(The Center Square) — A bipartisan group of New York City councilors are asking the Trump administration to take the city to court over its “sanctuary” laws, alleging the restrictions are shielding “criminal aliens” from apprehension and putting the public at risk.
In a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi, seven members of the Council’s Common Sense Caucus ask the Justice Department to file legal action against the city over its policies that restrict cooperation by the New York Police Department and other law enforcement with federal immigration crackdowns.
The councilors noted that the DOJ is already suing New York state over alleged violations of federal statutes “by impeding communication between state and federal authorities on immigration enforcement.”
“We ask the DOJ to expand this legal action to include New York City’s so-called ‘sanctuary city laws,’ which shield criminal aliens from federal immigration authorities, place the public at risk and severely undermine efforts by the Department of Homeland Security and our own law enforcement agencies to coordinate on issues of national security,” they wrote.
In the letter, which was first reported by the New York Post, the caucus pointed to a recent report in the newspaper that detailed crimes committed by migrants living in taxpayer-funded shelters in the city. That report documented nearly 5,000 arrests between Jan. 1, 2023, and Oct. 31, 2024, on charges ranging from murder to assault and battery and robbery, the councilors said.
“Under our ‘sanctuary city’ laws, not only would local authorities have been required to ignore any lawful immigration detainers for these criminals, but they would also have been prohibited from even letting ICE know they have them in custody,” they wrote. “As a result, many of these dangerous criminal aliens were released and allowed to continue to threaten the safety of our residents.”
Specifically, the lawmakers identified six New York City laws they say could be challenged in court, including Local Law 62 of 2011, which prevents the city from honoring any federal immigration detainer request unless backed up by a warrant issued by a federal judge.
The lawmakers said they have repeatedly pushed to repeal the city’s sanctuary laws, including putting the question to voters in a citywide referendum, but those efforts “have been stonewalled by the same politicians and institutions that created and continue to support these reckless, ill conceived policies.”
New York City, which has seen an influx of hundreds of thousands of migrants over the past several years, has become a battleground between the Trump administration and Democrats over policies that restrict cooperation with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers who are seeking undocumented individuals for deportation.
Mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat, has praised some of the Trump administration’s immigration policies but has also refused to roll back the city’s “sanctuary” policies despite the influx of migrants.
