Assembly Bill A10774

                             
                     S T A T E   O F   N E W   Y O R K
 ________________________________________________________________________
 
                                   10774
 
                           I N  A S S E M B L Y
 
                               April 1, 2026
                                ___________
 
 Introduced  by M. of A. RAMOS -- read once and referred to the Committee
   on Governmental Employees
 
 AN ACT prohibiting the employment of certain United  States  immigration
   and  customs enforcement agents or officers in certain state and local
   positions
 
   THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, REPRESENTED IN SENATE AND  ASSEM-
 BLY, DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

   Section 1. The Legislature finds and declares that:
   a.  Beginning  in 2025, immigration and customs enforcement agents and
 officers have  threatened  and  intimated  United  States  citizens  and
 noncitizens  alike,  through  untargeted  arrests and brutality based on
 nothing more than a person's racial appearance, language  spoken,  means
 of   earning   a   living,  or  exercise  of  first  amendment-protected
 expression.
   b. Beginning in 2025, the United States Department of Homeland Securi-
 ty has recruited agents and officers to immigration and customs enforce-
 ment with the promise of being unrestrained in the manner in which  they
 can  engage  with  civilians  or by the laws of the United States or any
 State.
   c. The current  operations  of  immigration  and  customs  enforcement
 demonstrate  an  immorality  that  New York cannot afford to have in its
 ranks of police officers, peace  officers  and  teachers,  whose  duties
 include interacting with the public.
   d.  Ensuring  that  public  employees, particularly those who interact
 with the public in unsupervised roles, are of sound mind and not  likely
 to  engage in racial profiling or brutalization is a matter of statewide
 concern.
   § 2. a. Notwithstanding any law, rule, or regulation to the  contrary,
 persons  employed  by the United States Immigration and Customs Enforce-
 ment as an immigration and customs enforcement agent or officer  at  any
 time  and  in  any  capacity  between September 1, 2025, and January 20,
 2029, shall be disqualified from holding  employment,  whether  with  or
 without  compensation,  as  a state employee, an employee of a political
 
  EXPLANATION--Matter in ITALICS (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                       [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                            LBD15042-01-6
              

 A. 10774                            2
 
 subdivision, a law enforcement officer, or a teacher  on  or  after  the
 effective date this act.
   b. As used in this section:
   (i)  "Immigration  and  customs  enforcement agent or officer" means a
 person responsible for or who provides direct support in the identifica-
 tion, arrest, detention, transport, processing, or removal  of  individ-
 uals  violating  federal  immigration  laws.  "Immigration  and  customs
 enforcement agent or officer" shall include,  but  not  be  limited  to,
 deportation officers and immigration enforcement agents.
   (ii) "Law enforcement agency" means a state agency or political subdi-
 vision,  or part thereof, determined by the attorney general to have law
 enforcement responsibilities.
   (iii) "Law enforcement officer" means any person who is employed as  a
 sworn member of any law enforcement agency, as defined in paragraph (ii)
 of  this  subdivision,  department,  division, or instrumentality who is
 statutorily empowered to act for the detection,  investigation,  arrest,
 conviction, detention, or rehabilitation of persons violating the crimi-
 nal  laws of the state. "Law enforcement officer" shall include, but not
 be limited to, police officers, as defined in section 1.20 of the crimi-
 nal procedure law, and peace officers, as defined in section 2.10 of the
 criminal procedure law.
   (iv) "Political subdivision" means any county,  city,  town,  village,
 municipality,  special  district  or  school district or other political
 subdivision of the state or any instrumentality or agency of  the  poli-
 tical subdivision.
   (v) "State agency" means any of the principal departments in the Exec-
 utive  Branch  of  State  government,  and  any division, board, bureau,
 office, commission, or other instrumentality  within  or  created  by  a
 department,  and any independent State authority, commission, instrumen-
 tality, or agency, including any public institution of higher education.
   (vi) "Teacher" means any regular teacher, special  teacher,  including
 any school librarian or physical training teacher, principal, vice-prin-
 cipal, supervisor, supervisory principal, director, superintendent, city
 superintendent,  assistant  city superintendent, district superintendent
 and other member of the teaching or professional  staff  of  any  class,
 public  school, vocational school, truant reformatory school or parental
 school, and of any or all classes of schools within  the  state  of  New
 York,  including  schools on the Indian reservation, conducted under the
 order and superintendence of and wholly or partly at the expense of  the
 New York state education department or of a duly elected board of educa-
 tion,  board of school directors or board of trustees of the state or of
 any city or school district  thereof.    "Teacher,"  also  includes  any
 person  employed  in the state education department who at the time such
 person entered such employment, or within one year prior thereto, was  a
 teacher  within  the  foregoing  definition,  or who was engaged in such
 department in the performance  of  duties  pertaining  to  instructional
 services  prior  to  September first, nineteen hundred eighty-six or who
 provides instructional services at the New York  state  school  for  the
 blind or the New York state school for the deaf.
   § 3. This act shall take effect immediately.