Immigrant protection bills trickle in ahead of 2026 session
And 2026 elections for the state Legislature are already well underway.
Good afternoon. It’s Friday and World Soil Day.
In today’s CapCon:
Lawmakers plan to consider new immigrant protection bills next year, with three new measures introduced in the past week.
Fallout continues from the state’s pause of the All-Electric Buildings Act.
One Assembly seat has already attracted eight candidates — more than any other district so far ahead of 2026.
Here are a few other campaign notes from the week, including a new bid for office from former state Sen. Hiram Monserrate.
The Assembly is holding one hearing next week.
Names in today’s CapCon: Tony Simone, Pat Fahy, Shelley Mayer, Peter Harckham, Jeffrey Dinowitz, Glenn Suddaby, Harvey Epstein, Zohran Mamdani, Keith Powers, Joshua Arnon, Gabriel Turzo, Kevin O’Keefe, Sarah Batchu, Marquis Jenkins, Angela Aquino, Jason Murillo, Hiram Monserrate, Pedro Espada, Joseph Rand, Rob Rolison, Adam Bojak, Kevin Deese Alex Burgos
Today’s Capitol Confidential is sponsored by Food & Water Watch.
Tell Governor Hochul to sign the Legislature’s repeal of the 100-foot rule. New Yorkers shouldn’t have to subsidize new gas hookups. End this outdated giveaway and cut costs for families. — Food & Water Watch
✒️ Immigrant protection bills emerge ahead of 2026
Democrats in the state Assembly departed Lake George on Friday after holding their annual retreat to plan out legislative priorities for 2026.
One of those priorities is expected to be measures that would protect undocumented people from being detained by federal immigration officers and bills to do so have already started to trickle in from state lawmakers.
Three bills have been introduced in the past week that seek to keep track of where immigration officers are making arrests and restrict them from entering certain locations.
The first doesn’t have a bill number just yet, but I’m going to start adding immigration-related bills to this public portal over on Capitol Confidential Pro for you to track along with me.
The really cool thing about these portals is that you’re able to see how comprehensive the AI tools developed by USLege are at summarizing legislation. It’s very cool!
We have a free webinar for those of you interested in CapCon Pro on Monday. I highly encourage you to attend. Sign up for that here.
1. ICE data dashboard: The Reporting of Arrests, Detentions, Actions and Removals (RADAR) Act would require the state to create a centralized database to track the activity of federal immigration officers.
“This first-in-the-nation legislation will empower our communities to protect our fellow immigrant New Yorkers,” said Assemblyman Tony Simone, the bill’s Assembly sponsor.
That would include weekly or quarterly data on the number of detention requests, local arrests, transfers to federal custody and removals carried out. The data would be anonymized to protect the identity of the immigrants.
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