New York State sued the Rensselaer County Sheriff's Office on Thursday, November 12, accusing the Capital District agency of refusing to obey a state law that required it to end its immigration-enforcement agreement with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) nearly three months ago.
Source: Office of Governor Kathy Hochul
Governor Kathy Hochul and Attorney General Letitia James announced the lawsuit together, making Rensselaer the first county in the state to face a legal action under the Local Cops, Local Crimes Act — and, according to the Attorney General's office, the only one of the 12 law-enforcement agencies that held so-called 287(g) agreements before the law took effect that has not said it will dissolve its deal with ICE.
Source: Office of Governor Kathy Hochul
What the law requires — and the deadline the county missed
Section 287(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act lets ICE enter agreements under which trained local officers perform federal civil immigration-enforcement functions. Depending on the agreement, the Governor's office said, local officers can be authorised to question, arrest and detain people for suspected violations of federal civil immigration law.
The Local Cops, Local Crimes Act, signed by Governor Hochul on May 27, 2026, prohibits local governments and law-enforcement agencies in New York from entering or remaining in those agreements. Agencies that already had one were required to exercise their termination provisions within 90 days — by August 25, 2026. Any covered agreement still in effect on that date is deemed void and unenforceable under state law, the Governor's office said.
A subpoena, silence, and a defiant quote
The Attorney General's office said it notified the Sheriff's Office of the new law and asked for information on the status of its agreement, which has been in place since March 2020 — but received no response confirming the agreement had been terminated or would be terminated by the August 25 deadline.
Source: Office of Governor Kathy Hochul
On August 19, the Attorney General's office escalated, issuing a formal investigative demand — a subpoena under New York Executive Law Section 63-E — seeking documents showing what steps the agency had taken to terminate the agreement. The state says it still has not received confirmation that the agreement has been terminated.
State officials also pointed to public defiance from the county. According to the Attorney General's office, officials in Rensselaer County have made public statements indicating their intent to defy the law, with one telling a reporter that the Attorney General's office and the Governor's office “could take that letter, crumple it up and shove it.”
What the state is asking the court to do
The lawsuit, filed in Rensselaer County Supreme Court, alleges the Sheriff's Office has failed to perform duties required of it under state law. It asks the court to order the Sheriff's Office to exercise the termination provisions in its 287(g) agreement and to declare the agreement void and unenforceable under New York law. It is the first legal action brought under the Act by the Attorney General's newly established Office of Immigrant Trust, which was created to enforce state laws limiting state and local involvement in federal civil immigration enforcement.
Source: Office of Governor Kathy Hochul
“Compliance with the Local Cops, Local Crimes Act is not optional. Rensselaer County's failure to act in accordance with the law sends a clear message: these elected leaders are not serious about New Yorkers' safety,” Governor Hochul said. “Today, we are taking action to ensure the Rensselaer County Sheriff's Office performs the duties required of it under state law, because no one in New York State is above the law.”
“All law enforcement agencies are expected to uphold New York's laws,” Attorney General James said. “The Rensselaer County Sheriff's Office has been given every opportunity to follow the law, yet has chosen not to. My office is suing to enforce New York's laws and ensure that local law enforcement agencies remain focused on their most fundamental responsibility: keeping New Yorkers safe.”
The sheriffs already lost one court fight this month
The lawsuit lands on top of a separate court battle the sheriffs have already lost. Rensselaer County Sheriff Kyle Bourgault led a group of about 15 county sheriffs who sued the state in federal court to block the ban, arguing it unlawfully overrides the authority of independently elected sheriffs. On November 4, U.S. District Judge Mae D'Agostino refused to block the law, ruling the sheriffs lacked the authority to bring the case, and denied their request for a temporary injunction; their attorneys were reported to be reviewing the 28-page decision before deciding on an appeal.
Source: North Country Now, via The Right Ledger
The federal government has also challenged the law and lost a round: the U.S. Department of Justice sued in June to overturn the Act, and on August 3 the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York denied Washington's request to block the ban, leaving the August 25 deadline in force.
Source: Office of Governor Kathy Hochul
Washington has criticised the ban itself. A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson told Fox News Digital that the restriction will force more federal agents into communities, and cited cases the department said involved noncitizens released despite ICE detainers. Governor Hochul's office responded that the law keeps local officers focused on local crime rather than civil immigration enforcement, and the Governor summarised her position on television in three words: “I just banned it.”
Source: Fox News Digital
New York City and its suburbs are home to one of the largest Punjabi and wider South Asian immigrant communities in the United States. Agreements like 287(g) decide whether a person stopped or jailed by local police can also be questioned and detained over civil immigration status by those same local officers. Albany's lawsuit is the state's first attempt to enforce its ban in court — and its outcome will signal to every remaining holdout agency in the state, and to other states weighing similar bans, whether such laws can actually be imposed on elected sheriffs who refuse.
What happens next
The case now goes before the Rensselaer County Supreme Court, where the Sheriff's Office will have to answer the state's claim and can argue the agreement should survive. Separately, a November 6 compliance directive from the Attorney General's Office of Immigrant Trust gave every county jail and municipal police agency in New York a November 25, 2026 deadline to terminate covered ICE detention contracts, with exceptions for people facing pending federal criminal charges, court orders and judicial warrants — setting up the next statewide test of the law within days.