President Donald Trump tore into Democratic New York Governor Kathy Hochul on Sunday, blaming her for the release of thousands of dangerous criminal illegal aliens by jurisdictions across the state. Trump called Hochul “grossly incompetent” and urged New Yorkers to remove her from office. His broadside renewed the fight over sanctuary policies that restrict cooperation between local law enforcement and federal immigration authorities.
The president’s post came amid a long-running clash between the Trump administration and Hochul over New York’s treatment of Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainers. Hochul signed legislation limiting the ability of state and local agencies to participate in federal immigration enforcement. Federal officials contend those restrictions force ICE agents to locate offenders in communities after local authorities have already released them.
Trump unloaded on Hochul in a blunt Truth Social post, writing, “Governor Kathy Hochul just released 7000 hard core criminals onto the streets on New York. What is wrong with her? She is grossly incompetent and must be voted out of office! President DJT.” His 7,000 figure tracks Department of Homeland Security data identifying 6,947 criminal illegal aliens released by New York jurisdictions after ICE detainers were not honored.
Trump’s Truth Social post came less than a week after an August 25th deadline requiring 12 New York law enforcement agencies to unwind their 287(g) agreements with ICE under Hochul’s Local Cops, Local Crimes Act. Those agreements allowed trained local officers to perform certain immigration-enforcement duties under ICE supervision. The legislation created the Office of Immigrant Trust within the attorney general’s office to enforce the restrictions, intensifying the fight with federal officials and Republican county leaders.
DHS said New York’s failure to honor ICE detainers resulted in the release of 6,947 criminal illegal aliens between January 20th and December 1st, 2025, as Fox News reported. According to the department, their criminal records included 29 homicides, 2,509 assaults, 199 burglaries, 305 robberies, 392 dangerous-drug offenses, 300 weapons offenses and 207 sexual-predatory offenses. DHS separately reported that another 7,113 illegal aliens then held by New York jurisdictions had active detainers.
An ICE detainer asks a local or state agency to notify federal officers before releasing someone ICE believes is removable and to hold that person for up to 48 hours beyond the scheduled release so ICE can assume custody. Sanctuary jurisdictions frequently decline those requests unless additional conditions, such as a judicial warrant, are met. Trump’s framing placed political responsibility on Hochul, while the underlying DHS total covered releases by jurisdictions throughout New York.
Hochul’s office previously called DHS’s allegations “categorically false” and said more than 1,500 people convicted of violent crimes had been transferred to federal immigration authorities after completing state prison sentences. The governor has maintained that New York cooperates in criminal investigations while opposing the use of local personnel for civil immigration enforcement. Hochul’s office announced in May that she had signed new restrictions on local cooperation with ICE as part of the state’s fiscal year 2027 budget.
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Trump’s demand that Hochul be “voted out of office” also lands in the middle of New York’s gubernatorial contest. Republican Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman has attacked Hochul’s immigration policies and defended local cooperation with federal officers. Blakeman told CBS New York that Hochul’s approach was “wrong-headed,” adding, “Just recently, ICE removed from my county 46 illegal migrants with criminal records from attempted murder to rape, to robbery, to carjacking, and other crimes, and it’s made us a lot safer.”
Watch Trump comment on how Hochul is destroying New York here: