Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Governor Hochul, Mayor Mamdani and Attorney General James Stand Up to ICE Overreach and Reaffirm Protections for New Yorkers

Governor Kathy Hochul, Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani and Attorney General Letitia James stood together today against the Trump Administration's aggressive federal immigration enforcement and reminded New Yorkers of their rights and protections. In addition, Governor Hochul announced $7.25 million in new funding to provide legal services for approximately 1,400 unaccompanied immigrant children and youth in New York who are facing active removal proceedings, including the more than 250 children who are currently detained. The funding will help vulnerable children access legal representation following the Trump administration's July 31 contract expiration.

VIDEO: The event is available to stream on YouTube here and TV quality video is available here (h.264, mp4).

AUDIO: The Governor's remarks are available in audio form here.

PHOTOS: The Governor's Flickr page will post photos of the event here.

A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:

Thank you all for joining us for an important announcement and conversation that I'm delighted that all of you could join us for. First of all, I want to acknowledge individuals who joined us here today. Mayor Mamdani, I want to thank him for - he'll be giving remarks in a couple minutes - for his leadership of this city.

Attorney General Tish James, our great leader who's going to be spending more time in court as a result of what we're doing here today. Appreciate that. Speaker Julie Menin, the City Council. Speaker Frankie Miranda, the President and CEO of the Hispanic Federation. Murad Awawdeh, the President and CEO of New York Immigration Coalition, and Linda Wolff, the plaintiff in a case against ICE you're going to hear about and all my elected partners in state government and local government as well.

Just when you think it can't get any worse, the Trump administration has found a brand-new way to hurt children, innocent children, cutting off legal services for unaccompanied minors. Now, there was a time when these minors would come literally by themselves across the border from Mexico. That was how it was many years ago.

More recently, a lot of these minors are unaccompanied and alone and abandoned because their parents were deported without regard for anything but the wellbeing of these children. That's why they're unaccompanied. Mom and dad were sent back. Now, here in New York, this would leave 1,400 children to fend for themselves in immigration court.

And I don't think many people in this room could fend for themselves in court by them- alone, except for the Attorney General. But think of a child, all ages, going into a courtroom by themselves and having to plead their case. Imagine being that little kid so scared in an unfamiliar country, missing mom and dad, not knowing much English, trying to defend yourself in a courtroom.

Any parent knows that is preposterous. It's cruel. It's illegal. And for nearly two decades, our federal government required by law that these children be protected when they cross the border, when they're here. In fact, check the history books, 20 years ago, that bipartisan law was signed by a Republican president, George Bush. Remember that? Yeah, it was a different era, wasn't it? Way back in 2008, and for good reason. And one reason is they knew that these children were endangered. Unaccompanied minors without legal representation were more likely to be trafficked, more likely to be abused, more likely to be sent back in dangerous situations.

This was another policy, when you think about it, that really embodied our American values, who we are, that we don't think it's right for a child to be left alone in a courtroom defending themselves. And now, that policy, that statement of our values as Americans and as New Yorkers, was just thrown on the trash heap of civility and other longstanding norms. They've just been abandoned.

And the result is that we now have children in our midst, children you may see, who are now endangered. These cruel, depraved decisions can be a death warrant for our kids whose only sin was being born in poverty or in a country consumed with political violence, and their parents decide they're better off leaving.

When we lose sight of our shared responsibility to protect God's children here on Earth, as human beings, as parents, we lose part of who we are as a country, as human beings, as I said.

So today I'm taking action. I'm announcing $7.25 million to cover the legal services for roughly 1,400 unaccompanied minors across the State of New York.

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And going forward, these children will have the legal representation they need.

It's not lost on any of us that the Statue of Liberty stands tall in our harbor. For generations, she's had a simple message: "Bring me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to be free." And despite the utter lack of humanity and compassion coming out of Washington, that message still means something here in New York.

It means that in this state, we treat all people with dignity and decency, regardless of how they got here. We recognize their humanity and honor their rights, especially the little ones, especially the little ones who've done nothing wrong. They're lost, scared and [have] been abandoned.

Now, I've heard from a lot of people on the ground about an uptick in targeted ICE enforcement across New York. I know everyone's concerned, very concerned, and I want to reassure you that we are keeping a close eye on it, and that's one of the reasons I'm proud that we signed one of the most comprehensive laws to rein in ICE in the entire country. It prohibits law enforcement agencies from having formal agreements with ICE.

That means unless a crime has been committed, ICE cannot use local cops, their jails, their technology, to use local cops for civil immigration enforcement. I want to remind everybody who happens to have these in their counties or their sheriff's departments, that law goes into effect in less than two weeks.

You have 13 days. You're on notice. Thirteen days to formally unwind any agreements that you've had with ICE. And for any that fail to comply, they will face legal action. Because in New York, I want our police focused on one thing, one thing: keeping people safe, not doing ICE's job. We've also banned ICE from entering sensitive locations.Think about it, hospitals, childcare centers, places of worship, schools, polling places.

And also, we changed the law, just signed it recently, that says should ICE agents abuse their power, we are going to hold them accountable. Let me give you an example. Many of you saw a horrific video, it went viral, showing an ICE agent pepper spraying - now, the article said it was a 72-year-old woman, I thought she looked a lot younger than that, personally - spraying her in the eyes at close range and inward. Can you imagine if that was any of you? Was she violent toward them? No. Was she obstructing them from making an arrest? No. Was she armed? No - not unless you count her smartphone. Linda Wolff was simply exercising her constitutional right to protest, and she was viciously attacked, and her eyes were left burning for days. That sickens me as the Governor of this State. It's reprehensible. Linda's here with us today. She'll tell her story in a few moments.

What happened to her is exactly why we passed a law giving people the right to sue ICE. Because no one has to tolerate this. Because ICE agents don't get a chance to trample on your rights with impunity. Because here in New York, power never justifies abuse, and no one, no one is above the law.

And you'll hear from our Attorney General in just a couple moments about more about our efforts to ensure that ICE is following our laws. But before that, I want to turn it over to my partner in this effort for keeping New Yorkers safe, New York City residents safe, protecting the rights of individuals and holding those who abuse it accountable. Let me turn it over to our Mayor. Mayor Zohran Mamdani.