(The Center Square) — New York Governor Kathy Hochul met with White House Border Czar Tom Homan in Albany Friday amid escalating rhetoric by the Trump administration over immigration enforcement in the state.
In a statement, Hochul said she made a “straightforward appeal” to Homan during the nearly hour-long closed-door meeting: “Help us keep New Yorkers safe by ending aggressive and unlawful ICE operations in this state.”
“No more militarized raids, no more plans for large-scale detention centers and no more attacks on law-abiding people who call New York home,” she said. “President Trump promised he would not engage in a federal immigration enforcement surge in New York unless we ask for it — and I made clear to Homan today that the request would never come.”
The governor told reporters after the meeting that she gave Homan a list of detained New York college students she is pressing to be released , which comes after a Columbia University student was released from ICE custody after a personal request to Trump by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
Hochul said she also raised concerns with ICE’s plans to open mass detention facilities in the state, which she said have drawn bipartisan opposition.
Homan didn’t speak to reporters following the meeting with the White House. Later, he issued a statement underscoring the importance of cooperation between the federal government and states on immigration enforcement.
“As the Trump Administration has repeatedly stressed, we want to work with local leaders to keep their communities safe from dangerous, criminal illegal aliens,” the statement said. “The Administration, including Tom Homan, remains committed to having these conversations with anyone willing to have them. And we will continue acting on our mandate to enforce federal immigration law.”
Homan has previously pledged to “flood the zone” in New York City and the state over its sanctuary policies that restrict local cooperation with federal immigration crackdowns.
The meeting comes one day after President Trump fired Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem following her grilling by a congressional oversight committee earlier this week.
Hochul has filed a bill that would limit state and local cooperation with ICE by prohibiting the federal agency from deputizing local police to help detain undocumented immigrants. Local cops would be barred from acting as federal agents or using taxpayer funds and resources for civil immigration cases, under Hochul’s proposal.
“New York will always work with federal immigration enforcement to take dangerous criminals off our streets, but every law enforcement agency operating in this state, federal or otherwise, must follow the same constitutional standards,” she said. “ICE and federal law enforcement should focus on what they were created to do: Protecting the homeland from real threats, not creating new ones.”
