By Hank Russell
The New York State Democratic Party went after County Executive and GOP gubernatorial candidate Bruce Blakeman and his running mate, Todd Hood, after Blakeman threatened to sue the state over the Less Cops, Less Crime Act and Hood announcing that, as county sheriff, he will continue to “work with ICE.”
As previously reported in Long Island Life & Politics, Governor Kathy Hochul and Attorney General Letitia James sent letters to 12 local law enforcement agencies ordering them to end their 287(g) agreements with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) effective August 25 under the Local Cops, Local Crimes Act. Two of the agencies that received letters include the Nassau County Police Department and the Nassau County Sheriff’s Office.
LILP also reported that the agencies have until August 14 to submit to the state any information “regarding the status of your Section 287(g) agreement, including any ongoing activities pursuant to that agreement and steps you have taken to comply with the termination requirement.”
It was also reported by LILP that Blakeman has come under fire from immigrants’ rights groups for entering into a 287(g) agreement with ICE to arrest and detain any undocumented migrants in Nassau County. (Nassau is renting out jail cells to ICE for immigration enforcement purposes under the agreement.) He has stated numerous times that this additional enforcement has resulted in more than 2,000 arrests.
Blakeman recently announced that he has threatened to sue Hochul and James over the Act’s requirement to end agreements with ICE by next month. Hood, who is also Madison County sheriff, told the Syracuse Post-Standard that he received the letter from James on July 24 and said that this was nothing more than “a big splash before the election.”
“This is going to affect me very little,” Hood said. “I’m still going to work with ICE. They can’t prevent us from working with them.”
NYS Democratic Party spokesperson Addison Dick blasted both Blakeman and Hood for looking to defy the order. “Bruce Blakeman and Todd Hood are too busy downplaying ICE’s violence, undercutting local law enforcement, and enabling Trump’s rogue agents to follow the law on the books in New York state — even if it means stopping local cops from fighting local crimes.”
Blakeman said attorneys for the NCPD and the Sheriff’s Office are “reviewing the law and the Attorney General’s letter and we will have a written response by August 14th. “
He also blasted Hochul for being “hell-bent on making the communities of New York State less safe,” saying, “Shame on her.”