{"id":123372,"date":"2026-02-05T01:01:22","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T01:01:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/123372\/"},"modified":"2026-02-05T01:01:22","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T01:01:22","slug":"ag-letitia-james-will-send-out-monitors-to-observe-ice-actions-in-new-york","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/123372\/","title":{"rendered":"AG Letitia James will send out monitors to observe ICE actions in New York"},"content":{"rendered":"

State Attorney General Letitia James said\u00a0 Tuesday that she will send trained observers to monitor ICE agents<\/a> to document enforcement and protect New Yorkers\u2019 rights.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have seen in Minnesota how quickly and tragically federal operations can escalate in the absence of transparency and accountability,\u201d James said in a statement. \u201cMy 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

The new observation initiative comes a day after embattled U.S. Homeland Secretary Kristi Noem announced that every Homeland Security officer on the ground in Minneapolis, including those from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, will be immediately issued body-worn cameras<\/a> after the shooting deaths of two U.S. citizens at the hands of federal agents.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will rapidly acquire and deploy body cameras to DHS law enforcement across the country,\u201d Noem said in a social media post on X.<\/p>\n

\"AU.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem speaks during a news conference in the National Response Coordination Center at the Federal Emergency Management Agency headquarters on January 24, 2026, in Washington, DC. (Photo by Al Drago\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

It was not immediately clear if the new camera policy will be adopted in New York, but James said she isn\u2019t waiting to find out.<\/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 she said.<\/p>\n

The observation project will be staffed by trained employees from the attorney general\u2019s office, she said. The volunteers will begin monitoring enforcement actions in the coming weeks, and will be outfitted in easily identifiable, purple, OAG-branded safety vests.<\/p>\n

James said observers will not interfere with enforcement activity, and will only document federal conduct.<\/p>\n

James said she is also urging New Yorkers to submit videos or other documentation of federal immigration enforcement actions directly, through the attorney general\u2019s secure online portal<\/a>, to help state officials determine if further investigation is necessary.<\/p>\n

\"FederalFederal agents conduct an immigration sweep on Canal Street in the Chinatown neighborhood of Manhattan on Tuesday, Oct. 21, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo\/Jake Offenhartz)<\/p>\n

Across the country, the monitoring job has often fallen on private citizens or protesters.<\/p>\n

The scrutiny of federal officers has intensified after two U.S. citizens, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, were shot and killed in separate incidents while protesting immigration enforcement activities in Minneapolis.<\/p>\n

A third victim, Keith Porter, 43, was killed on New Year\u2019s Eve by on off-duty ICE agent<\/a> in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

Porter\u2019s family said the father of two was firing gunshots in the air to celebrate the New Year when he was confronted and shot to death by an off-duty ICE agent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"State Attorney General Letitia James said\u00a0 Tuesday that she will send trained observers to monitor ICE agents to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":123373,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[262,263,266,85,267,75,84,83,9,24,264,12,63,261,265],"class_list":["post-123372","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-city","tag-county","tag-crime-and-public-safety","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-county","tag-news","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-crime","tag-sub-county-region"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123372","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=123372"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123372\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/123373"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=123372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=123372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=123372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}