Rensselaer County will be joining a federal lawsuit to strike down a New York state law barring law enforcement agencies from working with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement under 287(g) cooperation agreements.
The Local Cops, Local Crimes Act was signed by Gov. Kathy Hochul in May and is set to go into effect Tuesday.
“I believe that when the facts of this case are heard and the political arguments are set aside, we will prevail,” said Rensselaer County Sheriff Kyle Bourgault, who will be a plaintiff in the case, in a statement.
The Rensselaer County Sheriff’s Office has had a 287(g) agreement since 2018. That agreement allows deputies to identify immigrants in the Rensselaer County Jail and initiate immigration proceedings against them on behalf of ICE.
Other 287(g) agreements allow officers to make immigration-related arrests and/or serve and execute warrants on immigrants in their custody.
Bourgault and Rensselaer County Executive Steve McLaughlin had for months said they planned to ignore the new law, even after the state Attorney General’s Office ordered them to comply in July. Rensselaer County has argued that the agreement allows them to keep communities safer and helps identify dangerous criminals.
“We have yet to hear the Governor or Attorney General tell us how their action makes our state or Rensselaer County any safer,” McLaughlin said in a statement. “We are still waiting for an answer to that important question.”
Hochul and state Democrats have argued the law will protect immigrants from aggressive immigration enforcement and better prioritize law enforcement resources.
“Nobody is above the law. In New York, we will not tolerate the diversion of local resources for federal civil immigration enforcement at the expense of public safety,” Hochul said in a statement in July. “My top priority is keeping New Yorkers safe. Ensuring our law enforcement remains focused on local crimes is essential to protecting our communities and maintaining public safety.”
Twelve other jurisdictions in New York State had 287(g) agreements when the law was signed. Eleven have said they will withdraw from those agreements by Tuesday. The only other exception is Nassau County Executive and Republican nominee for governor Bruce Blakeman, who has not made a decision.
“We're still talking with our lawyers,” Blakeman told the New York Public News Network Monday. “They're reviewing the process. I'll make a decision shortly.”
As the lawsuit is yet to be filed, it is unclear who else will sign on. However, Saratoga County Sheriff Jeff Brown told WAMC earlier this month that he was “signing on” to a planned lawsuit against The Local Cops, Local Crimes Act, even though his county doesn’t have a 287(g) agreement.
