A federal judge overrode New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s objections to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement subpoena that seeks to obtain personal information on people residing in one of the city’s homeless shelters.
U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan, who was appointed by President Bill Clinton, ruled on Friday that the Mamdani administration must comply with the subpoena. ICE wants the names and birth dates of homeless men staying at a Bronx shelter to determine whether they are illegal immigrants subject to deportation.
The federal government has agreed to let a special master oversee the list of names to ensure the immigration agency is only seeking homeless shelter residents accused of violent crimes while they’re living in the United States. Kaplan found no reason to rule in favor of New York City.
“The City has not shown that producing this list would be unduly burdensome, and the agency has consented to the appointment of a special master who will identify residents of the facility with certain serious criminal histories and provide only those names to the agency,” he wrote in a 12-page order. “Under the applicable case law, the Court therefore has no choice but to compel the subpoena’s enforcement, as modified by the appointment and role of a special master.”
The judge gave both parties two weeks to come up with a proposed order that directs the appointment and provides compensation for a special master to “facilitate enforcement of the subpoena.”
The city government partly argued that the ICE subpoena would “circumvent and undermine” its sanctuary city laws, which limit cooperation between federal immigration enforcement and local agencies.
A Mamdani spokesperson said the administration is considering whether to appeal, an option that New York Attorney General Letitia James acknowledged.
“I’m familiar with the ruling and we’re reviewing the possibility of an appeal,” she told Politico on Friday.
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Mamdani remains opposed to ICE’s presence in the city’s five boroughs, especially after an immigration officer shot and wounded a Dominican national in the Marble Hill neighborhood between Manhattan and the Bronx last month. The mayor reiterated his stance following the results of the midterm elections.
“We have seen firsthand in New York City the devastation that ICE causes — bullets fired in our streets, family members disappeared, parents abducted, the life of a 5-year-old child placed into danger,” he said, referencing the Dominican national’s child who was at the scene of the Oct. 8 shooting. “Our country must move forward from a chapter of terror and start with a chapter of humanity.”
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[ H/T Washington Examiner ]
