Gov. Kathy Hochul signs new laws aiming to protect New Yorkers from ICE overreach

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul signed new anti-U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement legislation into law Friday, drawing pushback from Homeland Security officials and her Republican opponent in the gubernatorial race.

She said the new laws protect New Yorkers from ICE overreach.

What the laws do

The laws include actions to:

• Keep ICE agents out of sensitive locations, like schools and churches;
• Allow lawsuits against federal officials for violation of constitutional rights;
• Stop local law enforcement agencies, like the NYPD, from entering into cooperation agreements with ICE,
• And ban ICE agents from wearing masks.

"We don't need any of our law enforcement wearing masks," Hochul said. "No longer in the state of New York will you be allowed to wear a mask as a technique of intimidation."

The governor thinks the laws will hold up to the expected court challenges and counter-moves.

"If it gets litigated, it gets litigated, but we feel confident the way we structured our law," she said.

Opposition to new laws

The reaction from the feds was swift. A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said in a statement, "ICE does not target schools or churches. This is just another false narrative to try and demonize our brave ICE law enforcement."

DHS added, in part, "State and local sanctuary politicians attempting to ban our federal law enforcement from wearing masks is despicable and a flagrant attempt to endanger our officers. To be crystal clear: we will not abide by unconstitutional bans. The Supremacy Clause makes it clear that state and local sanctuary politicians do not control federal law enforcement."

Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, Hochul's Republican gubernatorial opponent, said he's reviewing the legislation to see if Nassau County Police have to comply with the mandate not to cooperate with ICE.

"We got rid of 2,000 illegal migrants with criminal records in Nassau County without raiding a church, a school, a daycare center, a hospital, because we cooperated with ICE," Blakeman said.

All this comes as DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin is threatening to upend air travel in New York City by pulling Customs and Border Patrol agents from airports in sanctuary cities. No agents means international travelers, cargo and Americans coming back from overseas cannot be processed.

"We shouldn't be processing international flights into their cities either because they don't want us to enforce immigration," he said.

What remains to be seen is if border czar Tom Homan sends extra ICE agents to New York in response to the new laws.