Blue state lawmakers have had it with ICE.
State legislatures across the country are accelerating efforts to shape immigration enforcement policy after the deadly shooting of a Minnesota woman by a federal agent, raising tensions between local leaders and the Trump administration.
From California to New York and Illinois to New Jersey, they’re pushing a range of bills aimed at limiting enforcement and protecting people targeted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, while turning up the rhetoric with comparisons to the Gestapo.
Some policies were moving before an ICE agent fatally shot Renée Good, a 37-year-old Minneapolis mother last week. But her death has been cited by lawmakers as reason to squeeze ICE out of their states.
New York state Sen. Pat Fahy, who sponsored a bill that would prohibit ICE agents from wearing masks and one that would create a state dashboard tracking immigration officials’ activity, said “momentum is on our side.”
“To me, this goes beyond immigration,” she said. “People understand now that masked, armed men in our city and suburban streets [are] seriously eroding any form of public trust in law enforcement. Some of these issues are having more universal appeal.”
Trump administration officials have long opposed local Democratic leaders restricting cooperation with ICE. They have sued local governments over “sanctuary” policies — when local police limit cooperation with federal immigration authorities — and tried to link those policies to federal funding.
President Donald Trump and other administration officials have also said the agent who shot Good acted in self defense — an account that has been contested by local Minneapolis officials. In a statement to POLITICO, White House Spokesperson Abigail Jackson defended ICE activity and pushed back against state Democratic lawmakers.
“ICE officers are facing a massive increase in assaults against them because of dangerous, untrue smears from elected Democrats,” Jackson said. “ICE officers act heroically to enforce the law and protect American communities with the utmost professionalism. Anyone pointing the finger at law enforcement officers instead of the criminals are simply doing the bidding of criminal illegal aliens.”
State leaders are pursuing different policy responses – but the throughline is that federal immigration authorities may find themselves with headaches in some blue states if the proposals become law.
In Illinois, a Democratic state senator has filed legislation that would bar anyone hired by ICE under Trump from obtaining employment in state or local law enforcement.
In conservative Tennessee, a lawmaker has filed legislation that would prohibit federal immigration enforcement actions on school property. And in New York, Gov. Kathy Hochul signaled she’ll support legislation that would allow residents to bring civil lawsuits against federal immigration officials for constitutional violations.
Across the Hudson River, New Jersey lawmakers are pushing to codify the state’s practice that limits state and local police from cooperating with federal immigration authorities; bar the government and hospitals from collecting immigration information; and set up guidelines on how health care facilities, schools and other institutions should respond to federal immigration authorities. The suite of bills — which started advancing before the Minnesota shooting — could be on Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy’s desk this upcoming week.
New Jersey state Sen. Britnee Timberlake, who is sponsoring the bill to write into state law restrictions between local police and federal immigration authorities, during a Thursday committee hearing likened what happened in Minnesota to Nazi Germany.
“Anyone who is an ancestor of a Holocaust survivor will tell you, this is how it starts,” Timberlake said. “If you don’t believe me, just ask the children of the 37-year-old woman from Minnesota, a white American citizen, who was just shot and killed by ICE.”
Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin called such language “gross” in a statement to POLITICO.
“From comparisons to the modern-day Nazi gestapo to glorifying rioters, the vilification of ICE must stop,” she said.
Timberlake, in response, told POLITICO “if they want to stop parallels to the Gestapo and Nazi Germany, then they should stop behaving that way.”
In Illinois, Democratic state Sen. Laura Fine introduced a bill that would make anyone hired by ICE during Trump’s second term ineligible for state or local law enforcement positions in Illinois. Fine said the measure is intended to hold federal immigration officials accountable and prevent what she characterizes as escalating violence tied to immigration enforcement. She said it was prompted by what she described as a “deeply disturbing” incident in Minneapolis.
“As a mom, I can’t even fathom it. These children are now going to grow up without their mom,” said Fine, who’s also a U.S. Senate candidate and whose state legislation will be considered when the Illinois General Assembly returns to work this week.
She pointed to the Department of Homeland Security hiring more than 12,000 sworn ICE agents during Trump’s first presidency, more than doubling the agency’s ranks. Fine argues that those hires reflect a shift in the agency’s culture.
“These officers seem to be complicit in the president’s authoritarian campaign,” Fine said. “We have to do everything in our power to stop it and prevent further violence and loss of life.”
California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, struck a similar tone in his State of the State address this week, warning that the Trump administration was "using American cities as training grounds for the U.S. military."
He and California lawmakers reacted to ICE raids, which began in Los Angeles last year, by passing multiple bills meant to prevent officers from wearing masks and to keep them out of hospitals and schools.
This year, one lawmaker is leading an effort to ban businesses from selling personal data to third parties, specifically citing a fear that information sold could help ICE arrest undocumented immigrants. Another wants to prevent the state’s police officers from working with or volunteering for ICE.
Across the country in New York, there were already signs that Democrats might be more open to addressing immigration issues in this year’s legislative session. Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins announced on Wednesday that she supports the “goals” of a bill that would make it much more difficult for law enforcement to cooperate with ICE. New York state lawmakers are also weighing a measure meant to guarantee undocumented immigrants legal representation when they are facing deportation proceedings, according to two people with direct knowledge of the conversations and granted anonymity to discuss the private talks.
Fahy, the New York state senator, said she’s spent much of the week coordinating with legislators and activists on the proposals she backs, and has been lobbying Hochul’s office to place immigration at the center of her State of the State address next week.
“Just on what we’ve seen in the last 48 hours, I can’t help but think that we’re going to hear a lot more than what was in the original State of the State script,” Fahy said.
It’s not just blue state lawmakers jumping on proposals. Tennessee Democratic state Rep. Gabby Salinas has introduced a bill in the state Legislature that would prevent immigration agents from entering schools and churches.
Salinas, who immigrated to Memphis as a child from Bolivia, said she initiated the bill a few weeks ago as ICE agents ramped up enforcement in the city.
“What’s happening in other cities potentially can happen here in Memphis and I don't want us to lose a life or have these adverse events in schools where kids are supposed to be learning,” said Salinas, acknowledging the challenge of getting a bill passed in a legislature that has a Republican supermajority.
But, she said, “The Republican electorate has been very receptive” to the measure, adding, “there’s a difference between elected Republicans and the electorate.”
Bill Mahoney, Nicole Norman and Nick Reisman contributed to this report.
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