Law enforcement leaders across New York are threatening to sue Gov. Kathy Hochul over her push to ban local police from cooperating with federal immigration agents, a proposal sheriffs say would strip them of one of the most effective tools they have for getting criminal illegal immigrants off the street.
Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman and Madison County Sheriff Todd Hood, now running together on the Republican gubernatorial ticket, say the governor's plan to outlaw so-called 287(g) agreements has united sheriffs across the state in opposition. The agreements allow local officers to flag illegal immigrants they arrest and transfer them directly to ICE custody, a process Hood says takes about 40 minutes from booking to handoff.
Hochul introduced the measure in January and is now pushing to include it in New York's 2027 fiscal budget. The proposal would ban 287(g) agreements statewide, limit ICE access to schools, hospitals, and churches, and restrict informal cooperation between local law enforcement and federal immigration agents. If passed, Hochul has warned that jurisdictions that refuse to comply "will be taken to court for enforcement."
The governor's threat has not gone over well in county seats outside Manhattan.
Blakeman, who signed Nassau County's 287(g) agreement with ICE in February 2025, told Fox News Digital that he and sheriffs across the state are discussing a lawsuit to block Hochul's plan.
"Kathy Hochul can make my day, because as far as I'm concerned, we're enforcing federal law in Nassau County, and a lot of the sheriffs throughout the state feel the same way. They're mad as hell."
Hood, whose Madison County office signed its own 287(g) agreement last July, said the backlash is not limited to a few outspoken Republicans. He described a wave of opposition from sheriffs statewide.
"I have sheriffs from all over the state contacting me, and they are all very upset about this. Almost all of them disagree. There's very few sheriffs who are on board."
Fourteen active 287(g) agreements currently operate across nine New York counties. Each one lets local officers who arrest an illegal immigrant notify ICE, which can then place a detainer on the individual and take custody directly from the local jail, rather than trying to track the person down after release.
In Nassau County alone, roughly 3,200 illegal immigrants arrested by local police have been transferred to ICE custody since the county's agreement took effect in February 2025. That figure gives concrete scale to a program Hochul wants to eliminate.
Hood argued the process protects both officers and communities by keeping enforcement inside the jail, not out on the streets.
"The 287(g) program is absolutely amazing. It makes it so we don't have to go into people's houses. These people are criminals. They're getting arrested. They're coming into our jail, and they're headed to the center about 40 minutes later after they get in. It's very safe and very effective, and we work together in law enforcement, that's our job."
One case in particular illustrates the stakes. Earlier this month, a man named Elder Lopez Avalos was arrested in Freeport, New York, for allegedly setting 10 cars on fire. A local court released him, the charges were not bail-eligible under New York law. But because Nassau County operates under a 287(g) agreement, ICE agents were able to detain Avalos after his court hearing rather than watch him walk free into the community.
Without that agreement, Avalos would have simply been released. Hochul's proposal would make that outcome the default across the state.
The pattern is not unique to New York. New York City recently refused to hand over a Queens arson suspect to ICE, highlighting the same jurisdictional standoff playing out at the municipal level.
Hochul's proposal goes beyond simply ending 287(g) agreements. It would also bar ICE from accessing schools, hospitals, and churches, and restrict any informal cooperation between local police and federal immigration agents. The combined effect would be a sweeping sanctuary framework embedded in the state budget.
The governor has not publicly detailed her rationale for the policy. But the timing coincides with a national wave of anti-ICE protests, including ongoing demonstrations outside a detention facility in Newark, New Jersey, where protesters have blocked roads and demanded the facility's closure and the unconditional release of all detainees.
That Newark facility, Delaney Hall, is a 1,000-bed, privately run detention center that opened May 1, 2025, as part of the Trump administration's detention expansion. Newsmax reported that New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill, a Democrat, was denied entry to the facility on Monday, prompting her to claim the denial "raises serious questions about what they are trying to hide from public view." A DHS spokesperson responded that "all detainees are provided with three meals a day, clean water, clothing, bedding, showers, soap, and toiletries." About 300 detainees at the facility launched a hunger and work strike protesting conditions.
The confrontational atmosphere around immigration enforcement has spread well beyond New York and New Jersey. In Illinois, Gov. J.B. Pritzker demanded criminal probes of ICE agents over enforcement operations, drawing a sharp rebuke from DHS.
What makes Hochul's move unusual is that she is not merely declining to cooperate with federal agents. She is actively trying to prevent county-level officials from cooperating, even when those officials want to.
That distinction matters. The 287(g) program is a voluntary federal-local partnership. Counties opt in. Sheriffs sign agreements because they believe the program works. Hochul's plan would override that local judgment by state fiat, and back it up with court enforcement.
Hood did not mince words about what he sees as a failure of leadership in states where local police stand aside during immigration operations. Referencing ICE's Operation Metro Surge in Minnesota, he said local officers should have backed up federal agents even if they were not directly conducting immigration work.
"Those local police should have been behind those agents, even if they're not doing the actual immigration stuff. They should have been there and had their backs down there, and that's a massive failure by that state."
The case of Eledoro Valenzuela Rodriguez offers a longer-term cautionary tale. The Cuban national received a final removal order in 1980, more than four decades ago, yet remained in the United States after receiving lenient sentences in New York and Maryland. That kind of outcome is exactly what 287(g) supporters say the program exists to prevent.
Anti-ICE sentiment has also turned volatile in New York City itself, where protesters recently clashed with police outside a Brooklyn hospital during an ICE operation.
Blakeman has said he is in discussions with sheriffs about filing a lawsuit to block Hochul's sanctuary measure. Whether that suit has been formally filed remains unclear. But the political lines are drawn: a Democratic governor threatening to haul county officials into court for enforcing federal law, and Republican law enforcement leaders daring her to try.
The fight also carries gubernatorial implications. Blakeman is the Republican nominee for governor, and Hood is his running mate. Their opposition to Hochul's sanctuary push is both a policy stance and a campaign platform, one that resonates in counties where voters see the 287(g) program producing measurable results.
Across the country, the same tension between state executives and local law enforcement keeps surfacing. In Arizona, a sheriff recently faced removal efforts from county supervisors in a parallel dispute over enforcement authority.
Hochul's proposal still needs to survive the budget process. But the governor has made her position clear: comply or face court action. The sheriffs have made theirs equally clear: bring it.
When a governor spends her political capital trying to stop local cops from handing criminals over to federal agents, the question answers itself about whose side she's on, and it's not the side of the people those criminals victimize.
