NEW YORK (WABC) — Gov. Kathy Hochul wants to end relationships between ICE and local police agencies across the state of New York.
Currently, eight counties across the state, including Nassau County, allow ICE to deputize local police to help detain undocumented immigrants.
During a press conference Friday, Hochul said ICE has gotten “out of control” and “this ends now.”
Hochul said she will not allow New Yorkers to be terrorized by what she called a “rogue federal agency.”
She proposed specific legislation that would sharply limit local law enforcement cooperation with ICE.
“This is about a rogue federal agency that’s been unleashed on American streets for the sole purpose of creating chaos, carnage and fear,” Hochul said.
The governor is determined to prevent local police officers from cooperating with ICE agents in detaining and deporting otherwise law-abiding New Yorkers.
On Friday she proposed legislation that would forbid those relationships.
“We call it the local Cops Local Crimes Act, very simply, local police focus on local crimes, focus on protecting our streets,” Hochul said. “And I’ll work closely with my partners in the legislature to get this passed as quickly as possible. With this proposal, we’re sending a strong message to ICE: You will not weaponize local police officers against their own communities in the State of New York. You will not use our police technology to track people who’ve done nothing wrong, you will not throw innocent people into our jails.”
The governor emphasized that the law would not prevent local law enforcement from cooperating with ICE in tracking down undocumented criminals.
“When individuals enter this country illegally and commit crimes, I want them arrested and tried,” Hochul said. “If they’re convicted, they must be imprisoned and deported. That’s what we’ve been doing for decades here.”
New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said cooperation with federal agencies is important and it will continue.
“We have deeply important partnerships with federal agencies, and we work side by side with them on a variety of cases that are vital to public safety, including terrorism, violence, guns and gang cases, regardless of the subject’s immigration status,” Tisch said. “That cooperation is important, and it continues. And this legislation does not interfere with that work.”
Tisch, along with other police commanders across the state, support the legislation.
Nassau County has been particularly active in cooperating with ICE in criminal and civil immigration enforcement. The country’s executive, Bruce Blakeman, released a statement that said the proposed legislation would endanger communities across New York.
“Kathy Hochul is the most pro-criminal governor in the United States who has a callous disregard for the safety of our communities and victims of crime,” Blakeman said. “By banning local law enforcement partnerships with ICE, Hochul is allowing dangerous criminals to return to our neighborhoods. That ends when I’m Governor.”
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