ALBANY – Gov. Kathy Hochul on Thursday teased a new anti-ICE proposal she’ll push in Albany to make it easier for New Yorkers to sue federal immigration agents – in the wake of the deadly Minnesota shooting.

The Democrat, who’s up for re-election this fall, also bizarrely boasted that she confronted an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent last year at 26 Federal Plaza in Lower Manhattan.

“Why do you think you are more than anybody else? Come on, you’re just trying to terrorize people,” Hochul, during an interview on MS NOW’s “Morning Joe,” recalled telling the federal agent.

Hochul says she once harassed a federal immigration agent for “trying to terrorize” New Yorkers. REUTERS

“Why do you think you are more than anybody else? Come on, you’re just trying to terrorize people,” the governor said she told the federal officer during the exchange. Paul Martinka

Hochul also indicated she would be including a proposal in her 2026 State of the State agenda, which will be unveiled next week, that’ll give New Yorkers “a way to get recourse” if they are negatively impacted by ICE agents’ actions.

“Heartened to hear that [Hochul] will be moving to enact a ‘reverse 1983’ statute in New York,” Upper West Side state Assemblyman Micah Lasher, the governor’s former policy director, posted on X.

Lasher and then-State Sen. Brad Hoylman-Sigal introduced legislation last year to give New Yorkers the ability to sue a federal official, such as an ICE agent, in state court over alleged civil rights violations. 

Hochul, speaking later Thursday in an interview with PIX 11, said potential plaintiffs covered under her proposal would include supposed bodega owners whose shops have been raided by ICE and journalists injured while covering the protests at 26 Federal Plaza.

“This is not something that’s supposed to happen in the normal course of doing their business,” she told PIX.

Federal agents gathering outside 26 Federal Plaza on Oct. 21, 2025. REUTERS

Masked federal agents wait in the hallway outside Immigration Court in Manhattan on Oct. 31, 2025. ZUMAPRESS.com

Hochul’s more aggressive anti-ICE stance marks a pivot as the governor, who, since President Trump’s re-election, has repeatedly tried to suggest the Empire State will work with the feds on his immigration crackdown, at least as it pertains to migrants with criminal records.

She claimed early last year to have a “whole list” of crimes that would spur the state to hand over migrants to ICE, following criticism that New York’s sanctuary state policies were giving cover to accused criminals.

Here’s the latest on the Minneapolis ICE agent shooting:

“Washington needs to know where we’re going to be helpful, what we’re going to do, and I’ll be very clear on this so everyone has no doubt in their mind what the situation will look like in the state of New York,” Hochul said just over a year ago.

During a grilling alongside other sanctuary state governors on Capitol Hill in June, Hochul also touted that hundreds of migrants locked up in state prisons had been turned over to ICE following their sentences. 

Renee Nicole Good (not pictured) was shot by federal agents after trying to flee capture by ICE in the South Uptown neighborhood of Minneapolis on Jan. 7, 2026. X/@maxnesterak

Protesters surround federal agents and a Homeland Security Investigations vehicle. William Farrington

Pressed repeatedly by Hudson Valley Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) during that hearing, Hochul refused to take a position on the “New York for All Act,” the most high profile of a number of pro-migrant bills currently floating in Albany.

The bill would enact strict sanctuary policies into state law, prohibiting government employees from cooperating with federal immigration authorities. 

It would also ban federal authorities from state and municipal properties without a warrant.

But now with her re-election bid in full swing, Hochul is facing even more pressure from her party’s left flank to act.

Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins (D-Westchester), during remarks opening this year’s legislative session in Albany Wednesday, said she supported the “goals” of the New York for All Act.

One of the Senate’s “central focuses” for 2026 will be “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,” Stewart-Cousins said.

The legislation was not brought up in either chamber of the legislature last year.

Hochul had rushed to the ICE facility in June after then-City Comptroller Brad Lander was busted on charges of assault and obstruction while protesting migrant arrests there. She called the progressive pol’s arrest at the time “bulls–t”.