New York Gov. Kathy Hochul released 7,000 criminals onto state streets rather than hand them over to federal immigration authorities.
President Donald Trump called her out publicly, both at a press event and on his Truth Social account. At the event, Trump said plainly: “The governor of New York, Kathy Hochul, just announced that she’s letting 7,000 criminals go right back onto the streets of New York. What’s wrong with her? We want to get bad ones out of here and get them out of here fast, and that’s what we’re doing.”
He followed that up with a Truth Social post that was just as direct. “Governor Kathy Hochul just released 7,000 hard core criminals onto the streets in New York,” Trump wrote. “She is grossly incompetent and must be voted out of office.”
The backdrop to all of this is a new state law that took effect recently in New York. As originally reported, the legislation, called the Local Cops Local Crimes Act, prohibits local and state police agencies from entering cooperative agreements with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for operations involving the arrest, detention, and deportation of criminal illegal aliens.
Hochul signed the bill into law in May 2026. At that point, 13 New York counties had active cooperative agreements with ICE. Eleven of those counties agreed to end the agreements before the deadline. Two counties, Rensselaer and Nassau, were still weighing their options.
Nassau County has been particularly active in its partnership with federal immigration officials. In February, the county allowed ten of its officers to be deputized by ICE. It has also been permitting ICE to hold illegal aliens in its jails, with the federal government reimbursing the county for those detention costs.
Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, who is also the Republican nominee running against Hochul in the gubernatorial race, said the county is still considering whether to comply with the new law.
Hochul did not take that answer well. “No county executive should think that they are above the law in the state of New York,” she said. “If they do thwart the laws enacted by this legislature and the governor, the Attorney General will be fully responsible for enforcement.”
Two key legal and financial questions remain unresolved. First, whether Nassau County could mount a court challenge arguing the law infringes on local governing authority. Second, whether the state has the power to withhold funding from counties that refuse to fall in line.
Those answers will likely shape how far this standoff goes, and how many more confrontations emerge between Hochul’s Albany and the counties that have chosen to side with federal immigration enforcement.