New York Gov. Kathy Hochul has debuted a new proposal, the Local Cops, Local Crimes Act, which would bar police departments in her state from forming partnerships with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
During a news conference on Friday, the Democratic governor said she was sending a “strong message to ICE” and showing the Trump administration that it could not “weaponize local police officers against their own communities in the state of New York.”
On Monday, Hochul sat down with “Morning Joe” on MS NOW to discuss the proposal. She talked about the fatal shootings of Renée Nicole Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis and the detention of Liam Conejo Ramos, a 5-year-old boy who was sent from Minnesota to an ICE facility in Texas, and said the country had become “unrecognizable” amid President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.
“In New York, we know who we are, and I have to stand up and forbid these agreements,” Hochul said.
The legislation would eliminate 287(g) agreements, preventing state and local police from acting as federal agents or using taxpayer funds to carry out civil immigration enforcement. It would also prohibit the federal government from using local detention centers.
“I want to be very clear: We are not saying that local police cannot cooperate when there is a criminal investigation — this is what the Republicans are going to challenge and conflate. We have always done that, always will,” Hochul said, adding: “But why would we want to divert local law enforcement from the local policing, you know, catching criminals in the streets, stopping gun trafficking, stopping the flow of drugs?
“I want my local police doing that and not being deputized for civil-only immigration enforcement, and I don’t want my jails filled up with people that they’re trying to detain who may even have legal status here but they don’t agree with it,” Hochul added.
The governor said a majority of the members of local law enforcement she had spoken with had expressed fear that they could be “weaponized to turn against the people that they’re trying to build trust with.”
Hochul said her administration would “always focus on public safety first,” and stressed that the federal government’s deployment of agents across the country was not about public safety, but rather a “public abuse of power.”
You can watch Hochul’s full interview in the clip at the top of the page.
Allison Detzel is an editor/producer for MS NOW. She was previously a segment producer for “AYMAN” and “The Mehdi Hasan Show.”