Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Keeping New Yorkers Safe: Governor Hochul Introduces the Local Cops, Local Crimes Act to Stop Ice from Co-Opting Local Law Enforcement

Earlier today, Governor Kathy Hochul announced the introduction of comprehensive legislation to protect New Yorkers, strengthen constitutional safeguards, and prohibit local law enforcement from being deputized by ICE for federal civil immigration enforcement. The legislation would eliminate 287(g) agreements, barring state and local police from acting as federal agents or using taxpayer-funded resources or personnel to carry out federal civil immigration enforcement. It would also prohibit federal agents from using local detention centers for civil immigration enforcement, mass raids, or the transportation of detainees.

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 has photos of the event here.

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

Good morning, everyone. I want to acknowledge an extraordinary ray of individuals who've come together with a sense of purpose and the realization that this moment in time calls for action. And I want to thank our Police Commissioner, Jessica Tisch, in the City of New York for doing an extraordinary job - you'll be hearing from her momentarily. As well as my adopted home in Albany, our Commissioner of Police Brendan Cox - our Police Chief. We also have members of our district attorney's association. I'll be speaking to them as I leave here this afternoon and I'm thankful for their support as well.

We have our local district attorneys from the City. We also have - traveled here - Bill Fitzpatrick from the Onondaga DA's office up near Syracuse. We also have the newly elected head of the New York State Sheriff's Association and that is Juan Figueroa, and many other partners in law enforcement. I'm always grateful to them every day of the week for what they do for us.

So our police chiefs, our district attorneys, our faith leaders - thank you for reminding us of the presence of God in our lives and how we are all here to protect God's children. And as well as our advocates, I'm so proud of the work you do. You really give me hope when I see how you're out there in the cold and in the heat over the summer and just out there doing what you know we are called to do at this time. From day one, keeping people safe has been my number one priority. For four and a half years, I have partnered with law enforcement leaders across the state. As I mentioned, many of them are joining us here today.

We've worked hard to drive down crime, reform our laws, and provide more tools to put criminals behind bars - those who would do harm to our communities.

But all of us have a core belief that public safety must be pursued lawfully, transparently, and with humanity. And yet, these very principles have been abandoned by our federal government and our immigration officers. In every corner of our state, New Yorkers are feeling traumatized and stunned as they watch federal agents carry out unspeakable acts of violence in a country they no longer recognize.

They're questioning whether our own federal government - their own federal government - is there to help them or to hurt them. And for weeks, our eyes have been turned to the horrors unfolding in the streets of Minneapolis. Were federal agents murdered, Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old American citizen - an ICU nurse at a VA hospital, a protector, and a patriot.

Earlier this month in that same city, federal agents shot Renee Goode in the face as she was looking to leave in her vehicle. A mother of three killed in cold blood. For what? Exercising her first amendment rights. Yesterday, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey implored fellow leaders around the country to speak up because they know their county, their city, their state could be next. We hear that call, we have headed that call in both the Minneapolis murders. And the Trump administration's response to those murders has been nothing short but callous, and yet, sadly predictable. What do they do first? Step one, deny responsibility. Step two, smear the victims - call them domestic terrorists without a shred of evidence. And step three, tell the American people not to believe what they're seeing with their own eyes.

Someone should alert the White House that in democracy, the government does not get to rewrite reality after the fact - not here in this country. And what has become so apparent is that this is not just about immigration policy, this is about a blatant dangerous abuse of power. And so much so that I'm reminded of Thomas Paine's sentiments - anyone's watching Ken Burns' American Revolution.

"Tyranny like hell," he said, "is not easily conquered." That's true, but they conquered it 250 years ago. We are called to act in this moment of tyranny. This is about a rogue federal agency that's been unleashed on the American streets for the sole purpose of creating chaos, carnage, and fear. The Trump administration has encouraged these agents to treat the American people - to treat the American people as if they are the enemy. With their inane quotas executed by masked, armed, poorly trained paramilitary forces. They've created a culture that has no restraint. Where calls for accountability are sneered at and where violence against American citizens is normalized.

