By New York Post (U.S.) | Created at 2026-08-11 23:06:17 | Updated at 2026-08-11 23:23:41
27 minutes ago
An upstate sheriff put Gov. Kathy Hochul in her place for trying to force counties to comply with Democrat-backed sanctuary laws – pledging he won’t keep his mouth shut.
Cattaraugus County Sheriff Eric Butler, a Republican, went viral on social media for pushing back against the Hochul administration’s efforts to force local governments to end any existing cooperation deals with federal immigration officials.
That ban on so-called 287(g) agreements is part of a package of new sanctuary laws that the Democrat-dominated legislature pushed through in their last session.
Cattaraugus County Sheriff Eric Butler blasted Gov. Kathy Hochul over her effort to undo his county’s 287-g agreement with ICE. Sheriff Eric Butler / Facebook“Governor Hochul does not know Cattaraugus County better than I do,” he said.
“She does not patrol our roads. She does not operate our jail,” he added. “She does not answer the calls of our residents when they need help, and she does not stand beside the men and women of this Sheriff’s Office who do that work every single day.
“Yet Albany continually dictates to local governments how we must operate, what programs we must provide, how we must police our communities—and then expects our local taxpayers to pick up the bill.”
Butler said he was set off by a spokesperson for Hochul saying counties “do not get to pick and choose which state laws they follow” but then saying governments who disagree are “not interested in keeping New York communities safe.”
He said Albany’s definition of local government is “they make the rules, we pay the bills and we’re expected to keep our mouths shut.
“I wont,” he pledged. “And now the Governor wants to tell me that cooperation with federal immigration authorities somehow demonstrates that I am not interested in keeping my community safe.
“That assertion is offensive.”
Gov. Kathy Hochul is up for reelection in November. Erik Pendzich/ShutterstockHe said Hochul can’t question his or his force’s commitment to protecting the people of Cattaraugus because he refuses “to blindly accept every policy that comes out of Albany.”
:Albany should be accountable for the consequences of the laws it passes, the mandates it imposes, the financial burdens it places on local taxpayers, and the public-safety policies it forces upon communities hundreds of miles away,” he said.
Cattaraugus County is one of roughly a dozen municipalities around New York, including Nassau County, with 287(g) agreements that allow local jails to hold detainees for ICE.
Hochul has doubled down on Dems’ anti-ICE efforts, holding events across the state touting the news measures included in the state budget deal this year.
“We don’t want our jails being used for any purpose other than local law enforcement purposes. It’s not their job to be ICE detention centers either. That’s not what the taxpayers are paying for when they pay for local law enforcement,” Hochul she said last month.
Last week, a federal judge rejected part of a lawsuit from the Trump administration looking to block Hochul’s ban on the 287(g) agreements.
Though, in the same ruling, that judge also struck down part of Albany’s new sanctuary law that attempted to bar federal agents from wearing masks.
