maintains any agreement with ICE, will face legal action," she said. "We will not allow local cops to be converted as ICE agents to conduct civil immigration enforcement."

Rensselaer is the other county refusing to come into line. The attorney general issued subpoenas to its sheriff department for failing to comply. The sheriff departments in Broome and Steuben counties received subpoenas for submitting unsatisfactory responses, according to the attorney general.

A group of 15 county sheriffs filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Albany on Tuesday challenging the ban on cooperation agreements. The sheriffs are represented by an attorney from the Federation for American Immigration Reform, a Washington, D.C.-based non-profit.

"We have yet to hear the governor or attorney general tell us how their action makes our state or Rensselaer County any safer. We are still waiting for an answer to that important question," Rensselaer County Sheriff Kyle Bourgault said in a statement.

Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, the Republican nominee for governor, has not said whether he will file a lawsuit to overturn the law. Blakeman has previously said he was reviewing the statute with attorneys, but the county was not part of the lawsuit filed Tuesday.

Blakeman spokesman Christopher Boyle said "no comment" Tuesday when asked about Hochul’s news conference and what action the county may or may not take regarding Tuesday's deadline.

Blakeman has been one of the most vocal supporters of the ICE agreements in New York. He regularly has blasted Hochul’s support of the new law, contending the cooperative agreements help law enforcement solve crimes, among other reasons.

His running mate, Madison County Sheriff Todd Hood, has ended his department’s agreement with ICE, saying he disagreed with the law banning formal cooperation with immigration authorities but would follow it. Hood was among the sheriffs that joined the lawsuit to try to overturn the law.

Limits on cooperation

The Local Cops, Local Crimes Act prohibits state and local employees from questioning people solely for immigration purposes, unless they are required to by a federal judicial warrant, and prohibits government employees from letting ICE agents into schools and other sensitive locations without a judicial warrant.

It does not prevent local law enforcement from working with ICE on criminal matters.

Prior to 2025, Rensselaer was the only county in the state that had a formal cooperation agreement with ICE. Earlier this year, there were 12 agencies with cooperation agreements.

During her news conference Tuesday, Hochul noted 53 of the state's 62 counties never signed cooperation agreements with ICE. Suffolk County did not have one.

Last month, the Office of Immigrant Trust sent letters to law enforcement agencies who had signed agreements with ICE, demanding they end them prior to Tuesday's deadline.

Under Blakeman, Nassau County has embraced a cooperative role in civil immigration enforcement with ICE, with Blakeman calling it the most comprehensive partnership in the country.

Both the Nassau County police and sheriff's departments have agreements with ICE. The police department deputized 10 officers to assist ICE with its immigration enforcement efforts and rents space at the county jail to the federal agency.

Anti-ICE rally

Assemb. Michaelle C. Solages (D-Elmont) rallied alongside fellow Democrats and anti-ICE activists outside the Nassau County police headquarters in Mineola on Tuesday afternoon. She said it was unclear whether Blakeman would comply.

"I’m hoping that Blakeman isn’t politicizing this. These are people’s lives ... Folks are now afraid to call the police because they might be detained and deported," Solages told Newsday.
"We plan to keep visiting the jail and see for ourselves ... They’re on notice. We are watching."

Solages made a surprise visit to the Nassau County Correctional Center in East Meadow earlier this month to inspect 50 jail cells that were available for ICE to use.

State Sen. Andrew Gounardes of Brooklyn, also standing outside the Nassau Police headquarters, said, "What is infuriating, most of all ... is when these law-and-order type people say, ‘You have to follow the law, you have to follow the law,’ unless it’s a law that they themselves don't want to follow. What kind of BS is that?"