Judge Dismisses Trump Lawsuit That Sought to Block N.Y.C. Sanctuary Laws

A federal judge on Thursday rejected the Trump administration’s lawsuit against New York City’s sanctuary laws, ruling that the U.S. government can’t compel police officials and other city agencies to help enforce civil immigration laws.

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Judge Reyes, who was appointed in 2023 by President Joseph R. Biden Jr., said that the federal government lacked standing and that the Constitution protected cities and states from being forced into spending their own resources to enforce immigration laws, which are the purview of the federal government.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a Democrat, celebrated the ruling in a statement, saying that the judge had made it clear that the federal government “cannot commandeer our city workers to do its bidding.”

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New York’s sanctuary laws, which were passed in 2014 when Bill de Blasio was mayor, all but prohibit the Police Department and city jails from helping ICE apprehend undocumented immigrants, except under certain circumstances.

The laws allow the city to honor ICE’s requests to detain immigrants only if they have been convicted of certain “violent and serious” crimes, including rape and murder, and only if ICE presents a judicial warrant. The laws also strictly limit communications and information sharing between ICE and city agencies.

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