Nationwide over the last 13 months, ICE has detained hundreds of individuals - including hundreds of US citizens. Dozens of people have died in their custody and this is the inevitable result of leadership that values force over law - ear over facts.

And as I said, the leader of this Kristi Noem has forfeited her right to lead and should resign immediately to do the right thing. Go home - no longer serve in that important role. Put someone in there who understands the boundaries of the laws. And while much of this country seems unrecognizable, here in New York, we know who we are. And that is precisely why we must step in now and act immediately.

Now as I said, my top priority is protecting New Yorkers. When individuals enter this country illegally and commit crimes, I want them arrested and tried. If they're convicted, they must be imprisoned and deported. That's what we've been doing for decades here - because I need to protect the immigrant community from criminals as well.

And since I became the Governor, we have turned over 1,400 convicted criminals to ICE. Already served their time here, paid their debt to society, and are now sent to where they came from. We've also ramped up our presence on the northern border. We have a long border, over 432 miles with Canada. We want to stop the flow of guns, human trafficking, violence, gangs - we'll focus on that. Just last August, New York State Police worked with federal law enforcement to break up a gun smuggling operation run by transnational crimes. That's what we want to do, that's what ICE should be doing, that's what Border Patrol should be doing - that's their job.

So make no mistake because others are going to lie about what I'm saying right now, and you can count on this - be ready for the lies. We'll always cooperate with the federal government to bring violent criminals to justice - full stop. That's not a change in policy. However, it does not mean that New York State will stand for flagrant abuse of power under the guise of public safety. Now, under current law - federal law, which says it is subject to state and local laws - check this out, ICE can enter into formal agreements with local law enforcement agencies to use their offices, their personnel, their jails and other resources to do ICE's job. Now what this means is they're doing ICE's job instead of focusing on their own job, which is keeping their communities safe. Local police officers were ordered to serve as ICE agents harassing innocent people and ripping families apart in their own communities.

Now it's not like ICE needs to help. Not long ago they were a $6 billion agency. Now they have over $85 billion at their disposal. That's half my budget, so they have what they need. So don't buy in the argument we have to be there because ICE needs the help. They do their job. Although, I don't like the way they're doing their job. But don't expect our local law enforcement to team up with them because we have other responsibilities for our local law enforcement. They should not need local police to do their jobs. That's why today I'm proposing a new law that'll ban these agreements. We call it the 'Local Cops, Local Crimes Act.'

Very simply, local police focus on local crimes - focus on protecting our streets. And I'll work closely with my partners in the legislature to get this passed as quickly as possible. So we'll find more ways to protect our communities because we see what happens when the lines get blurred. And law enforcement will tell you that the mistrust that is now created by this agency out of control affects their ability to do their jobs, because people don't know the distinction here as easily.

So we want people to trust and have community policing and local law enforcement that responds to the crimes that are committed. We have retail theft, we have guns on the streets, we have gangs, we have drugs. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that our law enforcement has enough on their hands and our DA's have enough to do without turning into deputized ICE agents here in New York - because this has gotten out of hand.

Last fall on Long Island, federal agents had deputized local police to do what? To detain a Roosevelt High School's senior after a minor nonviolent offense. This young man was beloved by his teachers and his classmates. They were so shaken to hear that this had happened in their own community. He'd been shipped off to a jail hundreds of miles away. And I know New Yorkers want to make sure that their hard earned tax dollars are spent wisely. I don't think they want them using tax dollars to abduct nonviolent teenagers in their high schools. They want local police focused on local crime, like I said responding to emergencies, going after the gangs, taking on the real public safety challenges.

