A federal judge has delivered a clear defeat to New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s sanctuary-city obstruction, ordering his administration to turn over identifying information on certain male residents of a city-run Bronx homeless shelter to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
In a ruling issued Friday, November 6, U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan, a Bill Clinton appointee, sided with federal immigration authorities in their months-long battle with New York City over records involving residents of the Bruckner Boulevard homeless shelter in Mott Haven.
The decision clears the way for ICE to obtain the names and dates of birth of certain male shelter residents with serious criminal histories, subject to screening by a court-appointed special master.
According to the New York Post, the city repeatedly fought requests from ICE for identifying information about people living inside the sprawling migrant facility.
But Kaplan rejected the city’s arguments that the subpoena was excessively burdensome or an improper attempt to circumvent New York’s sanctuary policies.
In his November 6 memorandum opinion, Kaplan wrote that the city “has not shown that producing this list would be unduly burdensome” and that the records are “material and relevant to the enforcement of the federal immigration laws.”
He rejected the city’s claims of an improper “fishing expedition” and speculation that ICE was mainly trying to undermine local sanctuary policies, stating that nothing in the record showed the agency sought the information for any reason other than enforcing immigration law against those with serious criminal histories.
