If Republican candidate Bruce Blakeman wins New York’s gubernatorial election on Nov. 3, Ángel Reyes said it would hit him on a personal level. Blakeman, who has been Nassau County Executive since 2022, has been a proponent of 287(g) agreements, which allow local law agencies to collaborate with ICE for purposes of immigration enforcement. If elected governor, Blakeman has said he would continue these collaborations.
Reyes is familiar with these agreements, as they are the same agreements that led to Reyes’ mother’s deportation back in 2009 after she had been detained for a traffic violation and transferred to ICE. He says he fears a Blakeman administration could lead to an increase of immigrants being sent to ICE by local law enforcement, just the way his mother was.
“Blakeman is just doing whatever Trump wants him to do,” Reyes, 36, said. “That’s a dangerous thing because the Trump administration is one of the worst things that has ever happened to the immigrant community.”
As New Yorkers across the state head to the polls, on the ballot will be more than the governor’s race, but the future of the state’s 287(g) agreements and collaboration with federal immigration enforcement agencies. Democratic incumbent Gov. Kathy Hochul this summer banned collaborations between local agencies and ICE. Blakeman, meanwhile, has made collaboration between ICE and local agencies a cornerstone of his platform. As Nassau County executive, he entered into 287(g) agreements and expanded the powers of local police to ask about citizenship status, make immigration arrests and detain immigrants without judicial warrants. A Documented analysis found that Nassau County under Blakeman has handed more immigrants over to ICE than any other county in the state.
Some that spoke with Documented said if Blakeman wins it could spell the regression of state policies that now prevent collaboration between local agencies and ICE. It could also further isolate the more than 600,000 immigrants without lawful status in New York who have been a target of Trump’s mass deportation agenda. Voters who are supportive of Trump’s policies said electing Blakeman is crucial to ensure the president’s enforcement efforts in the state.
“ Bruce Blakeman has made it no secret of the fact that he very much wants Donald Trump’s approval, wants Trump’s support, and wants to emulate the policies that Trump has done in the White House in Albany,” said Daniel Coates, political director with Make The Road Action New York (MRA-NY), an advocacy and political organization working with Latino and immigrant communities in the state.
Coates emphasized that this election is happening against the backdrop of Trump’s immigration policies that are “tearing people apart every single day.” According to an analysis by The Marshall Project, over 610,000 immigrants have been detained by ICE since Trump’s inauguration last year until mid-August 2026.
More than 1.2 million people have already cast their ballots in New York as of Thursday evening, and Coates believes that the turnout could be a reflection of voter sentiment toward this administration’s immigration policy. A recent CNN/SSRS poll found that 61% of U.S. adults disapproved of the Trump administration’s handling of immigration.
“ Even on Long Island where Bruce Blakeman is most popular, in Nassau, voters recognize this [immigration enforcement] is his vision, right?” Coates said. “We know increasingly that in the suburbs and across the state the general public are turning deeply against what ICE is doing.”
Blakeman, who has been a vocal critic of the city’s sanctuary policies, insisted that he supported legal immigration at a campaign rally Thursday at Diversity Plaza in Jackson Heights, Queens, among a small crowd of immigrant supporters.
“I am pro-immigration,” he told Documented. “I believe in supporting our immigrants. I want them to prosper, make a lot of money, pay less in taxes, pay less in utility bills, just like anybody else.”
An Election About ICE Collaboration
In May, Gov. Hochul signed the Local Cops, Local Crimes Act into law, which went into effect in August and banned the collaboration between local law enforcement and ICE through 287(g) agreements.
Blakeman has said that ending collaboration between local agencies and ICE would make life in Nassau County more dangerous. What he hasn’t said is how much Nassau County has fueled the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in New York.
Between June 2025 and August 2026, 272 immigrants in New York had been transferred to ICE custody via the 287(g) agreements, according to data analyzed by the Deportation Data Project. Of those transfers, 195 — or 72% — occurred in Nassau County. The vast majority of those transfers were for immigrants with pending criminal charges.
Blakeman’s campaign did not respond to questions about how as governor he would determine who should be transferred to ICE, and if individuals without criminal convictions would be subject to the transfer.
On Wednesday night, during a conversation with 92NY CEO Seth Pinsky as part of 92NY’s State of New York series, Blakeman defended ICE’s operations in New York and asked the moderator to name one incident where “someone has been seriously injured in New York by ICE.”
When Pinsky questioned Blakeman about Oscar Belgal — who ICE shot with his 5-year old in the back of his car in Marble Hill earlier this month — Blakeman said he had asked to have an investigation. He then criticized Gov. Hochul for saying that Belgal should have never been shot.
When Documented asked Hochul’s office and campaign about measures they would implement to protect immigrants, the governor’s office pointed toward the Local Cops, Local Crimes Act and said the New York Attorney General’s office would fully ensure compliance of those laws statewide. Campaign spokesperson Ryan Radulovacki then called out Donald Trump’s “untrained, unaccountable ICE abuses.”
“Governor Hochul’s message is simple: there’s no sanctuary for criminals in this state, and we need leadership that protects every New Yorker and holds Trump’s rogue agents accountable,” he said in a statement to Documented.
Radulovacki added that Blakeman has justified killings by ICE, including of U.S. citizens, and said: “He’ll only stand up for Donald Trump, not our most vulnerable communities.”
But for Queens resident Aura Patrick, 79, it is exactly Blakeman’s support of Trump’s immigration policies that won her vote on Wednesday, Oct. 28. “I do not want any other [politician] from the other side to govern,” Patrick, who is from Colombia, said. Her vote was also guided by Trump, who has endorsed Blakeman, she said.
As forTrump’s handling of immigration policy, she said she feels Trump has been doing a “great job,” adding that she wonders if the Democrats are trying to make him fail.
“I voted for Bruce,” she said. “It was important for me to vote because we are in a very difficult moment and need for Trump to continue governing the way he has been.”
While Gov. Hochul has made progress in passing legislation that could help protect immigrant communities, Coates says Make The Road Action has been busy canvassing people to head to the polls and vote.
“The election is not done. We cannot go back. We have to elect her to continue the path that we’re on here,” Coates said, referring to the passage of the Local Cops, Local Crimes Act.
Reyes, who has been volunteering with the Glen Cove Rapid Response Network — which has monitored ICE activity and offered support to community members in Long Island — also reiterated the need for people to come out and vote. He said that sometimes 100 votes can make the difference between electing a candidate who could be terrible for the immigrant communities.
He added that allowing the collaboration with ICE again could isolate the already impacted immigrant community, and further dissuade them from reporting crimes to local law enforcement.
Since Trump took office last year, Reyes said that multiple community members, including victims of crimes or domestic violence, have come to him to report crimes instead of calling the local police department, out of fear of law enforcement’s collaboration with ICE.
Still, Reyes said that when he speaks with voters in his community who believe that Blakeman has no chance of winning, he says he reminds them of when Trump pulled an upset and beat Hillary Clinton in 2016.
“People really need to come out,” Reyes said. “They need to vote even if they think it’s a done deal.”
Amir Khafagy contributed additional reporting.
