{"id":121348,"date":"2026-02-03T15:24:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-03T15:24:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/121348\/"},"modified":"2026-02-03T15:24:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T15:24:08","slug":"attorney-general-letitia-james-to-staff-her-own-ice-observers-group-to-monitor-federal-immigration-crackdown-in-new-york-amnewyork","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/121348\/","title":{"rendered":"Attorney General Letitia James to staff her own ICE observers group to monitor federal immigration crackdown in New York \u2013 amNewYork"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\"ICE\t\t\t<\/p>\n

ICE agents inside 26 Federal Plaza.<\/p>\n

Photo by Dean Moses<\/p>\n

State Attorney General Letitia James said Tuesday she is launching a dedicated team in her office that will keep careful eyes on ICE agent activities around New York.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

According to James, the operation \u2014 dubbed the Legal Observation Project \u2014 will be tasked with gathering information stemming from what she called \u201csignificant enforcement actions\u201d throughout the Empire State while also sending personnel to observe and document ICE and protest activity. <\/p>\n

The attorney general said these observers will serve as neutral witnesses, recording information that may inform future legal action. Their efforts will help ensure that accurate, real-time information is collected and preserved, and that any violations of law are identified, she noted.<\/p>\n

The unit was formed in response to the ongoing ICE activity in Minnesota, where masked agents have killed two U.S. citizen protesters<\/a>, barged into homes without warrants<\/a>, pepper-sprayed and arrested observers and protesters<\/a>, arrested Native Americans,<\/a> and even taken children leaving school.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cAs Attorney General, I am proud to protect New Yorkers\u2019 constitutional rights to speak freely, protest peacefully, and go about their lives without fear of unlawful federal action,\u201d James said. \u201cWe have seen in Minnesota how quickly and tragically federal operations can escalate in the absence of transparency and accountability. My office is launching the Legal Observation Project to examine federal enforcement activity in New York and whether it remains within the bounds of the law.\u201d<\/p>\n

James shared that the Observation Project will begin rolling out in the next few weeks and will be staffed by her employees on a voluntary basis. They will be dressed in\u00a0purple Attorney General-branded safety vests and will be ordered not to interfere with ICE operations, merely to document.<\/p>\n

\"womanFILE \u2013 New York Attorney General Letitia JamesPhoto by Dean Moses<\/p>\n

This comes as New York braces for an escalation in immigration crackdown. <\/p>\n

Over the weekend, elected officials canvassed the Lower East Side,<\/a> going storefront to storefront to inform business owners of their legal rights should they encounter the Feds. Assembly Member Grace Lee (D-Manhattan) told amNewYork that she and fellow politicians are preparing for the possibility of ICE coming to the Big Apple in force.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve seen everything that\u2019s happening in Minneapolis and how ICE is terrorizing communities, to know that they are starting to build up an operation on the Lower East Side is terrifying. It\u2019s terrifying for the communities. It\u2019s terrifying for employees, for businesses, for the neighbors, and we need to make sure that we protect New Yorkers,\u201d Lee said.<\/p>\n

In addition to the Legal Observation Project, Attorney General James is also calling upon New Yorkers to submit videos of federal immigration enforcement actions directly to her office through an online portal at ag.ny.gov\/federal-actions-form<\/a>. Reports submitted through the portal will help OAG assess activity and determine whether further investigation is warranted.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ICE agents inside 26 Federal Plaza. Photo by Dean Moses State Attorney General Letitia James said Tuesday she…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":121349,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[2035,2301,9,3594,24,55,54,56],"class_list":["post-121348","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-ice","tag-immigration","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-attorney-general-letitia-james","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-ny"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121348","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=121348"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121348\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/121349"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=121348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=121348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=121348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}