New York Gov. Kathy Hochul is supporting legislation that would allow state residents to sue ICE agents for violating their constitutional rights.

The governor said on Tuesday during her State of the State address that she wants to allow New Yorkers to "hold ICE agents accountable in court when they act outside the scope of their duties."

"This doesn’t interfere with lawful enforcement or public safety," Hochul said. "It simply affirms a core truth: Power does not justify abuse. And if someone’s constitutional rights are violated here in the state of New York, I say they deserve their day in court."

Last year, New York State Sen. Brad Hoylman-Sigal and Assemblymember Micah Lasher proposed measures to allow private citizens to file lawsuits against federal officials who violate their constitutional rights.

REP RO KHANNA DEMANDS PROSECUTION OF ICE AGENT IN MINNEAPOLIS SHOOTING

Lasher’s version cites Title 42, Section 1983 of the U.S. Code, which allows people to sue state and local officials for violating their rights. The proposal highlights that New York does not have a law in place allowing citizens to sue federal officials.

"Every day, ICE is terrorizing our communities & violating our civil rights. We must be able to hold them accountable," Lasher, who is running for Congress, wrote on X, adding that he is glad Hochul is taking up his legislation.

Multiple states, including California, Massachusetts and New Jersey, have implemented similar laws allowing residents to sue federal officials.

Hochul also proposed other immigration guardrails, including a measure to require judicial warrants before ICE can conduct raids in sensitive locations like schools, churches and hospitals.

Earlier this year, the Trump administration reversed a Biden administration policy barring immigration arrests in these sensitive locations.

The governor also announced that New York "will not allow the use of state resources to assist in federal immigration raids on people who have not committed serious crimes."

Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin alleged in a statement to The Hill that Hochul "continues to smear law enforcement who are simply enforcing the rule of law and are putting their lives on the line to remove violent criminals from New York."

ICE HEAD SAYS AGENTS FACING 'CONSTANT IMPEDIMENTS' AFTER MIGRANT SEEN RAMMING CARS WHILE TRYING TO FLEE

McLaughlin also argued that there has been an increase in threats against federal law enforcement officers who she purports have shown "incredible restraint and professionalism in exhausting all options before any kind of non-lethal force is used."

This debate has intensified after a recent incident in Minneapoliss, where Renee Nicole Good, a U.S. citizen, was fatally shot by an ICE agent during an enforcement action. Protests followed in multiple cities, and Democrats and local residents have condemned the shooting and urged charges against the agent.

The Trump administration and Republican lawmakers have defended the incident by arguing that it was a justified shooting.

Officials are also investigating a second ICE-involved shooting that happened in Minneapolis on Wednesday, as the mayor continues to demand that the agency leave the city and state.

The housing official appointed by Mayor Zohran Mamdani to lead New York City’s newly revived Mayor’s Office to Protect Tenants previously said, "White, middle-class homeowners are a huge problem for a renter justice movement" and argued organizers must "undermine the institution of homeownership," during a 2021 podcast appearance.

Cea Weaver, who was named director of the Mayor’s Office to Protect Tenants on Jan. 1 through an executive order signed by Mamdani, made the remarks during a September 2021 episode of the "Bad Faith podcast" while discussing eviction policy and renter organizing strategies.

The comments have drawn renewed attention as Weaver now holds formal executive authority over tenant policy and enforcement in New York City. 

Her appointment was announced on Mamdani’s first day in office as part of a slate of executive actions reviving the Mayor’s Office to Protect Tenants, according to City Hall.

NYC DEM REVEALS HOW CITY COUNCIL REJECTED CEA WEAVER—NOW MAMDANI IS HANDING HER POWER WITHOUT CONFIRMATION

During the podcast, Weaver argued that resistance to progressive reform often comes not from large corporate landlords but instead from homeowners.

"I think the reality is that a lot of the people who are pushing back on the eviction moratorium and more rental assistance are not corporate landlords," Weaver said. "They are homeowners who feel as though an eviction moratorium is an attack on their rights as a property owner."

She added that this opposition presents a challenge for housing organizers, saying "White, middle-class homeowners are a huge problem for the renter justice movement."

MAMDANI SAYS HE ‘OBVIOUSLY’ DISAGREES WITH AIDE’S OLD VIEWS LINKING HOMEOWNERSHIP TO WHITE SUPREMACY

Later in the conversation, Weaver said homeownership has become the primary source of stability in the U.S. because of gaps in social programs, but argued that structure itself poses an obstacle to housing activism.

"Unless we can undermine the institution of homeownership and seek to provide stability in other ways, it’s a really difficult organizing situation we find ourselves in," she said.

Weaver framed evictions as a matter of power rather than economics, saying landlords resist the idea that tenants could remain in properties they "consider themselves to own."

In the same podcast, Weaver endorsed policies including universal rent control, the right to form tenant unions, blocking evictions, and funding rental assistance through higher taxes on the wealthy. She also argued that broader government programs could "chip away at homeownership" by providing stability through other means.

Weaver has also drawn scrutiny for past social media posts criticizing white homeownership. In an August 2019 post on X which was later deleted but resurfaced by Fox News Digital, Weaver wrote that "private property including and kind of ESPECIALLY homeownership is a weapon of white supremacy masquerading as ‘wealth building’ public policy."

On her first day in office, Weaver joined Mamdani in announcing city intervention in the bankruptcy proceedings of Pinnacle Group, a landlord tied to housing violations and complaints, according to City Hall.

Fox News Digital contacted the mayor’s press office with questions about whether Mamdani stands by Weaver’s 2021 remarks but did not receive a response by publication.

Fox News Digital's Peter Pinedo contributed to this report.