The Trump administration has initiated a lawsuit against New York City, alleging that its ‘sanctuary’ laws hinder federal efforts to detain undocumented immigrants. This action continues the administration’s ongoing campaign against localities that implement policies to shield undocumented individuals from federal immigration enforcement.
Attorney General Pam Bondi stated, ‘New York City has released thousands of criminals on the streets to commit violent crimes against law-abiding citizens due to sanctuary city policies. If New York City won’t stand up for the safety of its citizens, we will.’
Central to the administration’s strategy to reduce unlawful immigration is a crackdown on what it terms sanctuary jurisdictions. These are regions that enact laws that make it difficult for local officials to cooperate with federal immigration authorities.
The lawsuit claims that New York’s sanctuary city policies obstruct the federal government’s enforcement of immigration laws and violate the Constitution’s Supremacy Clause.
The complaint notes, ‘New York City has long been at the vanguard of interfering with enforcing this country’s immigration laws. Its history as a sanctuary city dates back to 1989, and its efforts to thwart federal immigration enforcement have only intensified since.’
Moreover, the Trump Justice Department argues that the city’s immigration policies actively make it more challenging for federal immigration officers to fulfill their duties. According to the complaint, ‘These provisions intentionally obstruct the sharing of information envisioned and affirmatively protected by Congress, including sharing basic information such as release dates, court appearance dates, and custodial status.’
Among those named as defendants in the suit are New York Mayor Eric Adams, City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, and Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch. The lawsuit has been filed in the Eastern District of New York, where the administration requests the court to declare the city’s laws unconstitutional and therefore invalid. It also seeks a permanent injunction prohibiting the city’s departments and officials from enforcing these sanctuary policies.
Mayor Adams has previously aimed to build a cooperative relationship with federal officials. He met with Trump’s ‘border czar,’ Tom Homan, prior to Trump’s inauguration, discussing mutual goals regarding the removal of violent offenders from the city. Adams even endorsed a bill to revise some of the city’s sanctuary policies, intending to facilitate better cooperation with federal authorities. However, such amendments would ultimately require approval from the City Council.
Despite this early outreach, Homan intensified criticisms of New York City this week, labeling it as ‘the biggest sanctuary city in this country’ following the shooting of an off-duty Customs and Border Protection agent. Several Trump administration officials, including Homan and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, have linked this incident to the city’s sanctuary policies. City officials, however, emphasized that the shooting was related to an attempted robbery and not connected to the victim’s profession.
Homan stated, ‘The sanctuary cities are now our priority. We’re going to flood the zone. So sanctuary cities got exactly what they don’t want: more agents in the community and more agents in the worksite.’
In a statement on X, Mayor Adams indicated he would ‘review the lawsuit’ and reiterated his stance on the need to reassess local immigration ordinances. ‘We support the essence of the local laws put in place by the City Council — but I have also been clear that they go too far when it comes to dealing with those violent criminals on our streets and have urged the Council to reexamine them to ensure we can effectively work with the federal government to make our city safer,’ he remarked. ‘So far, the Council has refused.’
In response, a spokesperson for the city council noted that the law department is looking into the lawsuit. ‘Pam Bondi may want to distract from reality, but the facts are clear: the evidence consistently shows that cities with sanctuary laws are safer than those without them,’ the spokesperson stated. They further emphasized that when residents feel secure reporting crimes and cooperating with local law enforcement, overall safety improves — a principle recognized by both Republican and Democratic mayors of New York City.
The spokesperson also criticized the Trump administration’s tactics, stating, ‘It is the Trump Administration indiscriminately targeting people at civil court hearings, detaining high schoolers, and separating families that make our city and nation less safe.’
The city’s Corrections Department, Probation Department, and police department have not commented on the lawsuit at this time.
Throughout his presidency, Trump has consistently threatened to cut federal funding to sanctuary jurisdictions and to pursue criminal or civil action against state or local officials impeding federal enforcement efforts. In January, Trump issued an executive order directing his administration to ensure that sanctuary jurisdictions ‘do not receive access to federal funds’ and to evaluate possible penalties for localities disrupting federal law enforcement.
However, a federal judge blocked this effort in April, determining that Trump’s order infringed upon constitutional separation of powers principles. This judge also halted a similar initiative attempted in 2017.
Earlier this year, the administration also filed a lawsuit against the state of New York regarding its ‘Green Light Law,’ which enables the Department of Motor Vehicles to issue driver’s licenses to undocumented immigrants while restricting the sharing of related data with federal immigration authorities. The Justice Department aims to have this law declared unlawful and unenforceable.
In addition to New York, the Trump administration has also targeted other Democratic-led cities for policies it claims obstruct federal immigration enforcement efforts, including a lawsuit against Illinois and Chicago over a law that prohibits local law enforcement agencies from assisting federal officials with civil immigration enforcement without a criminal warrant.
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