August 26, 2026
The Steuben County Legislature will, at their September monthly meeting, vote on whether to give Steuben County Sheriff Jim Allard the go-ahead, to join 15 other sheriff’s in the lawsuit against Governor Hochul and State Attorney General James.
STATEMENT FROM F.A.I.R.: Today, representing fifteen New York county Sheriffs, the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York challenging the State’s so-called “Local Cops, Local Crimes Act” and the newly created Office of Immigrant Trust. The Sheriffs simultaneously filed an emergency motion seeking a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction to stop the State from voiding existing 287(g) agreements on August 25, 2026, and from forcing the termination of federal housing agreements by November 25, 2026. The lawsuit argues that New York is tearing up valid contracts the sheriffs already signed with the federal government, coercing independent elected officials into a statewide policy of non-cooperation, and overriding the constitutional authority of the Office of Sheriff. Several of the plaintiff sheriffs maintain long-standing 287(g) agreements and federal housing contracts that let them identify and transfer criminal aliens already in their jails. Albany has now declared those agreements illegal, set hard deadlines to kill them, and created a new investigative office to police any sheriff who refuses to comply. “New York’s law does not merely decline to cooperate with immigration enforcement priorities. It actively dismantles existing, congressionally authorized partnerships that sheriffs lawfully entered to protect their communities,” said Dale L. Wilcox, executive director and general counsel of FAIR. “Independently elected sheriffs should not be forced by Albany to abandon tools that keep dangerous criminal aliens from walking back onto their streets. This lawsuit seeks to restore the status quo and vindicate the independence of the Office of Sheriff. These sheriffs are not asking for new powers. They are asking to keep the agreements they already have,” said Mateo Forero, counsel for the plaintiffs. “The State has declared those contracts void, set a hard deadline of August 25, and stood up an investigative office to force compliance. That is a direct impairment of existing contractual rights and a clear intrusion on the independent authority the New York Constitution gives to elected sheriffs.”
The case is Bourgault et al. v. Hochul et al., No. 1:26-cv-01637 (N.D.N.Y.). Click here to read the federal lawsuit and emergency motion papers.
STATEMENT FROM GOVERNOR HOCHUL AND ATTORNEY GENERAL JAMES: Governor Kathy Hochul and New York Attorney General Letitia James today released the following statement after 15 county sheriffs filed a lawsuit challenging the Local Cops, Local Crimes Act’s ban on 287(g) agreements with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE): “As we have said from the start, the ‘Local Cops, Local Crimes Act’ keeps New Yorkers safe by ensuring public safety resources go toward combating crime in our communities, not carrying out the work of ICE. The federal government claims they are going after the ‘worst of the worst,’ but every American has seen the reality: ICE is terrorizing communities and families with indiscriminate raids, detaining people without regard for criminal record, and using local law enforcement to deliver on the administration’s mass deportation agenda. Many of the 12 entities with these agreements have complied without incident, and the vast majority of New York’s law enforcement agencies were already successfully protecting their communities without any collaboration with ICE. The claim that these sheriffs cannot do the same says more about them than it does about the law. This lawsuit is nothing but a frivolous waste of taxpayer dollars. The courts have already declined to block this law once, and we are confident they will do so again. In the meantime, we expect all law enforcement agencies in New York to uphold state law.”
