ALBANY, NY — Acting Nassau County Sheriff Robert Matarazzo has yet to join a lawsuit against New York State over a ban on 287(g) agreements, the plaintiffs' attorney in that case confirmed Friday.
In a conversation with Patch, Mateo Forero-Norena — the attorney representing 15 New York sheriffs in a lawsuit seeking to overturn a state ban on agreements between local police departments and ICE — confirmed that Nassau County's acting sheriff Robert Matarazzo had not yet joined the lawsuit as a co-plaintiff.
On Wednesday, Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman announced that the county would be complying with the 287(g) ban. In the press conference announcing that ban, Blakeman said he was aware of the ongoing lawsuit from the other sheriffs, and said he would be directing Matarazzo's office to join that lawsuit.
Forero-Norena did say that he had spoken to officials from Nassau County about representing Matarazzo in some capacity, and that they had discussed adding him to the ongoing lawsuits from the other sheriffs.
On Wednesday, Judge Mae D'Agostino set the briefing schedule in that lawsuit.
According to court filings, D'Agostino issued an order to show cause to the defendants in the case, Attorney General Letitia James, Governor Kathy Hochul and the State of New York, giving them until Sept. 9 at 5 p.m. to respond to a motion by the sheriffs' attorney seeking a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction.
In the order, D'Agostino wrote that a temporary restraining order would temporarily bar the state from enforcing its "Local Cops, Local Crimes" act, prevent them from voiding any existing 287(g) agreements, bar them from forcing the termination of any 287(g) deals and prevent them from "taking any further investigative, enforcement, or coercive action" against the sheriffs stemming from their existing or prospective immigration partnerships.
On Thursday, the attorney general sued Rensselaer County Sheriff Kyle Bourgault for his county's noncompliance with the 287(g) ban. In that suit, James claimed that the Rensselaer County Sheriff's Office had not dissolved its agreement with ICE, and said that the sheriff's office had "failed to perform a duty enjoined upon it by law" by doing so. According to court filings, James sought to have a state judge nullify the agreement between the Rensselaer County Sheriff and ICE.
The Attorney General's office declined to comment on the legal proceedings mentioned in this story.
As for the lawsuit where James is a defendant, D'Agostino's order gives the sheriffs a week to respond to whatever the state officials file, ordering that any reply paperwork be filed by Sept. 16 at 5 p.m.
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