<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Fifteen New York sheriffs are suing Governor Kathy Hochul and the state’s Democratic Attorney General Letitia James over a new state law that bans state and local law enforcement from cooperating with federal immigration authorities. The sheriffs argue that the law interferes with their ability to protect their communities.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The sheriffs, speaking at a press conference on Tuesday, stated that the newly enacted Local Cops, Local Crimes Act represents a constitutional overreach and undermines the authority of local elected officials to make decisions regarding federal partnerships.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The sheriffs joined a lawsuit initiated by the Federation for American Immigration Reform, a Washington-based nonprofit, on August 25, the day the law took effect.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The sheriffs contend that the state should not have the authority to prevent them from entering into 287(g) agreements with U.S. Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. These agreements, outlined in federal law, allow state and local police to be deputized by federal authorities to perform certain immigration duties. The new law prohibits any such cooperative arrangements.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">“New York’s law does not merely decline to cooperate with immigration enforcement priorities. It actively dismantles existing, congressionally authorized partnerships that sheriffs lawfully entered to protect their communities,” said Dale Wilcox, FAIR’s executive director and general counsel, in a statement on Tuesday. “Independently elected sheriffs should not be forced by Albany to abandon tools that keep dangerous criminal aliens from walking back onto their streets.”</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Rensselaer County Sheriff Kyle Bourgault stated that he participates in the 287(g) program by screening all county jail inmates to determine if they are illegal immigrants. Those identified will be turned over to ICE to face removal proceedings in immigration court. “The screening afforded under the 287(g) program helps ensure a person brought to our county jail and wanted elsewhere for serious crimes is not released into the community,” Bourgault said. “No proponent of the new state law has explained how that law makes anyone safer, nor have they justified how tying the hands of local sheriffs helps law enforcement.”</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Hochul and James countersued on August 27, targeting Bourgault and the county in an attempt to compel him to cease his cooperation with ICE.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">In a joint rebuttal, Hochul and James stated that the Local Cops, Local Crimes Act was enacted to ensure public safety by directing resources toward combating crime in communities rather than carrying out ICE's work.</p>