Far-left Democrats in states like New York have been doing their best to stand in the way of the federal government performing its legitimate task of enforcing immigration law by passing legislation and implementing sanctuary city laws that prevent local law enforcement officers from assisting Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents with operations to apprehend and deport illegal aliens.
However, that’s not going to stop Madison County Sheriff Todd Hood, who said that policies from New York Attorney General Letitia James, along with a newly passed state law, will not stop him from offering ICE his assistance with civil immigration enforcement cases. Hood revealed that he received a warning letter from the attorney general’s office, which he called a political stunt aimed at making a “big splash before the election.”
Hood, in an interview with Syracuse.Com, said, “This is going to affect me very little. I’m still going to work with ICE. They can’t prevent us from working with them.” New York Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul signed a bill into law in May 2026 that bans local law enforcement agencies from helping the federal government in civil immigration enforcement cases. That ban is set to take effect on August 25, 2026.
A letter sent from the attorney general’s office informed Hood that state law prohibits local authorities from entering into formal or informal cooperation agreements with immigration enforcement officials. The law also bans local jails, juvenile detention centers, and youth detention facilities from holding folks on civil immigration charges.
According to Police 1, Hood stated he would cooperate with the law and end the Section 287(g) cooperation agreement his department signed with ICE. However, he said he still plans to work with ICE and honor requests to detain and hand over any illegal immigrants that are taken into custody at the Madison County jail.
“When somebody comes into my jail with a criminal charge, and they’re an illegal, they’ll still get notified,” Hood went on to say about ICE. “They’re still going to come pick them up. The only thing is I can’t have a contract with them.” Hood was one of 12 county sheriffs and local police chiefs who received warning letters from James’ office due to their formal agreements with ICE.
The letter from James’ office warned those departments with formal agreements with ICE that her newly established Office of Immigrant Trust would take legal action against local police or sheriff’s departments that continued to assist ICE. However, the Justice Department has filed a lawsuit to overturn the law on constitutional grounds. The federal lawsuit is currently pending in the U.S. District Court in Albany.
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Hood, who is currently the GOP candidate for lieutenant governor in the November midterm election, stated that he doesn’t see any valid reason for changing his policy of coordinating with any agency that asks for his department’s help. The sheriff then revealed that he’s always honored requests from ICE to detain and hand over illegal aliens who have been booked into the Madison County jail on other charges.
Watch Hochul get exposed for giving huge amounts of welfare to illegal aliens: