Friday, May 1, 2026
NY set to pass most extreme sanctuary policies as Hochul, Albany Dems near anti-ICE deal
New York is set to pass its most extreme sanctuary policies yet – as Gov. Kathy Hochul and Albany Democrats hone in on a deal that could impose sweeping bans on cooperation between local law enforcement and ICE.
Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie (D-Bronx) confirmed “95%” of an anti-ICE immigration package has been agreed upon between Hochul and state legislators as part of ongoing state budget talks – including etching New York’s first statewide sanctuary law restricting how law enforcement can interact with immigration authorities.
“I think we all want to deal with the aggressiveness, or the over-aggressiveness, let’s say, of ICE. But we also understand that there should always be due process,” Heastie told reporters Wednesday.
Narrow, but still crucial, details about how the law would function are still being hammered out.
Hochul recently revealed that she had agreed with the legislature’s request to ramp up her initial anti-ICE proposal, which she had released in January amid heightened fury against President Trump’s immigration crackdown in Minneapolis.
“I want to say that ICE has no reason to be involved in any civil enforcement,” Hochul said last week.
Hochul’s original proposal had included:
- Banning local governments, like Nassau County, from signing formal “287-g” agreements with ICE to deputize officers and keep detainees in local jails on federal immigration charges.
- An experimental new legal tool aimed at giving New Yorkers the ability to sue federal agents in state court for a violation of their constitutional rights.
- Restricting access to ICE from “sensitive” locations like schools, hospitals and churches.
Since then, the legislature has largely bullied the governor into adding:
- Explicit “sanctuary” protections barring local law enforcement from communicating with federal immigration authorities unless they suspect there’s probable cause someone committed a misdemeanor or felony.
- Many new additional “sensitive” locations to her list, including virtually all public spaces like parks and allowing private businesses to refuse entry to federal agents.
- Barring ICE agents from wearing masks.
Albany Dems, however, quickly panned the part of Hochul’s plan allowing local cops to contact ICE in cases with probable cause — and it appears she might be backing down.
“That definitely has been out,” Heastie said Wednesday.
Critics — including the elected sheriffs she wants to restrict from working with ICE — have blasted Hochul for caving to the left, claiming she hasn’t engaged with them in crafting her proposal.
“The proposed ban on communicating or cooperating with an important unit of federal law enforcement would be a huge step backward and would be detrimental to the safety of the public in areas way beyond immigration issues,” the New York State Sheriffs’ Association wrote in a statement this week.
Turning New York’s sanctuary policy into law could create confusing grey areas and would harm the progress made after the 9/11 terror attacks to encourage branches of law enforcement to be less “siloed” and collaborate more, critics argued.
Hochul still maintains that federal law enforcement will still be able to go after hardcore criminals like human traffickers and drug rings.
“We’ll work with DEA. We’ll work with FBI. We always have,” she stressed.
Iran may send revised proposal on Friday after Trump rejection - CNN
Iran is expected to deliver a revised peace proposal by Friday after US President Donald Trump rejected an earlier version, CNN reported citing Pakistani mediators.
US Navy deploys AI to detect Iranian mines - Reuters
The US Navy is expanding use of artificial intelligence to detect Iranian naval mines in the Strait of Hormuz, aiming to speed up clearance operations, Reuters reported.
A contract worth up to $100 million with Domino Data Lab will allow underwater drones to identify new types of mines within days rather than months. A company executive said the shift marks a move from ship-based mine hunting to AI-driven systems, as the US seeks to secure a key global shipping route.
Iran embassy rejects role in UK violence
Iran’s embassy in London dismissed reports linking Tehran to violent incidents in Britain as "unfounded," saying authorities reject such accusations.
The embassy said the Islamic Republic condemns “terrorism” in all forms and described itself as "a victim of such acts," adding it remains "committed to confronting extremism."
Iran clerics reject talks on Hormuz, say negotiations equal surrender
Senior clerics in Iran said the Strait of Hormuz is not open to negotiation and warned against engaging with the United States.
“The Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz are no longer negotiable,” Mohammad Javad Haj Ali Akbari said on Friday, adding a new legal framework would be pursued with Oman.
“Negotiating with America means surrender,” Mashhad Friday Prayer Imam Ahmad Alamolhoda said, adding Iran could leverage control of Hormuz without talks.
