New York Sheriffs Take Sanctuary ICE Ban to Federal Court

Fifteen New York county sheriffs filed a federal lawsuit this week seeking to block the state’s ban on cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, arguing Albany is stripping independently elected officers of authority Congress gave them and forcing criminal illegal aliens back onto local streets.

The case, Bourgault v. Hochul, was filed in the Northern District of New York on Aug. 25. Lead plaintiff is Rensselaer County Sheriff Kyle Bourgault. The other sheriffs represent St. Lawrence, Wayne, Broome, Madison, Cattaraugus, Orange, Jefferson, Saratoga, Lewis, Franklin, Delaware, Fulton, Oswego, and Cayuga counties. They are represented by the Federation for American Immigration Reform. Defendants are Gov. Kathy Hochul, Attorney General Letitia James, and the state.

The target is the Local Cops, Local Crimes Act, signed by Hochul in May as part of the state budget and effective this week. The statute voids 287(g) agreements—written pacts under federal law that let trained local officers help identify, detain, and transfer immigration violators. Existing 287(g) deals were to be terminated by Aug. 25. Jail-housing contracts for federal immigration detainees must be wound down by Nov. 25. The law also arms James with investigative power over sheriffs who keep cooperating. As of late July, 12 New York agencies had 287(g) agreements, up from one before 2025.

The complaint says the ban “nullify[s] the ability of independently elected constitutional officers to enter into contracts authorized by federal law” and subjects their “core law-enforcement judgments to centralized state oversight.” Sheriffs, the suit argues, are constitutional officers chosen by county voters, not Albany subordinates. Article IX home rule and separation of powers, they say, let them decide whether to join the cooperative framework Congress created. They seek a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction.

Hochul and James sent compliance letters with an Aug. 25 deadline, then issued subpoenas to Broome, Steuben, Nassau, and Rensselaer sheriffs and the Nassau County Police Department. Several offices that received those letters are plaintiffs. Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, Hochul’s Republican gubernatorial opponent, was not named as a plaintiff; his running mate, Madison County Sheriff Todd Hood, was. Hochul said any department that keeps an ICE agreement “will face legal action” and told challengers, “Bring it on.” James called the suit a waste of taxpayer dollars and said courts have already declined to block the law once.

Broome County Sheriff Fred Akshar put the conflict in local terms: the state constitution vests the sheriff’s office in the people of the county, “not some bureaucrat in Albany.” The sheriffs’ position is that when they cannot honor ICE detainers, inmates who would otherwise be transferred for removal walk out of county jails and back into the same communities that elected them. Albany’s position is that local resources should fight local crime, not federal deportation. The court in Albany will decide which sovereign yields.