BS BULLETIN:
- President Trump accused New York Gov. Kathy Hochul of having “just released 7000 hard core criminals” onto New York streets, prompting Hochul’s press office to fire back: “This is a lie. Donald Trump made it up.”
- Trump got the timing and direct attribution wrong: Hochul did not personally release 7,000 people over the weekend. But the underlying number wasn’t invented — DHS has said New York jurisdictions released 6,947 noncitizens with ICE detainers beginning in January 2025.
- The fight comes as Hochul is actively restricting cooperation between New York law enforcement and ICE, while 15 county sheriffs are suing to overturn her new law banning their 287(g) immigration-enforcement agreements.
Kathy Hochul’s press office has a message about President Trump’s latest attack: Liar, liar.
There’s just one awkward problem. The number Trump cited came from his own Department of Homeland Security.
Trump lit up Truth Social over the weekend with a blistering attack on New York’s Democratic governor. “Governor Kathy Hochul just released 7000 hard core criminals onto the streets on New York,” Trump wrote. “What is wrong with her? She is grossly incompetent and must be voted out of office!”
Hochul’s press office responded Monday with all the subtlety of a brick through a window. “This is a lie. Donald Trump made it up.”
Well.
About that.
Hochul didn’t “just” personally open a prison door over the weekend and wave goodbye to 7,000 criminals. But Trump didn’t invent the 7,000 figure, either.
The Department of Homeland Security reported that New York’s failure to honor ICE detainers resulted in the release of 6,947 noncitizens with criminal records or charges from local custody beginning Jan. 20, 2025.
And DHS supplied considerably more detail. The agency said the offenses associated with those released included 29 homicides, 2,509 assaults, 199 burglaries, 305 robberies, 392 dangerous-drug offenses, 300 weapons offenses and 207 sexually predatory offenses.
So technically Trump was off. By 53. And by the word “just.”
That distinction earned Hochul some unwanted assistance from X’s Community Notes.
A note attached to her office’s “Donald Trump made it up” declaration pointed readers to the DHS figure and explained that the 7,000 number referred to 6,947 releases accumulated beginning in 2025.
The note also pointed out another fact that may explain how two different stories became tangled together.
Hochul really did grant clemency Friday. But to six people. Not 7,000.
Those six pardons went to people who had completed their sentences years ago and whom Hochul’s office said had “lived crime-free lives for a significant period of time.” So Trump’s specific suggestion that Hochul had suddenly released 7,000 hardened criminals was plainly inaccurate. But Hochul’s broader suggestion that the 7,000 figure was simply invented has its own problem.
DHS has been talking about those releases for months.
And the dispute isn’t merely historical. Hochul signed the Local Cops, Local Crimes Act in May, which prohibits New York local law-enforcement agencies from maintaining 287(g) agreements that deputize officers to perform certain federal immigration-enforcement functions.
The deadline for agencies to unwind those agreements arrived last week. Not everybody is cooperating. Fifteen New York sheriffs filed a federal lawsuit challenging the law, arguing that Albany is interfering with their ability to protect their communities.
Hochul’s response? “Bring it on.”
Hochul and Attorney General Letitia James have also gone to court against the Rensselaer County sheriff for refusing to terminate his ICE agreement. They say the new law makes communities safer by keeping local police focused on local crime rather than federal immigration enforcement.
And their description of ICE isn’t exactly flattering. “The federal government claims they are going after the ‘worst of the worst,’ but every American has seen the reality: ICE is terrorizing communities and families with indiscriminate raids,” Hochul and James said last week.
DHS sees things rather differently. The department argues that refusing to honor its detainers means potentially dangerous offenders can be released from local custody before ICE gets them. And DHS’s 6,947 figure is central to that argument.
There’s another number worth remembering. DHS said in December that 7,113 additional noncitizens remained in New York custody with active ICE detainers. According to the department, that group included people accused or convicted of offenses encompassing 148 homicides, 717 assaults and 260 sexually predatory offenses.
MY QUICK TAKE
Trump should have left out “just.”
He turned a very defensible attack on New York’s sanctuary policies into an argument over his wording.
But Hochul’s response is something else.
When somebody says “7,000” and the government’s documented number is 6,947, shouting “He made it up!” probably isn’t the dunk you think it is.
Especially when you’re simultaneously fighting New York sheriffs who want to cooperate with ICE.
Trump rounded up. Hochul cried lie.
DBS WIRE SOURCES
- Twitchy — Gov. Kathy Hochul’s Press Office: Trump Is Lying About Her Releasing 7,000 Criminal Illegals
- Fox News — DHS demands Letitia James take action over New York’s refusal to honor ICE detainers
- New York Attorney General — Attorney General James and Governor Hochul Release Statement on Lawsuit Challenging 287(g) Ban
- New York Attorney General — Attorney General James and Governor Hochul Announce Lawsuit Against Rensselaer County Sheriff for Violating New York’s Local Cops, Local Crimes Act
- New York Post — NY sheriffs sue over Hochul’s anti-ICE law that bans government cooperation, but guv says: ‘Bring it on’
