New York sheriffs seek injunction to block ICE ban

(The Center Square) — New York sheriffs are asking a federal judge to block a ban on agreements with ICE to enforce immigration law while a legal challenge over the new state law plays out in court. 

In a new filing in U.S. District Court in Albany, lawyers for the sheriffs said the need for an injunction is "urgent" with Attorney General Letitia James's office pursuing separate legal challenges to force sheriffs to cancel so-called 287(g) agreements and federal housing contracts with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. 

"The harms now in motion cannot be undone after trial," Attorney Mateo Forero-Norena, with the Federation for American Immigration Reform, wrote in the court filing. "Existing 287(g) agreements have been declared void. Two plaintiffs sent termination notices under protest. Trained 287(g) capacity and live federal partnerships are not items a later judgment can reconstruct." 

The lawsuit, filed in August by Rensselaer County Sheriff Kyle Bourgault and 14 other sheriffs, alleges that a provision of the newly enacted "Local Cops Local Crimes Act" banning 287 (g) agreements with ICE is an illegal overreach by the state government that interferes with contractual agreements between counties and the federal government.

The sheriffs said new restrictions would go further than limiting immigration cooperation to "nullify the ability of independently elected constitutional officers to enter into contracts authorized by federal law" and have asked the court to declare them unconstitutional. 

"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,” Dale L. Wilcox, FAIR's executive director and general counsel, said in a statement. "Independently elected sheriffs should not be forced by Albany to abandon tools that keep dangerous criminal aliens from walking back onto their streets." 

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FAIR pointed out that earlier this month a federal judge in Virginia granted a preliminary injunction against a new state law that bans 287(g) agreements and federal housing contracts. The ruling out of Virginia will likely impact how the court handles the New York case, the group said.

In August, James and Gov. Kathy Hochul put sheriffs on notice that they needed to terminate the 287(g) agreements and provide documentation verifying their termination, or face state legal action to compel compliance.

James has issued subpoenas to the sheriff's offices of Broome, Steuben, Nassau, and Rensselaer counties, and to the Nassau County Police Department, demanding compliance with the ban on ICE pacts. 

Hochul and James, both Democrats, have dismissed the sheriffs' lawsuit as a "waste of taxpayer money" and have urged the federal judge in previous court filings to toss it out. 

The state's "Local Cops Local Crimes Act" is also being challenged in court by the U.S. Department of Justice, which secured a temporary injunction temporarily blocking a ban on ICE agents from wearing masks during immigration enforcement operations. New York has filed a countersuit to uphold the law.