New York Ends Local ICE Detention Contracts as Dignity Not Detention Act Takes Effect
- Human Rights Research Center
- 47 minutes ago
- 5 min read
Author: Christine Savino
September 1, 2026
HRRC supports New York’s decision to end its participation in a system that has subjected immigrants — many of whom are detained while facing civil, rather than criminal, proceedings — to incarceration, family separation and documented allegations of abusive detention conditions.
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New York State and local governments can no longer use their jails and other facilities to detain people for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) under the Dignity Not Detention Act, which took effect on August 25th.
The law prohibits the state, counties, municipalities, sheriffs and other local government entities from entering into or renewing agreements to detain people for civil immigration violations and requires existing agreements to end. The measure, included in New York’s fiscal year 2027 state budget submission in May, effectively removes state and local detention facilities from ICE’s immigration detention network.
The change comes as the use of New York county jails for immigration detention has sharply increased.
In the first seven months of 2025, county jails detained approximately 2,800 people for ICE, compared with about 500 during all of 2024 — an over six-time increase, according to the legislation’s prime Senate sponsor, State Senator Julia Salazar.
Before the law was enacted, ICE maintained contracts with seven local jails in New York: Orange, Broome, Allegany, Montgomery, Clinton and Niagara county jails and the Nassau County Correctional Center. According to Salazar’s office, Nassau County alone detained more than 3,200 people for ICE between February 2025 and March 2026.
“Dignity Not Detention effectively ends immigration detention in New York state and the ability for state and local governments to enter into or even continue existing contracts with ICE to hold people in immigration detention,” Salazar said during an August 7th inspection of the Nassau County jail, weeks before the law took effect.
When lawmakers approved the measure in May, Salazar said the state’s involvement in federal immigration detention had made New York complicit in separating immigrants from their communities.
“There are several local jails in our state that participate in immigration detention, directly supporting the federal administration’s efforts to violently round up our neighbors, separate them from their communities, and ship them off, often with little to no due process,” Salazar said. “With the inclusion of Dignity Not Detention in the budget, New York’s involvement with immigration detention will come to an end.”
Reports of Abuse Inside New York Detention Facilities
Advocates have also pointed to allegations of mistreatment at county jails that contracted with ICE.
Orange County Jail, one of the facilities affected by the new law, has faced allegations of medical neglect, racist harassment, physical abuse, and retaliation against detained immigrants.
In February 2022, people detained at the facility participated in a multiday hunger strike protesting conditions there. Advocates said jail officials subsequently placed participants in segregated confinement, restricted their communications with the outside world, and later transferred some of them to detention facilities elsewhere in the country.
One immigrant formerly detained at Orange County Jail in 2021 described the conditions to the Dignity Not Detention Coalition.
“The rooms were so small, there was no recreation, no time outside, we were held inside for months,” said the former detainee, identified by the Coalition as Jorge, a pseudonym. “Knowing that immigration detention is ending there brings me real relief. No one should have to experience what I went through.”
New York Withdraws From ICE Detention — But ICE Remains
The Dignity Not Detention Act does not eliminate federal immigration detention or ICE enforcement in New York. Instead, it prevents New York state and local governments from supplying their facilities through detention agreements with federal immigration authorities.
That distinction is significant because immigration detention is part of the federal civil immigration system. For instance, as of August 5th, ICE was holding 196 immigration detainees at Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center, a federal jail ordinarily used to hold people facing federal criminal charges. Earlier Department of Homeland Security data showed that more than half of the immigration detainees held there in February had no criminal record.
The new law restricts New York’s participation in that system but does not prevent the federal government from operating its own detention facilities within the state.
Advocates nevertheless characterize the law as a significant human-rights victory because local detention contracts expanded the number of beds available to ICE while allowing counties to receive federal money for holding immigrants.
“New York State is finally getting out of the business of ICE detention,” said Rosa Cohen-Cruz, immigration policy director at The Bronx Defenders.
Cohen-Cruz said the organization has represented “hundreds of people forced to fight their deportation cases from inside county jails, while those same counties profited from their abuse and sometimes death.”
The legislation follows years of organizing by immigrant-rights and civil-liberties groups, including The Bronx Defenders, the New York Civil Liberties Union, and The Legal Aid Society.
Yet advocates say the legislation leaves a significant gap. Although state and local governments may no longer maintain formal detention agreements with ICE, the law does not prohibit all forms of cooperation between local law enforcement and federal immigration authorities.
“While the State budget and Dignity Not Detention thankfully ban formal agreements with ICE, it does not ban informal collusion between State and local law enforcement and ICE,” Salazar said.
Advocates are now pushing for passage of the New York for All Act, which would impose broader restrictions on state and local cooperation with federal immigration enforcement.
Glossary
Allegations — Claims of fact that have not yet been proven to be true.
Civil immigration violation —A violation of federal immigration law handled through the civil immigration system rather than a criminal prosecution. Immigration detention can therefore involve people who have not been convicted of a crime.
Civil proceedings — Legal proceedings involving the judicial resolution of noncriminal claims, as distinguished from criminal proceedings in which the government prosecutes someone for violating criminal law.
Collusion — A secret agreement between two or more parties to defraud another party of their rights or to accomplish an illegal purpose.
Counties — A type of local governmental unit. The U.S. Census Bureau classifies county governments as one of the basic types of local government and as general-purpose governments.
Dignity Not Detention Act —A New York law prohibiting state and local governmental entities from entering into or renewing agreements to house or detain individuals for civil immigration violations and requiring existing detention agreements to end.
Due process — The constitutional requirement that the government operates within the law and provides fair procedures when depriving a person of life, liberty, or property.
Immigration detention —The confinement of noncitizens by immigration authorities while their immigration cases or removal proceedings are pending or while the government prepares to remove them from the United States.
Incarceration — The detention or confinement of a person, often in a correctional facility.
Municipalities — Local governments established under state law to provide general government for a defined area, including governments designated as cities, villages, boroughs, and, in many states, towns.
Segregated confinement — The separation of a detained person from the facility’s general population for administrative or disciplinary reasons.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) — A federal agency within the U.S. Department of Homeland Security responsible for, among other duties, immigration enforcement, detention and removal operations.
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