NY will cooperate with feds on some immigration cases, Gov. Hochul says

New York state may cooperate with federal immigration officials on cases where a person is suspected of crossing the border without stopping at an official port of entry or re-entering after being deported, according to Gov. Kathy Hochul’s administration.

The governor’s office on Tuesday released a list of four specific circumstances under which the state can coordinate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials as Republican President Donald Trump ramps up his long-promised efforts to deport immigrants without legal status.

That list includes instances where a person living in the country illegally is convicted of a state-level crime. But it also applies to people who are “suspected of an immigration crime,” like unofficial border crossings or attempted re-entry after deportation.

The governor’s cooperation policy would not apply to civil immigration violations, including when a person overstays their visa, according to the governor’s office.

“We believe that the immigration system is broken,” Hochul told reporters on Tuesday. “We do not have open borders here. That was never the intent. But I also know the great state of New York will not stand for children to be in fear in schools, or people in churches cowering in basements out of fear.”

Originally, the governor’s office said the state “will” coordinate with the feds when the conditions are met. After this story was first published online, a spokesperson said the policy allows the state to coordinate in those circumstances, but doesn’t require it to.

The policy comes seven weeks after Hochul, a Democrat, said she would provide more detail about her stance on coordinating with federal immigration enforcement officials in the wake of Trump’s election. And it also comes as ICE officials visited at least two locations in the Bronx early Tuesday, and federal officials announced they’d detained at least one undocumented person charged with kidnapping and assault.

Hochul’s stance drew criticism from the New York Immigration Coalition, an organization that advocates for immigrant and refugee rights.

Murad Awawdeh, the group’s president and CEO, said Hochul and state officials should not be coordinating with federal immigration officials, particularly as the federal government launches what he called a “shock and awe” campaign to “really instill fear at this moment.”

“The state of New York should not be colluding with immigration enforcement to separate our families, harm our local communities and our local economies,” Awawdeh said. “That just runs counter to what New York has stood for and what New York is.”

According to Hochul’s office, state officials can also coordinate with ICE when:

• A person’s immigration status is “relevant to the investigation of a crime” committed in New York
• A person is suspected of a crime with “potential multinational dimensions,” such as working with a drug cartel

Hochul’s office said the four circumstances are in line with the state’s current immigration enforcement policy, which was enacted by her predecessor Andrew Cuomo.

In September 2017, eight months after Trump took office for his first term, Cuomo issued an executive order laying out rules for state agencies and law enforcement officials to follow regarding immigration. Hochul re-upped that order after taking office in 2021, and it remains in effect.

The order prohibits most state employees from asking about a person’s immigration status in most cases. There are two broad exceptions: if it’s necessary to determine whether someone is eligible for a state program or benefit, or if the state employee is legally required to ask.

It also prohibits the state from disclosing information to federal authorities “for the purpose of federal civil immigration enforcement.”

The order allows law enforcement officials to inquire about a person’s immigration status if they’re investigating someone for a potential crime and the person’s immigration status is “relevant to the illegal activity.”

A 2020 state law, meanwhile, prohibits federal officials from making civil immigration arrests in state courthouses or on the property where they’re located. The same law prohibits the feds from making civil immigration arrests when a person is arriving at or leaving the courthouse without a warrant signed by a judge.

Awawdeh questioned whether Hochul’s interpretation of the Cuomo-era order is in line with its intent. That order was “put in place to protect New York families,” Awawdeh said.

While speaking with reporters in Schenectady on Tuesday, Hochul acknowledged ICE’s activity in the Bronx that morning, but said the raids were targeted.

“My understanding is that they had specific names of people who committed crimes, serious offenders, and those are exactly the people that we want removed from the state of New York,” she said.

Update: This story has been updated to clarify the governor's policy after office altered its wording.