The Trump administration has filed a federal lawsuit seeking to end sanctuary city law policies in New York City, arguing that the laws that protect migrants violates the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution.
The lawsuit, filed Thursday in Brooklyn Federal Court, cites Sunday’s shooting of an off-duty Customs and Border Patrol officer in Fort Washington Park and the arrest of two migrants who were in the country illegally. It contends that the city has “long been at the vanguard of interfering with enforcing this country’s immigration laws.”
The lawsuit is seeking an injunction to put a stop to city laws that bar the use of resources from being used in immigration enforcement, and blocking city agencies like the Department of Correction and the police from honoring civil immigration detainers placed by federal authorities.
The city’s sanctuary laws were passed under Mayor de Blasio in 2014. They limit communications and cooperation between federal immigration enforcement agencies and local agencies, including law enforcement.
The lawsuit specifically takes aim at an NYPD operations order that prevents officers from engaging in or assisting in civil immigration enforcement. It prevents cops from contacting civil immigration authorities to let them know where an individual is located; detaining an individual so that person can be taken into custody and allowing NYPD facilities to be utilized in connection with civil immigration enforcement.
The lawsuit was filed against the city, Mayor Adams and Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, as well as the NYPD and the Department of Correction. It claims local protections are designed to obstruct the lawful enforcement of federal immigration law, and that the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution means that federal law pre-empts any laws passed by New York City.
“We will review the lawsuit,” Adams spokeswoman Kayla Mamelak said. The council did not immediately comment.
The lawsuit criticized what it called “the city’s intentional effort to obstruct the United States’ enforcement of federal immigration law, by (among much else) impeding the consultation and communication between federal and local law enforcement officials that is necessary for the United States to enforce the law and keep Americans safe.”
Murad Awawdeh, president of the New York Immigration Coalition, blasted the administration’s efforts.
“Unfortunately, Donald Trump thinks that he and he alone can decide our country’s local laws – undermining the 10th amendment,” Awawdeh said. “Today’s lawsuit is frivolous at best, and an attack on New York’s ability to govern itself at worst. New York must reject Trump’s continued assaults to its Constitutional right to pass local laws that serve our communities best. Mayor Adams must fight back against this federal overreach and defend the well-being of all New Yorkers.”
The lawsuit comes after DHS Secretary Kristi Noem Monday blamed the mayor and New York’s sanctuary city policies for the shooting of the off-duty Customs and Border Patrol agent.
“This officer is in the hospital today, fighting for his life, because of the policies of the mayor of the city and the City Council and the people that were in charge of keeping the public safe refused to do so,” Noem said. “When I look at what Mayor Adams has done to New York City, it breaks my heart to see the families that have suffered because of his policies.”
Noem’s comments marked an unusual Trump administration rebuke of Adams, whose criminal indictment was dismissed by Trump’s DOJ in what has been criticized as a corrupt deal to aid in the administration’s deportation efforts.
Though named as the defendant in Trump’s lawsuit, Adams himself has been critical of the sweep of the city’s sanctuary city protections and has talked about the possibility of using executive orders to dial them back.
Mamelak said the lawsuit does not point to any change in the relationship between Adams and the Trump administration.
“Mayor Adams has been clear: no one should be afraid to dial 911, send their kids to school, or go to the hospital, and no New Yorker should feel forced to hide in the shadows,” Mamelak said. “That’s why the mayor supports the essence of the local laws put in place by the City Council — but he has also been clear they go too far when it comes to dealing with those violent criminals on our streets and has urged the Council to reexamine them to ensure we can effectively work with the federal government to make our city safer. So far, the Council has refused.”
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At a press conference Wednesday, the mayor, asked about sanctuary policies, said he wished he could use his executive authority to override laws he didn’t like.
“I wish my EOs can override laws. I’d override a whole lot of laws,” Adams said. “But executive orders can’t override laws. And that’s one of the misnomers that’s out there, that mayors have the ability to override existing laws. No, the City Council, they pass laws and we sign it into law. But we can’t use the power of our pen with executive orders to override the laws.”
Adams, through his Deputy Randy Mastro, did issue an executive order earlier this year allowing ICE to operate an office on Rikers Island, but those plans are at a standstill after the Council challenged the move in court.
The City Council has pushed back strongly against any changes to the sanctuary laws, which are intended to allow immigrants to make use of the city’s resources, send children to school and seek help from law enforcement.