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A federal judge on October 15 dismissed the U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ) lawsuit that challenged New York City’s sanctuary policies, ruling that states are not obligated to take part in federal immigration enforcement. According to a report by the Epoch Times, U.S. District Judge Ramon Reyes found that the Justice Department lacked legal standing to sue the city and that no federal law requires states and cities to assist in immigration enforcement.
The DOJ filed the lawsuit in July 2025, arguing the policy was unconstitutional and interfered with federal immigration laws. However, the judge was not convinced by the government’s arguments, calling the administration’s preemption arguments “nothing more than a backdoor around the Tenth Amendment” and saying they rest on a false distinction between requiring local governments to assist in enforcement and preventing them from deciding how their personnel and resources are used toward such enforcement.
As noted by the Epoch Times, the portion of the opinion that would have the greatest effect on the city is where the judge writes that striking down the challenged provisions would restrict the city’s ability to control its agencies and personnel, including spending city resources to detain people and share information between agencies, “all potentially in violation of state law.” He added that if states cannot control their employees to resist federal immigration enforcement, “the Tenth Amendment anticommandeering doctrine means nothing.”
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani declared the ruling a victory for New Yorkers. In accordance with his promise, he said NYC would continue to honor its sanctuary city laws, which he said help keep New Yorkers safe by enabling the city to concentrate its resources on serving the needs of its communities. “Our local laws make New York City safer,” he said, and they ensure “that every New Yorker can turn to their city government without fear that asking for help will make them a target for deportation.”
The Justice Department in its lawsuit highlighted real-world circumstances where, it alleged, NYC’s policies and practices stop city officials from sharing such information as release dates, court dates and custody status, and thus “impair federal detention of removable aliens, including dangerous criminals.” The DOJ cited one instance from July 2025 when an off-duty Customs and Border Protection officer was shot in Fort Washington Park by two illegal immigrants. According to the DOJ, one of the shooters had been arrested in April 2024 for felony grand larceny and petit larceny but was released after the city’s Department of Correction ignored a detainer.
On October 9th the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said that New York City had failed to honor 14,916 immigration detainers issued by ICE between January 20th 2025 and September 14th 2026. The detainers were linked to 47,750 criminal charges and convictions, including homicide, sexual assault, drug offenses, kidnapping, weapons offenses and assault. The DHS comments came after the shooting of Oscar Bengal, a criminal illegal immigrant from the Dominican Republic, who was shot on October 8th while federal immigration agents were attempting to arrest him in the Bronx. He was treated at a local hospital and subsequently detained.
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