Governor Kathy Hochul signed a new law this weekend that would criminalize threats anyone makes in New York to expose another person’s immigration status.
The law views the threats as extortion or coercion. Similar laws already exist in four other states.
The only thing considered illegal before this was signed into law, was exposing a person’s immigration status during labor or sex trafficking cases.
This legislation works to help protect undocumented immigrants from being reported to ICE and deported to a country they may have fled in order to save their lives.
It also allows for prosecutors to take on blackmail cases when a person is threatened with deportation.
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