Albany, NY – Today, New York State took a defining stand for the soul of our democracy. The passage of this state budget is a critical step – but it is not enough. Banning formal agreements with ICE is inconsequential if informal collusion between state and local law enforcement goes unchecked. That gray area is not a technicality; it is a door left open for the same terror to continue through a different entrance. The 4.5 million immigrants who call New York home – who pay billions in taxes, who depend on our hospitals, classrooms, and houses of worship – deserve full protection, not partial restrictions. We must continue to fight for the passage of the New York for All Act to shut that door completely. 

I think about the innocent individuals targeted, assaulted, racially profiled, and disappeared – people living in terror every day, not knowing what will happen if they leave their homes. About the young people who tremble at the thought of going to school and not seeing their parents again. About the families gathered in their places of worship, praying for their loved ones, while looking over their shoulders. This is a debate about the morality and responsibility of power in America – and whether it remains accountable to the people. When men in tactical gear, faces concealed, emerge from unmarked vehicles to snatch our neighbors off the streets without judicial warrants and without validating their identity, New York has an obligation to say: not here, not on our watch, and not with our resources. 

We will not be complicit in the federal government's use of local resources to carry out indiscriminate immigration enforcement, and we will not be weaponized to fuel ICE’s campaign of terror. I am proud that New York has enacted the most comprehensive immigrant protections in state history, and I will never stop fighting until every New Yorker, regardless of where they were born, can live, work, pray, learn, and love without fear. 

I am profoundly grateful to my colleagues who have held the line, to the advocacy groups that have remained steadfast, and to my co-sponsors who have fought with courage and humanity during this deeply troubling moment in our country’s history. The march continues.