Nearly 70% Inflation, Mass Layoffs, And A Strangled Economy: Iran's Brutal Test Of Endurance
Iran’s economy is undergoing one of the most brutal stress tests in its modern history. Official annual inflation has surged to 50% according to central bank figures released shortly after the ceasefire, while the year-on-year rate reached as high as 67% through mid-April, according to the Wall Street Journal. The rial has crashed to a record low of 1.8 million to the dollar, roughly two million workers have lost their jobs, and the US naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz continues to throttle the country’s oil exports and critical imports. Reconstruction costs from bombed infrastructure are estimated near $270 billion - alarmingly close to the country’s entire annual GDP of roughly $341 billion last year. What was already a sanctions-battered, mismanaged economy now confronts a grinding “no war, no peace” stalemate. Tehran is wagering that it can hunker down and endure a protracted war - allowing it to outlast American pressure. The early data and on-the-ground reality suggest that wager is being tested to its limits.
The human impact is immediate and visible in everyday Tehran life. A 56-year-old housewife described to Najmeh Bozorgmehr of the Financial Times how a simple block of cheese rose from 5.2 million rials to 6.7 million rials (about $5.09) in a single week. Comparable jumps have struck rice, eggs, chicken, red meat, and other staples. A popular Peugeot 207 has climbed from 18 billion rials to 25 billion since the conflict began, while officials are preparing to authorize a 40 percent increase in government-mandated cement prices.
The cost of living has soared, with the annual inflation rate reaching 67% in the month through mid-April from the same period a year earlier, according to Iran’s central bank. The subsidized price of red meat, which was mostly imported through sea routes, has gone up to the equivalent of around $3.60 a pound, beyond the reach of most in a country where the minimum wage is around $130 a month. -WSJ
Business consultant Siamak Ghassemi publicly advised Iranians that anything short of a near-doubling of wages would fail to offset the cost-of-living explosion. One small petrochemical-dependent factory outside the capital has already dismissed nearly a third of its workforce. A clothing business owner reported recent costs running 150 percent above sales, bluntly concluding, “This is not sustainable.”
Macro indicators reveal the depth of the damage. The Journal’s reporting, informed by Iranian officials and international analysts, estimates around one million direct job losses and another million indirect - equivalent to roughly 8 percent of the pre-war employed population of 25 million. War-related unemployment benefit applications have already reached 191,000. Steel output has dropped by up to 30 percent, while damaged petrochemical, gas, and steel complexes - major employers - grapple with raw-material shortages and physical destruction. Oil exports, which averaged 1.85 million barrels per day as recently as March, have been reduced to a near standstill, with shipping analysts at Kpler finding no confirmed evidence of cargoes successfully breaching the US blockade to reach buyers in China or elsewhere.
At the strategic core of the crisis lies the Strait of Hormuz. Iran initially tried to use the waterway as leverage by disrupting traffic; the US responded with a naval blockade that has effectively severed the Islamic Republic’s economic lifeline. Before the war, the strait carried the vast majority of Iran’s oil revenue and imports ranging from food and medicine to industrial components. In response, Tehran has activated emergency bypass routes: rail and road connections through Turkey, Armenia, and Azerbaijan, Caspian Sea ports supplied by Russia, Kazakhstan, and Turkmenistan, and new transit corridors via Pakistan. It has drawn heavily on strategic food reserves, raised the minimum wage, increased government salaries, issued monthly food coupons worth around $7 per person, and appealed to citizens to conserve energy and reduce driving.
Yet these measures are widely viewed as temporary holding operations rather than solutions. Virginia Tech economist Djavad Salehi-Isfahani told the Journal that Iranian leaders recognize ending the war is merely the prelude to an even harder challenge: managing a disillusioned and impoverished population without the rapid return of oil income. Middle East Institute fellow Alex Vatanka points out that while the regime can still portray endurance as a badge of national pride, prolonged revenue collapse increases the risk of renewed street mobilization. Vienna-based economist Mahdi Ghodsi offered a stark assessment: “Living is not affordable anymore. Iran is at its weakest point.”
One medium-sized steel entrepreneur told FT that his firm has so far avoided layoffs by shifting entirely to overland routes, but he expressed deep concern about how long this uncertain limbo can continue. Pre-war protests, already triggered by economic distress and crushed with lethal force earlier this year, provide a sobering precedent. The regime retains a formidable toolkit - subsidies, repression, parallel trade networks, and a narrative of resistance - but whether these tools can withstand another year of 50-percent-plus inflation, double-digit unemployment, and eroding living standards is the central question. This is not a sudden collapse, but a brutal, extended test of endurance whose outcome will shape not only Iran’s economy but the broader regional balance of power.