The New York City Council is holding a hearing Thursday on sanctuary city laws, and how well agencies are complying.
It prompted a rally in the rain outside City Hall.
The goal of the hearing
The hearing follows a Department of Investigation review that found gaps and insufficient guidance in city agencies’ compliance with sanctuary laws. The City Council Committee on Oversight and Investigations is specifically looking at the NYPD, the Department of Correction, and the Department of Probation.
“Today’s oversight hearing will get to the heart of two critical questions. One, is New York City prepared on paper and in practice prepared to defend our laws against a lawless federal administration and, two, are our agencies [prepared] to protect, not just on paper but in practice, immigrant New Yorkers across our city?” said Councilmember Shekar Krishnan, the committee’s chairperson.
Compliance with NYC’s sanctuary laws
The city’s sanctuary laws prohibit local agencies from using city resources to cooperate with federal immigration authorities, which includes prohibiting local law enforcement from holding detainees at the request of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, except when there are public safety concerns.
That compliance has come into question amid the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.
In one example, advocates allege the NYPD transferred the sealed arrest record of a woman who was detained at a protest to the Department of Homeland Security, claiming the information is being used to seek her deportation.
“DOI also found [the Department of Correction] was not training personnel how to engage immigration enforcement or officials,” Department of Investigations Acting Commissioner Christopher Ryan said.
The DOI review was requested by the City Council last year under then-Mayor Eric Adams. Earlier this year, Mayor Zohran Mamdani issued an executive order requiring certain city agencies to conduct an internal audit around their sanctuary policies and practices. Â
ICE protests in New York City
There have been several ICE protests in New York City over the last six months, including some involving complaints about the NYPD’s actions.
In late November of last year, protesters took issue with police following a clash outside a parking garage in Lower Manhattan. They claimed they were attempting to block ICE agents from conducting a raid at nearby Canal Street, but said the NYPD eventually arrested multiple people at the scene.
“So while it is illegal, largely illegal, for city agencies to aid ICE, we are seeing week-after-week incidents that show that our city is violating its own laws and that is wrong,” City Councilmember Shahana Hanif said at the time.
All that happened one day after police took several people into custody at the same site after what police sources called an unscheduled anti-ICE demonstration.
Protesters clashed with NYPD officers and what appeared to be DHS officers. Groups of people could be seen throwing debris at police and standing in front of their vehicles.
“There were protesters that had been pepper-sprayed, sprayed with something else that looked kind of like it was orange, and then there were protesters that had bloody faces,” protester Amanda Holden said.