The Albany County Legislature is set introduce a resolution next week directing all county agencies to not cooperate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement or Border Patrol. Local Republicans have been vocal in their opposition.
The resolution, set to be introduced Monday, comes as many in the nation continue to denounce the Trump administration's immigration crackdown for the January killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis.
The measure, in part, states “that all agencies of Albany County, including but not limited to the Albany County Sheriff, will continue to comply with federal immigration laws but will neither cooperate with nor facilitate any operations of ICE or Border Patrol in Albany County.”
But Ralph Ambrosio, a Republican challenging Democratic U.S. Congressman Paul Tonko for in New York’s 20th District, doesn’t see it as making the region “a sanctuary county.”
“I see it as ignoring law,” Ambrosio said.
The former New York State Police officer who mounted an unsuccessful campaign in 2024 for Albany County district attorney said he is running because he “thinks the country may be heading in the wrong direction.”
Reflecting on the deaths of Good and Pretti, Ambrosio said he is not opposed to investigations, but local law enforcement should still cooperate with federal agencies like ICE.
“I do find it’s interesting that most of these things are happening in states where there is this complete disintegration of the relationship between the federal law enforcement officers and the state or municipal law enforcement officers and I think that Minnesota, to hold up Minnesota as the rule is inappropriate, I think Minnesota is the exception,” Ambrosio said.
Albany’s sanctuary consideration comes as municipalities and officials are taking their own stances on collaborating with ICE.
On the federal level, Tonko last month called for the abolition of ICE.
“People have watched this performance, they’ve watched the unprofessional, irresponsible, carrying forth of a mission that has really tarnished an agency and found them failing in their mission to address public safety,” Tonko said.
On the state level, New York Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul introduced legislation last month to limit ICE’s collaboration with law enforcement agencies across the state, including the prohibition of 287(g) agreements.
According to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement website, these agreements allow ICE to grant some authority to state and local law enforcement officers to perform certain immigration officer functions under the agency’s direction and oversight.
The Rensselaer County Sheriff’s Department, also in the Capital Region, has such an agreement in place at its correctional facilities.
Ambrosio isn’t the only Albany Republican who sees the Albany County sanctuary resolution as misguided.
Paul Burgdorf, deputy minority leader of the County Legislature, says the proposal is “ridiculous.”
“A sanctuary county also is just a variable flavor of “defund the police.” We have in New York State people who believe that they can ignore federal law. And last I knew when public officials take their oath of office, they vow to uphold the constitution and the laws of the United States and I think that even goes for the laws they don’t agree with,” Burgdorf said.
Ambrosio and Burgdorf have also taken to social media to express their opposition to Tonko’s recent calls to abolish ICE.
In one post, Ambrosio deemed Tonko’s position as “extreme, detached from the realities of everyday people in upstate New York, and a desperate attempt to score cheap political points with his base.”
In a comment replying to a separate post from Ambrosio, Burgdorf said, “Paul, ICE is only on this mission because you supported Joe Biden’s actions to allow about 20 million illegals to stream across our borders unvetted.”
“The socialist progressives and liberal Democrats never said a word while Joe Biden allowed 20 million illegal aliens including murderers, rapists, pedophiles, sex traffickers to come into the United States, they broke the immigration system,” Burgdorf said.
The county’s sanctuary resolution is being introduced by several county legislators, including Chairwoman Joanne Cunningham, who did not respond to a request for comment.
