ALBANY, N.Y. (NESTAR) — After a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raid that arrested three students in the Sackets Harbor Central School District, immigrant advocates and elected officials gathered in Albany to back the “Dignity Not Detention Act.” The bill would end state and local contracts with federal immigration enforcement and private operators that run detention facilities.

Protesters and community groups filled the Capitol’s Million Dollar Staircase, holding signs that called for an end to ICE detention practices. They want the state to pass the bill so local resources won’t be used to pay for federal policies that hurt immigrant families in New York without due process.

The bill, numbered S316/A4181, would define two new terms for the state’s correction law. An “immigration detention facility” would mean any building or structure used to detain people for civil immigration violations. An “immigration detention agreement” describes any contract or intergovernmental service deal that lets a state or local agency detain individuals over immigration.

Though New York has no privately run ICE detention centers, county jails in Broome, Orange, and Rensselaer Counties have contracts with ICE to detain immigrants. Such agreements generate local government revenue while letting the feds detain individuals facing deportation.

The bill would stop New York agencies—including state, county, and municipal law enforcement—from extending, renewing, or signing new detention contracts. It also bans agencies from receiving payments linked to detention in these facilities. Plus, it would force any agency that already has a contract to end it within 90 days of the law taking effect, and would ban any New York entity from owning or running a detention facility for immigration violations.

Lawmakers pointed to the contracts in Broome, Rensselaer, and Orange Counties, warning that cooperation with ICE separates families, crowds detention sites, and pressures understaffed local jails. “It is shameful,” said Democratic State Sen. Julia Salazar, who sponsored the bill and chairs the Senate Committee on Crime Victims, Crime, and Correction. “There is no excuse for our state to be complicit in what the federal government is doing, separating families, discriminating against people based on their immigration status.”

Democratic Assemblymember Karines Reyes, who sponsored the bill in the Assembly, and Samah Sisay—staff attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights who counts Mahmoud Khalil among her clients—echoed Salazar. “We cannot allow private prisons and county jails to profit off the suffering of our immigrant communities,” Reyes said.

They highlighted the importance of protecting New Yorkers from forced detention in the poor conditions at sites like the Orange County Correctional Facility. Immigration advocates say conditions in those facilities mirror those of ICE detention centers across the country, with reports of medical neglect, abuse, and inhumane treatment.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul has not come out in support of the bill. But after the Sackets Harbor ICE Raid, she said in a statement:

“Under Presidents Biden and Trump, I have been clear that I would work with the federal government to help secure our borders and deport violent criminals who pose a threat. But I cannot think of any public safety justification for ICE agents to rip an innocent family, including a child in the third grade, from their Sackets Harbor home. That is not the immigration enforcement promised to the American people. It’s just plain cruel. I want this family returned to New York State and believe ICE needs to immediately answer for these actions.”

Similar laws have already passed in New Jersey, Maryland, California, Washington, and Illinois. Advocates say getting a state out of the federal detention business forces ICE to use community-based alternatives like supervised release rather than incarceration.

Opponents have argued that limiting cooperation with ICE would attract more people who are undocumented to New York. Municipal governments and law enforcement have also resisted the bill, citing the financial impact of losing ICE contracts.

“Our message is simple,” said New York Assembly Minority Leader Will Barclay, who argues that lenient policies have made the state a prime destination for illegal immigrants. “Bring back collaboration between local agencies and federal government partners to clean up this mess.”

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