ALBANY — Gov. Kathy Hochul is once again stamping her feet, accusing federal immigration authorities of overreach for allegedly planning to expand detention facilities in upstate New York.
In a letter to US Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, Hochul is demanding answers from ICE about a rumored lease on a warehouse in the Hudson Valley near Newburgh, as well as plans to expand detention capacity at federal facilities in Rochester and Batavia.
“New Yorkers, like all Americans, deserve honest answers about what their federal government is doing in their communities. And I demand your department provide that transparency,” Hochul asserts in the letter.
Her and lefty New York Democrats have been under renewed fire from President Trump and senior White House officials like border czar Tom Homan after passing a sweeping set of sanctuary policies as part of the state budget earlier this year.
“Governor Hochul policies of not cooperating with ICE put New Yorkers in danger. When politicians bar local law enforcement from working with DHS, our law enforcement officers have to have a more visible presence so that we can find and apprehend the criminals let out of jails and back into communities. Seven of the top 10 safest cities in the United States cooperate with ICE,” ICE Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis wrote in a statement to The Post.
“Instead of working with us, Governor Hochul is choosing to RELEASE violent criminals from her jails directly back into our communities to perpetrate more crimes and create more victims,” the ICE statement continued, noting that it would respond to Hochul privately.
“DHS responds to official correspondence through official channels.”
The immigration package included specific measures preventing local governments from permitting ICE to use their detention facilities.
Hochul stopped short of accusing ICE of violating any of those policies in her letter. A Hochul spokesperson admitted to The Post that the new sanctuary provisions can’t be used to block the rumored facilities because the rules don’t apply to the feds directly, only restricting how localities go about permitting detention centers if ICE asks for approval.
The governor and state Attorney General Letitia James separately are trying to use the new law to force immigration officers not to wear masks while conducting enforcement operations, through a lawsuit earlier this month.
Hochul’s letter was first reported by Politico Monday morning.
