Blakeman, running mate split over future ICE agreements

ALBANY — Republican nominee for governor Bruce Blakeman and his running mate, Madison County Sheriff Todd Hood, are taking different paths when it comes to a new state law banning cooperation agreements with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Just days before a state-mandated deadline for a handful of law enforcement agencies to end their agreements, Blakeman, the Nassau County executive, has not said what the Nassau County Police Department will do and has said he's looking at legal options.

Hood ended Madison County’s agreement before last Friday, when the state asked all 12 agencies that had agreements with ICE to detail their plans to unwind the contracts.

Capt. Jonathan Morticelli, of the Madison County Sheriff's Department, said the department ended its agreement with ICE in response to the new state law Gov. Kathy Hochul signed in May.

"This was not a voluntary decision made by Sheriff Hood, but was a decision made to be in compliance with the 'Local Cops, Local Crimes' Act," Morticelli wrote in an email.

Representatives for Blakeman’s campaign and Nassau County did not respond to requests for comment.

Grant Reeher, a political science professor at Syracuse University, said governors and their running mates have had policy differences in the past.

Differences of opinion led to Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado's unsuccessful primary challenge against Hochul earlier this year, Reeher noted.

"So the fact that there may be daylight between these two candidates is not that strange, except that in a campaign, there is usually an attempt to project as united a front as possible," he said in an email.

Reeher added, however, that candidates tend to go with their core values on charged issues like immigration enforcement.

Under Blakeman, Nassau County has embraced a cooperative role in civil immigration enforcement with ICE, with Blakeman calling it the most comprehensive partnership in the country.

Both the Nassau County police and sheriff's departments have agreements with ICE. The police department deputized 10 officers to assist ICE with its immigration enforcement efforts and rents space at the county jail to the federal agency.

Meanwhile, the Madison County sheriff’s cooperation was more limited, with deputies allowed to execute immigration warrants on only individuals in the county jail.

Morticelli said his department will still notify ICE when people with warrants enter the jail. And if the Local Cops, Local Crimes Act was to be found to be unconstitutional or invalid, he said, the department would resume its cooperation with ICE.

The legislation prohibits state and local employees from questioning people solely for immigration purposes, unless they are required to by a federal judicial warrant, and prohibits government employees from letting ICE agents into schools and other sensitive locations without a judicial warrant.

It does not prevent local law enforcement from working with ICE on criminal matters.

In addition to the two Nassau County departments, four other agencies have not yet agreed to comply with the state law, including the sheriff departments for Broome, Cattaraugus, Otsego and Rensselaer counties.

Blakeman repeatedly has brushed off questions about what the county intends to do, saying he was reviewing the issue with lawyers. He also previously said he would consider legal action against the state over the new law.

The state has given law enforcement agencies until Tuesday to dissolve their agreements, with consequences spelled out in the law if Nassau doesn’t comply.

The state Attorney General’s Office, after an investigation, may seek an injunction. Alternatively, it can receive assurance from the agency it will end the agreement with ICE or seek to monitor the agency for a period of time, according to the law.