Fifteen New York Sheriffs Sue to Block State Immigration Mandates

The legal challenge, filed by the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York, targets the state’s newly established Office of Immigrant Trust. Under the disputed legislation, counties are prohibited from maintaining 287(g) agreements and federal housing contracts that allow local jails to identify and transfer non-citizens suspected of crimes. The plaintiffs argue that the state is illegally overriding the constitutional autonomy of elected sheriffs by forcing them to break existing, congressionally authorized contracts.

Dale L. Wilcox, executive director of FAIR, stated that the state’s policy dismantles tools designed to keep dangerous individuals off the streets. Counsel for the sheriffs, Mateo Forero, emphasized that the plaintiffs are not seeking expanded powers, but rather the preservation of their existing legal authority. The case, Bourgault et al. v. Hochul et al., seeks a temporary restraining order to halt the state’s deadline-driven enforcement, which plaintiffs claim constitutes a direct impairment of contractual rights and an unconstitutional intrusion into local law enforcement operations.