Sunday Special Editorial

When States Weaponize Government to Circumvent Federal Authority: It’s Obstruction of Justice

Most Americans have never heard of a program called 287(g), yet it has become the center of one of the most important constitutional battles unfolding in America today.

Section 287(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act allows the federal government to enter into voluntary agreements with state and local law enforcement agencies. Under those agreements, specially trained deputies may perform limited federal immigration enforcement functions while operating under federal supervision. Counties are not required to participate. Those that do make that decision voluntarily, entering into agreements with the United States government.

That is exactly what Broome County Sheriff Fred Akshar and a number of other New York sheriffs have done.

Governor Kathy Hochul has ordered those agreements terminated by August 25, arguing they conflict with New York law and public policy. Attorney General Letitia James has taken legal action to enforce that position. The federal government has responded by challenging New York’s actions in court, arguing the state cannot interfere with voluntary cooperation between local law enforcement and federal immigration authorities. The constitutional questions are significant enough that this dispute could eventually find its way before the United States Supreme Court.

On its surface, this appears to be another political fight over immigration.

It is not.

It is a fight over whether government itself may become an obstacle to the lawful execution of another government’s constitutional authority.

It is also important to acknowledge the political reality. The overwhelming majority of New York sheriffs participating in 287(g) agreements are Republicans or generally aligned with conservative immigration policies. Governor Kathy Hochul and Attorney General Letitia James are Democrats who have consistently opposed those policies. No one should pretend politics is absent from this dispute.

But politics is not the issue. The issue is whether political disagreement justifies the weaponization of government power.

Many Americans will immediately ask whether they support President Trump’s immigration policies. That is the wrong question.

Whether you support the Republican administration’s immigration agenda, oppose it entirely, or fall somewhere in the middle is almost irrelevant to the constitutional issue before us.

The American people elected a Republican President. They elected a Republican-controlled Congress. Under our Constitution, immigration policy has long been recognized as primarily the responsibility of the federal government because it directly affects national sovereignty, border security, foreign affairs, and our relationship with the rest of the world. States have important responsibilities, but they were never intended to become competing immigration authorities capable of nullifying federal policy simply because they disagree with the outcome of a national election.

That is precisely what New York is attempting to do.

Governor Hochul and Attorney General James are not merely criticizing federal immigration policy. They are using the authority of state government to prevent that policy from being carried out by independently elected sheriffs who have voluntarily entered lawful agreements with the federal government. The objective is no longer simply to express disagreement. The objective is to stop the federal government from carrying out the immigration policies chosen by the American people through their national elections.

That is obstruction.

It is also a dangerous precedent.

Today, a Democratic governor and Democratic attorney general are attempting to frustrate the policies of a Republican federal government. Tomorrow, political power will inevitably change. Republican governors and Republican legislatures could employ the very same tactics to obstruct the policies of a future Democratic administration. Environmental regulations. Firearms enforcement. Civil rights initiatives. Education. Health care. The subject does not matter. The precedent does.

Once states embrace the idea that they may weaponize governmental authority to circumvent federal law whenever they dislike the party controlling Washington, the Constitution ceases to function as the nation’s governing framework. It becomes little more than a political suggestion.

America cannot survive if every election is followed by a campaign to sabotage the lawful authority of the government the voters just elected. We are a constitutional republic, not fifty competing governments engaged in perpetual political warfare.

Government exists to faithfully execute the law, not to manipulate public institutions into serving political ideology. Executive authority is meant to govern, not punish political disagreement. Attorneys general are expected to uphold the law, not become political enforcers against independently elected constitutional officers. Sheriffs answer first to the citizens who elected them and to the Constitution they swore to uphold – not to the ideological priorities of Albany.

This editorial is not about whether one favors stronger immigration enforcement or more permissive immigration policies. Elections have consequences, and in our constitutional system the authority to establish and enforce national immigration policy belongs primarily to the federal government. Americans remain free to debate those policies, to vote against them, and ultimately to replace those who enacted them. What they should not do is encourage one level of government to obstruct another simply because they dislike the result of an election.

If New York prevails here, every future state government will have a roadmap for resisting federal authority whenever political control is divided. That is not federalism. That is institutionalized political obstructionism.

Just as we condemn the recklessness of some of Donald Trump’s statements leading up to the January 6 attack on the United States Capitol, we also condemn reckless statements by state and local officials across the country encouraging citizens to resist, interfere with, confront, or harass ICE officers while they are carrying out lawful operations. Political leaders have a responsibility to challenge government policy through the courts, legislation, elections, and peaceful public advocacy. They do not have the right to inflame the public, encourage direct interference with law enforcement, or create conditions in which officers, protesters, bystanders, and entire communities are placed in danger. That standard must apply equally regardless of the party, the administration, or the cause.

The Constitution established separate sovereigns, not rival governments empowered to sabotage one another whenever elections produce different winners. That principle cannot depend on which party controls Washington or which party controls Albany.

If Democrats controlled the White House and Congress, and a Republican governor and legislature were using state power to obstruct lawful federal authority in precisely the same manner, we would oppose it just as strongly. Political obstructionism does not become constitutional simply because we agree with the people doing it.

The proper place to challenge federal authority is in the courtroom or at the ballot box. It is not through a state legislative session designed to circumvent federal law, frustrate federal enforcement, or punish locally elected officials for cooperating with the national government.

The rule of law must remain the rule of law regardless of party. Government exists to execute the law faithfully, not to weaponize its institutions to frustrate the lawful authority of another sovereign government.

When states deliberately weaponize government to circumvent federal authority, there is a name for it.

It is obstruction of justice, and it is wrong.

👉 What do you think? Should states be permitted to interfere with voluntary cooperation between local law enforcement and the federal government, or does that cross a constitutional line? Join the conversation in the comments below.

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