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Sheriffs File Joint Suit Against NY Governor
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Sheriffs File Joint Suit Against NY Governor

A battle over immigration enforcement in New York is moving deeper into the courts, with 15 county sheriffs suing Gov. Kathy Hochul over a new state law that prevents local governments from maintaining formal cooperation agreements with federal immigration authorities.

The lawsuit challenges New York’s prohibition on agreements established under Section 287(g) of federal immigration law, which can authorize participating state and local law-enforcement agencies to perform certain immigration-enforcement functions under federal supervision.

The Federation for American Immigration Reform filed the lawsuit on behalf of the sheriffs of St. Lawrence, Wayne, Broome, Madison, Cattaraugus, Orange, Jefferson, Saratoga, Lewis, Franklin, Delaware, Fulton, Oswego, Cayuga and Rensselaer counties.


At the center of the case is a fundamental dispute over who gets to decide whether locally elected sheriffs can participate in that federal program.

The sheriffs argue that New York has exceeded its constitutional authority by preventing them from making their own law-enforcement decisions.

“Under the New York Constitution’s guarantees of Home Rule (Article IX) and Separation of Powers, and under the independent status of their office, they possess the authority to make their own judgments about whether and how to participate in the cooperative framework Congress created,” the lawsuit states.

According to the complaint, the new restrictions go beyond setting statewide immigration policy and interfere directly with the powers of independently elected sheriffs.

“They nullify the ability of independently elected constitutional officers to enter into contracts authorized by federal law,” the lawsuit states. “In doing so, they subject those officers’ core law-enforcement judgments to centralized state oversight and control. The resulting harm is imminent and irreparable.”

The sheriffs are seeking an injunction preventing the state from enforcing the law while the courts consider their constitutional arguments.

Hochul, who is seeking a second full term as governor, has taken the opposite position and characterized the legislation as a necessary restriction on federal immigration enforcement.

She called it a “stand against ICE overreach.”

“We will not sit idly by when ICE commits atrocities on our streets,” Hochul said, while maintaining that New York law-enforcement agencies could still cooperate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement when required.

But she also delivered an unmistakable warning to departments that attempt to retain prohibited agreements.

“Let me be clear: any police department or sheriff’s office that disobeys this law, that maintains any agreement with ICE, will face legal action,” Hochul said.


She was equally combative about the court challenge.

“And to those suing us, those trying to block the implementation of this law, (you) tried before and failed,” Hochul said. “Our law has been already upheld by courts. But if you’re trying it again, I say bring it on.”

Rensselaer County Executive Steve McLaughlin accused the Hochul administration of interfering with routine law enforcement and putting restrictions on how officers handle illegal immigrants already detained in county facilities.

McLaughlin said individuals being checked in his county are not people encountered randomly on the street. They are already in jail.

They “did something serious enough to land in our jail,” McLaughlin said. “All we do is run them through a federal (law enforcement) database to find out what other crimes they may have committed.”

“In effect, this governor is trying to give special privileges to illegal aliens by not running them through the same databases we run Americans through,” he added.

McLaughlin went further in his criticism of Hochul, accusing her of having “escalated her administration’s war on the police” and pursuing policies that “put criminals before the citizens of New York.”

Written by Arthur Higgens - August 28, 2026