And protecting neighborhoods the way they know best. Not diverting limited resources and personnel away from their sworn duty to fulfill these ridiculous quotas on the taxpayer's dime. So today, with this proposal we're sending a strong message to ICE. You'll not weaponize local police officers against their own communities in the State of New York. You'll not use our police technology to track people who've done nothing wrong. We'll not throw innocent people into our jails - and you'll do everything only with a judicial order. An order from a judge who says there has been a crime committed when you come after our people in the State. But on the jails, ICE relies on our detention centers right? They want to build them up, they want the capacity.

Before a surge they increase the capacity - we've seen this in other states. And they want to use the jails for that purpose, they use our jails to round up people. Now here's my view, our jails should be used for what our Sheriffs need them for. A place to hold people accused of a crime before they have their trial or for misdemeanors. There is a purpose for the jails now. But cutting off access to our jails for ICE agents - will make it harder for them to operate these large scale operations, which they're building up to try and do right now in the State of New York. We've seen the warning signs that it's happening. That's what they did in Minneapolis, get large scale detention centers and use the local jails for these purposes - and that's what we want to head off.

Now, I'll say it a hundred times because you're going to hear differently out in the streets probably being tweeted out right now. Local police will continue to help federal agents track down violent criminals. This never has changed, it never will change. But what I don't want them doing and they will no longer do, is aid armed forces who think they can occupy our streets, scare our children, and round up our neighbors.

Neighbors separated and rounded up just because of the color of their skin that is happening even in our own State of New York. It's no longer going to happen with the help of our local law enforcement, that ends now. Now today's actions build on the promises I made in my State of the State address just a couple weeks ago which clearly state that anytime your constitutional rights are violated, anytime federal agents operate outside the scope of law, New Yorkers should be able to hold them accountable in court. They already do for local and State officers, why are the federal agents exempt from this. No longer in the state of New York. And as I said, no one is above the law. We also want to have sensitive locations.

I laid out a series of sensitive locations that'll be off limits to ICE civil immigration enforcement unless they have a warrant signed by a judge. I will repeat this because they need to hear this. Schools, daycare centers, houses of worship, and hospitals - letting our nurses know that this will be banned in the State of New York. And today, I never thought I'd have to do this. But I feel compelled to add homes to that list. Because the Fourth Amendment protects people and stops federal agents from forcibly entering their home without a warrant, but they're doing it anyhow. So I feel obligated to add homes to a list that I just identified. But since the federal government is more than willing to ignore the Constitution to suit their own purposes, I'm going to codify that into State law.

Now as I'm wrapping up here, our actions are grounded with a common sense principle. Real common sense, who can disagree with this? Local cops focus on local crimes, right? You can get behind that. Not working with ICE to round up innocent people and terrorize communities. The people in this country are not confused, they're not naive. They know the difference between public safety and public displays of force. Public displays of brute force simply meant to instill fear. That is what has been unleashed in cities across America. And the people of this country do know what they're seeing unfold before their eyes and no amount of spin will convince them to unsee it.

And regardless of running DHS, regardless of who's in the White House, here in New York we'll always uphold public safety lawfully and with humanity. To paraphrase Benjamin Franklin when he was asked what form of government they just created. He said, "We created a republic if you can keep it - if you can keep it." I never thought in my lifetime that Republic would be so fragile. Our democracy is being ripped apart at the seams. To the Patriots of 250 years ago and the Patriots of today - some in this room. I'm here to say we intend to keep our republic and our democracy strong.

Now anyone who believes that eliminating these agreements between ICE and local police will somehow make New York less safe. You're going to hear that one too, mark my words. You ought to listen to our next speaker. The New York City Police Department does not have an agreement with ICE. Guess what, crime is hitting record lows. They have one of the greatest police departments in the world. They know their lane, they know what they do. They're not turning into ICE agents terrorizing the streets and the people that they're trying to build trust with, that's not how it works. And we are so fortunate that this department is led by an incredible commissioner who's committed to doing it the right way.

Ladies and gentlemen I present to you, New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch. Thank you.

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