Nurul Amin Shah Alam<\/a>, a blind Rohingya refugee who was found dead after immigration agents left him alone outside on a cold Buffalo night. The city\u2019s medical examiner determined his death was a homicide.<\/p>\nMs. Hochul referred to Mr. Shah Alam\u2019s death, which occurred in her hometown, when announcing the budget agreement on Thursday. \u201cCome on, that\u2019s not who we are,\u201d she said. \u201cNot as New Yorkers, not as Americans.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was a long road to a deal, and the question of how much cooperation local law enforcement should have with federal agents became a sticking point.<\/p>\n
Ms. Hochul announced early on that she would back a statewide ban on formal measures, called 287(g) agreements, that deputize local officers to do immigration enforcement.<\/p>\n
The proposal had for Ms. Hochul the added benefit of antagonizing her opponent in the November general election, Bruce Blakeman, who as Nassau County executive has trumpeted his county\u2019s work with ICE.<\/p>\n
Mr. Blakeman defended his county\u2019s agreement and said earlier this week he would challenge the new law in court. \u201cIn the last year, because we were with ICE, we have not raided one school, we have not raided one church, not one hospital, not one day care center, and we removed 2000 illegal migrants with criminal records,\u201d Mr. Blakeman said.<\/p>\n
Many Democratic lawmakers had wanted a more sweeping package that would have banned all communication between state officials, including law enforcement, and the federal government.<\/p>\n
Ms. Hochul insisted that local police should be able to work with ICE to remove undocumented immigrants they believed were dangerous. The issue split not only Democrats but also prosecutors and law enforcement agencies, some of whom wanted to be able to move quickly to deport people, and others who argued that New York crimes should be adjudicated in New York courts.<\/p>\n
At one point, lawmakers were considering a complex system in which communication regarding certain serious crimes was allowed, but it was banned in the case of less serious ones. In the end, the debate fell out of budget talks.<\/p>\n
Instead, the new package bans 287(g) agreements and prohibits state and local employees other than law enforcement from sharing information with immigration officials. It also prohibits ICE from using local jails to house people they are detaining.<\/p>\n
Natalia Aristizabal, co-executive director of Make the Road New York, an immigrant advocacy group, said that the measures were a meaningful step forward that would have a material impact on thousands of New Yorkers.<\/p>\n
Even so, she said she thought the agreement fell short, noting that it failed \u201cto address the informal collusion between local law enforcement and ICE, which is the primary way that New Yorkers are being caught in the dragnet of the Trump administration\u2019s violent mass deportation regime.\u201d<\/p>\n
Under New York\u2019s new law, Ms. Hochul said, all state and federal officials, including ICE agents, will be prohibited from wearing masks on duty, unless there is a safety need. Federal officials have argued that agents need to be able to wear masks to protect them from harassment, while supporters of such bans say masks allow ICE agents to act with impunity and avoid accountability.<\/p>\n
A similar law was passed last year in California, but was struck down by a federal judge who ruled that restricting the rule to federal officers was discriminatory. Lawmakers hope that broadening New York\u2019s version to apply to more officials will give it a better chance of withstanding a legal challenge.<\/p>\n
Another element expected to be hashed out in the courts is the private right of action for those who believe their constitutional rights have been violated by state and federal officials.<\/p>\n
Andrea Stewart Cousins, the majority leader of the State Senate, praised the package as a hard-won compromise that advanced individual rights while protecting public safety.<\/p>\n
And Assemblyman Tony Simone, a Manhattan Democrat, praised the package. \u201cNew York must never back down to Trump and his masked ICE thugs,\u201d he said, adding: \u201cThis is a massive win for our constitutional rights, safety and accountability in policing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Four months after masked federal agents shot and killed Renee Good and Alex Pretti on the streets of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25768,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[13421,15784,8,14550,15785,13126,14551,12113,9,15786,7],"class_list":{"0":"post-25767","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-top-stories","8":"tag-budgets-and-budgeting","9":"tag-federal-actions-in-us-cities","10":"tag-headlines","11":"tag-hochul","12":"tag-homan","13":"tag-immigration-detention","14":"tag-kathleen-c","15":"tag-new-york-state","16":"tag-news","17":"tag-thomas-d","18":"tag-top-stories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@news\/116534543830144237","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25767","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25767"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25767\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25768"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}