Cops vs Governor: A Blue State Civil War Over Immigration Enforcement

A political and legal battle is brewing in New York over immigration, but this time it isn't simply President Donald Trump's administration versus Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul. The governor is instead facing opposition from law enforcement officers within her own state, and neither side is willing to back down. Hochul wants to forbid police and sheriffs from working with ICE while sheriffs are suing, saying the new law is unconstitutional.

Immigration Enforcement Battle

"Today, Kathy Hochul escalated her administration’s war on the police and she expanded polices to put criminals before the citizens of New York," Rensselaer County Executive Steve McLaughlin said earlier this week.

Rensselaer County Sheriff Kyle Bourgault led the federal lawsuit which argues the law restricting sheriffs’ ability to cooperate with federal immigration agencies is unconstitutional. Around 15 other sheriffs have signed on to the lawsuit.

The Local Cops, Local Crimes Act, was signed in May by Hochul and went into effect on August 25. Under this new law, local and state law enforcement agencies are barred from entering into partnerships with federal authorities on civil immigration issues. It also prohibits new agreements for immigration detainees and requires current agreements to be terminated within three months. Police may still assist ICE when there are violent incidents involving illegal immigrants or in other forms of non-immigration crime, but they are not allowed to use local resources to help with enforcing the law when the individual’s only crime is illegal immigration, according to the governor.

"Because we need local cops hunting down criminals, not kindergartners. Breaking up drug rings, not breaking up families. Arresting gun runners, not grandmas," the governor said.

Hochul is very serious about this law and is even promising to punish those who don’t follow it. She threatened to sue localities that don’t participate. "And to those suing us, those trying to block the implementation of this law who’ve tried before and failed, our law has already been upheld by the courts, but if you try me again, I say, bring it on," she declared.

Hochul’s Republican challenger, Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, is strongly against the law, calling it “completely misguided.” He warned it would lead to “mayhem, and violence and drug overdoses in our communities.”

“This law has made New York state more dangerous.

“Going forward, every murder, every rape, every robbery, every burglary, every drug overdose, committed by an illegal migrant, is on the hands of Kathy Hochul and the Democrats in our state legislature — it will be blood on their hands.”

Hochul insists agencies can only assist federal officers if a real crime is committed. Apparently, the crime of entering the country illegally is not considered a real offense on the governor’s list. Blakeman asked during an earlier press conference: "Kathy Hochul, where do you want those guns? What neighborhood do you want to destroy? Where do you want those drugs? What community do you want to destroy? Where do you want those illegal immigrants with criminal records to live? You want it back in New York? We say no.”

Blakeman said his county would comply with the new law by abiding with “the technicalities” of it, but he insisted they would continue to work with ICE, without giving any more details. “I am a law and order county executive. I believe in the rule of law — even when it’s a bad law, and this is a very, very bad and dangerous law,” he said.

New York does have a criminal problem with illegal immigrants. As Liberty Nation News Enterprise Reporter Joe Schaefer explained:

“The Department of Homeland Security ‘claims that 7,113 of those currently incarcerated in New York state prisons and jails are illegal immigrants,’ John R. Lott Jr. wrote for The New York Post on December 28. ‘They’ve been convicted of committing 148 homicides, 717 assaults, 134 burglaries, 106 robberies, 235 dangerous drugs offenses, 152 weapons offenses, and 260 sexual predatory offenses, among other crimes.’”

Hochul might have forgotten about her own state’s history. New York once sued the federal government complaining it wasn’t doing enough to address illegal immigration.

States vs Federal Government

Can New York refuse to help enforce federal immigration law? That’s a little tricky. The Tenth Amendment and the anti-commandeering doctrine address this. Generally, the federal government can enforce federal law within a state, but it can’t order state governments to administer a federal regulatory program. The Supreme Court developed this principle through cases including New York v. United States (1992), Printz v. United States (1997), and Murphy v. NCAA (2018).

During the 1990s, several states sued Washington, including Arizona, California, Florida, New Jersey, New York, and Texas. They claimed their territories were paying substantial costs associated with illegal immigration since the government wasn’t doing enough. In this instance, the states lost the suit.

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In 2012, Arizona adopted SB 1070 to enforce stricter illegal immigration laws, but then-President Barack Obama’s administration sued in Arizona v. United States. The Supreme Court struck down several provisions, emphasizing the federal government's extensive authority over immigration and alien status.

The bottom line is that states have a lot of power to govern themselves, but there are limits. A state generally can't simply decide that a federal law doesn't apply within its borders. At the same time, Washington can't always force state and local governments to use their own employees and resources to carry out federal programs.

Hochul may have set out to fight federal immigration enforcement, but now she’s fighting some of her own cops. With sheriffs taking her to court and the governor telling them to “bring it on,” the battle lines have been drawn inside New York itself. For a law called Local Cops, Local Crimes, it has certainly managed to put the governor and her local cops on opposite sides. Now, instead of working together to enforce the law and protect New Yorkers, state leaders and sheriffs will be fighting each other in court over who gets to decide how that job is done.