Proposed New York bill would prohibit law enforcement from questioning over immigration status

NEW YORK CITY - A new bill being pushed by New York Democrats would prohibit local law enforcement and other officials from questioning individuals regarding their citizenship or immigration status, as well as sharing information about someone's immigration status with federal enforcement officials, Spectrum News 1 reports.

The proposed bill would prevent police officers, peace officers, school resource officers among other agencies from questioning individuals on their immigrant status along with other disclosure regulations and prohibit federal enforcement activity on non-public state and local property without a judicial warrant.

"We haven't seen in nearly three decades any sort of meaningful immigration reform," Murad Awardeh, president and CEO of the New York Immigration Coalition told the outlet. "Immigrant New Yorkers carry the anxiety that living their lives in the open and interacting with the government, whether it be a traffic stop or attending their kids school, could lead to them being torn away from their families."

Awardeh also explains that the New York For All Act, as it is being called, would help immigrants, regardless of status, who he says are put in a challenging position by the U.S. immigration system.

Regardless of the support received from Democrats, the bill is already facing opposition from Republicans lawmakers.

"If it's a state law, obviously it's for them to enforce, but if it's a federal statute, I think our law enforcers have an obligation to reach out to partners in the federal government and pass that information along," said State Sen. Patrick Gallivan. "We were critical of law enforcement at every level for living and working in silos after Sept. 11 and it made our country, and our citizens vulnerable."

The bill's dispute comes with just weeks left in the 2024 legislative session and little agreement on how to handle the unprecedented influx of migrants in the state.

The other highly contested bill in the state's Capitol is a Republican-sponsored one known as "Laken's Law," which would require law enforcement to notify ICE when an arrested individual is not a U.S. citizen, CBS News reports.

"That would've helped collaborate New York State law enforcement and New York City law enforcement with federal officials to take care of some of this immigration problem, but the Democrats in this state held the bill," Republican Assemblyman Chris Tague said.

When it comes to possible outcomes, it is more likely that the New York for All bill would pass, since Democrats hold a supermajority in the State legislature. However, the question remains if lawmakers will pass an immigration package before the session ends on June 6th.