Overview
- Speaking at Harlem’s Abyssinian Baptist Church before more than 1,000 congregants, Gov. Kathy Hochul linked immigration enforcement to fear in religious spaces.
- She said some people avoid church because they fear being detained by ICE and taken to detention centers away from their families.
- Hochul reiterated a State of the State proposal to bar ICE from entering churches, hospitals, day cares, or schools without a warrant signed by a judge.
- The governor praised Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, briefly misstated his title, suggested he could seek higher office, and credited him with lower crime in Manhattan.
- Critics said using the MLK Day service for such comments crossed into overt politics, and no new policy actions or federal responses were reported.