NYS lawmakers near deal on limiting ICE enforcement actions

ALBANY — New York lawmakers are nearing a deal that would prohibit counties from signing cooperation agreements with federal immigration and customs agents, restrict those agents from going into “sensitive” locations such as schools and churches without a judicial warrant, and establish a right to sue federal officers for constitutional violations.

The provisions would be included in a final budget deal Gov. Kathy Hochul, the State Senate and Assembly are working to finish, one month after it was due.

Of the several high-profile issues that have stalled negotiations — especially climate and insurance laws — lawmakers are closest to finishing the policies on migrants, a source with knowledge of the talks said.

Hochul, Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins (D-Yonkers) and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie (D-Bronx) have held a steadily increasing number of three-way talks on the budget in the past week, including Friday morning, a sign of increased urgency.

Though they haven’t finalized climate talks, two likely compromises have emerged, as Newsday reported earlier: State regulations for meeting the transition to clean energy sources would be finished in 2028, instead of this year under current laws and instead of 2030 as Hochul proposed.

Also, the “soft” goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions 85% by 2050 would become a “hard” goal written in statute, Senate and Assembly members have said.

On migrants, Hochul and her fellow Democrats who control the Legislature have never been very far apart.

Last Wednesday, Heastie told reporters the leaders and Hochul had finished “95%” of the immigration legislation, especially curbing the actions of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.

“I think we all want to deal with the aggressiveness, or the overaggressiveness, let’s say, of ICE. But we also understand that there should always be due process,” Heastie said.

Now, it’s more like 99% finished, the source said.

Some of the details include things Hochul and rank-and-file legislators largely have agreed on all along. For example, banning counties from signing formal cooperation agreements to help ICE on enforcement actions.

The deal likely will include a ban on informal working pacts, known as 287(g) agreements. It would prohibit federal agents from wearing masks while carrying out enforcement actions and ban them from a range of “sensitive locations” that, in addition to schools and churches, would include day care and senior centers and parks.

If the Trump administration wanted to block New York's actions, it would have to sue in federal court to get, for example, the 287(g) provision declared illegal. That's in part because counties aren't compelled to cooperate with the feds on immigration enforcement, but some choose to, state officials say. If the ban is enacted and a county tried to sign a cooperation deal anyway, it would be up to the state attorney general to enforce the prohibition. 

Hochul and many other officials around the country have been stepping up criticisms of ICE under President Donald Trump, especially after agents killed Alex Pretti and Renée Good in Minnesota in January.

"New Yorkers are feeling traumatized and stunned as they watch federal agents carry out unspeakable acts of violence in a country they no longer recognize," Hochul, who is up for reelection in the fall, said earlier this year.

Her Republican opponent, Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, said he’d veto legislation preventing cooperation with ICE, though, technically speaking, if elected he’d have to introduce a new bill next year and force the Democratic-run Legislature to agree.

The Republican official often touts that he was the first county leader in the nation to sign a cooperation agreement with ICE. Nassau's cooperation with the federal agency has resulted in more than 2,000 illegal migrants with criminal records being removed, he has said.

One element of the package that likely won’t be included that progressive lawmakers and immigration activists wanted was to ban local law enforcement from sharing any information with federal agents regarding an individual until after that person was convicted of a crime.

The likely deal won’t include that provision — but will give locals leeway to enact such a policy on their own.

By Yancey Roy

yancey.roy@newsday.com@yanceyroy