The Trump administration sues New York City over sanctuary policies

New York City’s sanctuary city policies are unconstitutional and limit local police and corrections officers from cooperating with federal immigration enforcement, the Justice Department said in a federal lawsuit on Thursday.

The lawsuit filed in a New York federal court names New York City Mayor Eric Adams and several other city officials as defendants. The lawsuit claims the city has enacted policies with the intent of impeding the federal government’s ability to enforce immigration laws. 

“New York City has long been at the vanguard of interfering with enforcing this country’s immigration laws,” the lawsuit states. “Its history as a sanctuary city dates back to 1989, and its efforts to thwart federal immigration enforcement have only intensified since.”

The Justice Department cited New York’s policy that prohibits its Department of Corrections from honoring U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainers, which requests that federal immigration authorities be notified upon the release of a criminal illegal immigrant from jail. 

The New York Police Department was subject to a similar provision, the lawsuit states. In 2014, the city further resisted cooperation with ICE, including adding an amendment to its sanctuary city policy that immigration detainers would not be honored without a warrant issued by an Article III judge (or magistrate judge) and unless the subject of the detainer had been convicted of a “violent or serious” crime within the past five years or was a possible match on the federal terrorist watch list.

“Sanctuary cities are only sanctuaries for criminals. President Trump promised to Make America Safe Again and deport criminal illegal aliens,” White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said in a statement to Fox News Digital.

“But sanctuary cities, like NYC, are working in direct opposition to the mandate that President Trump was elected to fulfill and American citizens are paying the price. The Trump Administration will not tolerate local politicians interfering in the enforcement of federal immigration laws.”

The lawsuit said crimes committed by illegal immigrants in the city have prompted several city leaders to call for cooperation with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Attorney General Pam Bondi said the federal government was left with no choice but to protect New Yorkers. “If New York’s leaders won’t step up to protect their citizens, we will,” she wrote on X.