NEW YORK, May 9, 2026, 09:10 EDT
New York plans to curb its cooperation with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a move that comes on the heels of White House border adviser Tom Homan’s warning to ramp up federal agents in the state—escalating a standoff between President Donald Trump and Democratic-controlled states over deportation. Governor Kathy Hochul said these immigration proposals will be part of the fiscal 2027 budget package, but some lawmakers noted that final terms of the budget are still in flux.
The fight is drawing attention now as the Trump administration ramps up personnel, leans on courts to speed up deportations, and contends with new legal hurdles restricting some detention and arrest moves. ICE—the federal agency in charge of arrests, detentions, and removals tied to immigration violations—faces a challenge from New York, where a proposed plan would limit the ways local police and public resources cooperate with it.
Hochul’s plan would stop state and local police from signing agreements that let them operate as civil immigration agents. The proposal also aims to keep ICE out of schools, hospitals, and other sensitive spots unless they have a judicial warrant. It would open up a way for people to sue ICE officers. Hochul added that New York is moving to prohibit federal, state, and local law enforcement from wearing masks during routine duty, with only limited exceptions.
“I don’t take well to threats,” Hochul told reporters Thursday. “We’re going to pass what we think is important to protect New Yorkers.” She said the state remains ready to assist federal authorities in tracking “hardened criminals” and violent offenders, though she argued enforcement measures have “gone too far.” AP News
Homan told Fox News and a Phoenix border-security event that federal agents plan to step up enforcement if New York pushes forward. “They can put up all the roadblocks they want, but we’re going to do this job,” he told the AP. In comments to NOTUS, Homan warned agents would “flood the zone” and said “collateral arrests” could spike in neighborhoods with less local cooperation, meaning more undocumented immigrants may end up in custody. AP News
Pressure’s showing up far beyond New York. According to Univision, Homan said ICE is bringing in roughly 7,000 new agents, with another 3,000 still in training. The agency expects to send about 330 personnel to more than 40 states and Puerto Rico—cities like Miami, Atlanta, Baltimore, Nashville, and Seattle are on that list.
Community leaders and locals in Baltimore described to Univision how some families, missing their primary breadwinner after recent immigration arrests, were now depending on food assistance. Activists flagged the likelihood of further targeted raids and said anxiety among immigrant workers in the region was intensifying.
The Justice Department is turning up the pressure within the immigration courts. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche told AP the agency aims to swap out immigration judges it considers too slow or not adhering to the law, targeting the mountain of 3.7 million pending cases. “If there’s judges that are just not applying the law… they’re the folks that we’re going to try to find somebody different to fill that spot,” Blanche said. AP News
Immigration courts fall under the Justice Department, not Article III courts, and the attorney general maintains broad authority over their judges. According to AP, dozens of immigration judges have been taken off the bench during Trump’s second term. The American Immigration Lawyers Association, in a policy brief, argued the administration was pushing speed and enforcement at the expense of fairness and due process.
Both camps face legal uncertainty here. Reuters flagged that New York’s mask ban could draw a challenge from the Trump administration. Similar moves in California and New Jersey have run into pushback. In February, a federal judge tossed out California’s ban, saying it unlawfully discriminated against federal officers.
Federal agencies are hitting legal pushback. On Thursday, a federal judge in Washington ruled that ICE’s guidance on civil immigration arrests without warrants fell short of probable-cause requirements and shouldn’t be used. Down in Atlanta, an appeals court tossed out the administration’s no-bond detention policy, adding to a growing split among U.S. appeals courts that’s likely headed for the Supreme Court.
Uncertainty stems from the numbers themselves. According to AP, the administration has published fewer vetted immigration enforcement stats than previous ones, and some important dashboards or monthly updates are now either late or no longer current. “We’re all a little bit in the dark about exactly how immigration enforcement is operating,” Julia Gelatt, associate director at the Migration Policy Institute’s U.S. Immigration Policy Program, told AP. The lack of clarity complicates any effort to judge if the broadened enforcement push is hitting its marks or just shifting problems from jails onto city streets. AP News
