By Hank Russell
Nassau County Executive and GOP gubernatorial candidate Bruce Blakeman appeared on a recent talk show to announce that, if he is elected governor, he will take his partnership with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Nassau County and expand it throughout New York State, much to the chagrin of Governor Kathy Hochul’s campaign.
In a recent interview with PragerU’s “The Brief,” Blakeman said he has “the most comprehensive agreement with ICE.” He also dispelled some of the critics’ notions about enforcement.
“They don’t raid churches, they don’t raid schools, they don’t raid day care centers,” Blakeman said. “They know I would not stand for that.”
Blakeman pointed out that, since the agreement with ICE and through the coordination of the Nassau County Police Department and the county Sheriff’s Department, more than 2,000 criminal illegal aliens were arrested. Among the crimes they were arrested for were attempted rape, attempted murder, rape, carjacking, drug dealing and gang activity.
“What I want to say to Kathy Hochul and [New York City] Mayor Zohran Mamdani is: Do you really want those 2,000 back?” Blakeman said. “Is that what you really want for our state? Do you want those 2,000 to come back and ruin our neighborhoods?”
He also pointed out that, in the last election, he garnered 56% of the Hispanic and Latino vote because “they like the fact that I was keeping their communities safe and I was protecting their schools from becoming overcrowded.”
But the Hochul campaign disputed Blakeman’s claim that “there have been no incidents” in Nassau. They pointed out that an ICE detainee was found dead in a Nassau jail last year and cited another incident in which ICE officers allegedly slammed a detainee’s head into a brick wall.
“‘100% MAGA’ Blakeman’s hand-in-glove work with Donald Trump’s ICE has hurt small businesses, undercut cops, and created chaos in Nassau County, and now he wants to take it statewide,” Hochul campaign spokesperson Ryan Radulovacki said. “As New Yorkers fight back against ICE’s abuses of power and want to rein in Trump’s unaccountable agents, Blakeman wants to bring ‘Trump-style leadership’ to Albany.”
In response, Blakeman said, “While Kathy Hochul wants you to be scared over federal law enforcement officers, it’s the thugs on the street that she freed from jail that you should be deathly afraid of. From cashless bail to sanctuary policies that shield violent criminal illegals, Kathy Hochul has made New York unsafe.”