MINEOLA, NY – Nassau County will comply with a new anti-ICE sanctuary state law, Executive Bruce Blakeman said Wednesday — while defiantly pledging to join a lawsuit pushing back on Albany’s mandate.
Blakeman, the Republican candidate for governor, made the announcement the day after the law signed by Democratic incumbent Gov. Kathy Hochul went into effect, banning cooperation agreements between municipal governments and US Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
“This is one of the saddest days of my life as county executive,” said Blakeman, who has proudly touted Nassau’s deal with the feds as the “most expansive” in the state.
Blakeman said he’d “abide by the technicalities of the law,” but also insisted that the county would continue to work with ICE, without delving into more details.
“We have reviewed this law with the county attorneys, and we looked for every possible way not to comply with this law. However, it was concluded that we would have to abide by the law,” he told reporters.
“I am a law and order county executive. I believe in the rule of law — even when it’s a bad law, and this is a very, very bad and dangerous law,” he said.
Blakeman also said he planned to have Nassau sign onto the federal suit filed by the sheriffs of 15 other New York counties that argues the new law is unconstitutional and wrongly impedes local officials from making public safety decisions.
Rensselaer County Executive Steve McLaughlin and Rensselaer County Sheriff Kyle Bourgault, who are leading the suit, represent the only remaining municipality that has yet to comply with the state’s order to end its ICE agreement.
Hochul, whom Blakeman is running against for governor in November, on Tuesday threatened to take legal action against Nassau and other hold-out counties that had yet to unwind their so-called 287g agreements.
“If you try me again, I say, ‘bring it on,’” Hochul told reporters, as she stared down the legal battle.
Hochul pushed to ban local governments’ ICE agreements after widespread outrage towards the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement efforts earlier this year.
The package of anti-ICE measures includes even more restrictions preventing local cops from any “informal” collaboration with immigration authorities.
Blakeman warned the law would “lead to mayhem, and violence and drug overdoses in our communities,” calling it “completely misguided.”
“This law has made New York state more dangerous,” he railed.
“Going forward, every murder, every rape, every robbery, every burglary, every drug overdose, committed by an illegal migrant, is on the hands of Kathy Hochul and the Democrats in our state legislature — it will be blood on their hands,” he said.
A spokesperson for state Attorney General Letitia James, whose office is in charge of enforcing the new immigration policies, said it had yet to receive Nassau’s termination notice Wednesday afternoon.
“As the governor has said from the start, counties do not get to pick and choose what laws they follow,” Hochul spokesperson Alexia Nizhny told The Post.
“Compliance will ensure that we are able to protect the rights of New Yorkers, keep local cops focused on local crimes, and make communities safer.”
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