ALBANY – Fifteen New York county sheriffs, including Orange County Sheriff Paul Arteta, have filed a federal lawsuit challenging a new state law that prohibits local law enforcement agencies from participating in certain federal immigration enforcement agreements.
The Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) filed the lawsuit Tuesday in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York on behalf of the sheriffs, challenging the state’s Local Cops, Local Crimes Act and the newly created Office of Immigrant Trust.
The plaintiffs allege the state’s ban on 287(g) agreements with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is unconstitutional because it interferes with their local decision-making and forces them to cancel a federal contract.
The sheriffs also filed an emergency motion seeking a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction to prevent the state from enforcing provisions requiring existing 287(g) agreements to be terminated by Aug. 25 and federal housing agreements to be terminated by Nov. 25.
Several of the sheriffs involved in the lawsuit have 287(g) agreements with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement that allow designated local officers to perform certain federal immigration enforcement functions. Other agreements allow local jails to house people detained by federal immigration authorities.
The state law, signed by Gov. Kathy Hochul in May, prohibits state and local governments and law enforcement agencies from entering into or remaining in 287(g) agreements. It also prohibits agreements to house or detain individuals for federal civil immigration violations. Orange County has previously held people detained by ICE at Orange County Jail.
Dale Wilcox, executive director and general counsel of FAIR, said the lawsuit is intended to preserve existing agreements between local sheriffs and the federal government.
“New York’s law does not merely decline to cooperate with immigration enforcement priorities. It actively dismantles existing, congressionally authorized partnerships that sheriffs lawfully entered to protect their communities,” Wilcox said.
“These sheriffs are not asking for new powers. They are asking to keep the agreements they already have,” added Mateo Forero, counsel for the plaintiffs.
Hochul and state Attorney General Letitia James defended the law and called the lawsuit frivolous.
In a statement Tuesday, they said the Local Cops, Local Crimes Act is intended to ensure local public safety resources are focused on combating crime rather than carrying out federal civil immigration enforcement. They also said most New York law enforcement agencies already protect their communities without 287(g) agreements.