Albany lawmakers said they have new momentum to pass long-proposed legislation that would restrict state and local police from helping with immigration enforcement as demonstrations take place in New York and nationwide after a federal immigration agent fatally shot a woman in Minneapolis.
Advocates for the New York for All Act say the political climate has changed amid the Trump administration's increasingly aggressive deportation campaign and public acts of violence by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
“ I think what's different this year is the clarity of the need, the human clarity, the political clarity,” said Assemblymember Catalina Cruz, a Queens Democrat. “Turn the TV on every day, and it's another kidnapping in our community. It's another family being torn apart.”
The bill was originally introduced six years ago. It would block state and local officers from enforcing federal immigration laws and sharing sensitive information with ICE, absent a judicial warrant. It would also ensure that people in custody are informed of their legal rights before being interviewed by immigration agents.
New York City already has some of the country's strongest sanctuary laws, which bar city jails and police from honoring ICE detainer requests.
While a growing number of Democratic legislators have signed on to the bill as cosponsors, leaders of both the state Assembly and Senate have never brought it to the floor. And Gov. Kathy Hochul — a Democrat seeking re-election this year — hasn’t taken a position on the measure.
Hochul has tried to walk a fine line on immigration issues. She has continued a 2017 executive order that sets out rules for the State Police and other agencies in dealing with ICE. That order generally prohibits most state employees from asking about a person’s immigration status.
But the governor has also stressed that the state often cooperates with ICE, and said as much when called to testify last year before a Republican-controlled congressional committee.
Hochul described the death of Renee Nicole Good in Minnesota as a “heartbreaking and entirely foreseeable tragedy.” In an appearance on MS NOW’s “Morning Joe” Thursday, the governor broadly denounced ICE’s conduct.
“I'm going to stand up to defend rights, at least what I can do in New York,” she said. Hochul said she’d propose a policy in her upcoming State of the State address that would allow people to “get recourse” if they are injured or their property is damaged by ICE.
But advocates of New York for All say the recent events call for a further response.
“This is a break-the-glass-and-pull-the-lever situation,” state Senate Deputy Leader Michael Gianaris said at a Thursday morning rally at Federal Plaza in Manhattan. “What the federal government is doing is abusing power, breaking the law, and doing so in ways that are just horrific.”
Gianaris emphasized that the stepped up federal immigration enforcement is happening in New York as well. In September, immigration officials took 57 people into custody at a food processing plant in Cayuga County.
Polling shows New Yorkers’ opinions are shifting on immigration issues amid the raids.
A Siena Research poll of New York voters in December found 65% of respondents believed that deploying federal immigration officials to round up illegal immigrants had gone “too far.”
By contrast, a Siena poll from December 2024 found 54% of respondents said New York should support Trump’s deportation efforts.
“I think what you see is New Yorkers’ views on immigration have evolved over the last year, since the presidential election,” said Steven Greenberg, a pollster with the Siena College research institute.
In the new poll, a vast majority of Democratic respondents — 86% — said they disapproved of Trump’s deportation policy.
In a notable shift in messaging last week, State Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins specifically highlighted the sanctuary proposal in her opening remarks of the new session.
“We will stand firm in defense of voting rights and equal rights,” Stewart-Cousins said Wednesday, “with one of our central focuses being standing up for communities that are being targeted and marginalized, which includes protecting our immigrant brothers and sisters by advancing the goals of New York for All.”
Progressive lawmakers and advocacy organizations are also pushing for bills that would guarantee legal counsel for immigrants facing deportation and dedicate $175 million of state money for those legal services.
Studies show that having a lawyer in immigration court dramatically reduces a person’s likelihood of being deported.
“This is not the time to nit-pick about what we should and shouldn’t do,” Gianaris said. “We need to do all of it.”
The bill’s fate in the state Assembly is less clear. Speaker Carl Heastie, a Democrat from the Bronx, didn’t mention immigration in a speech last week opening the chamber’s new legislative session. A spokesperson for Heastie said they haven't had a conference discussion on the proposal but would in the near future.
And Republicans vehemently oppose any effort to limit local law enforcement’s cooperation with ICE.
“ I really just don't think that's a good idea,” Long Island Assemblymember Jarett Gandolfo said. Gandolfo is the sponsor of a bill that would overrule certain sanctuary policies like New York City’s, by requiring police departments statewide to notify federal immigration officials if they arrest someone who's in the country without authorization, similar to the federal Laken Riley Act.
Gandolfo said he and his fellow Republicans would oppose any attempt to expand sanctuary protections. “Hopefully saner heads prevail,” he said.
Cruz, the Queens Assemblymember, said she was confident supporters could get the governor to support their suite of immigration bills in the new session.
“ I think we have the makeup of the bodies, we have the political will this year, to do something different, to do something courageous,” Cruz said. “Because we can't afford not to.”
Jimmy Vielkind contributed reporting.
