As New York state and the Rensselaer County Sheriff's Office brace for a series of court battles over the sheriff's cooperation agreement with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the County Legislature is taking a "wait and see" approach.
About 95 people went to the County Legislature's monthly public forum last week, setting an attendance record. Many called on Rensselaer County Sheriff Kyle Bourgault to end his 287(g) cooperation agreement with ICE, and County Executive Steve McLaughlin, a Republican, gave a speech defending the agreement.
Despite the interest, the County Legislature hasn't voted on anything related to the county's 287(g) agreement. Democratic County Legislator Ken Zalewski said that's unlikely to change.
"The only thing that potentially the legislature could do was would be to pass a resolution asking the county executive to follow the law and not expend taxpayer dollars on a lawsuit that we will probably lose," Zalewski said. "Some people have mentioned it. I don't think it's anything's going to move forward. I think everyone's just going to let it play out in a court of law and see what happens."
The resolution calling on the county executive to end the agreement would be non-binding. For it to pass, every Democrat and at least two members of the legislature's Republicans caucus would need to support it.
