New York City’s sanctuary city policies are unconstitutional and make it harder for federal immigration officers to do their jobs, the US Justice Department says in a federal lawsuit filed Thursday.
The lawsuit, filed in the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York, cites several city laws that DOJ says are “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.”
The laws at issue prevent law enforcement from honoring a civil immigration detainer without a judicial warrant, and make clear that no city agency should use its resources or “subject its officers or employees to the direction and supervision of the secretary of homeland security primarily” for immigration enforcement purposes.
Those laws violate the federal government’s “well-established, preeminent, and preemptive authority to regulate immigration,” DOJ says.
The government wants the decades-old laws declared invalid for violating the Supremacy Clause.
“In rejecting congressionally authorized means of enforcing federal immigration law, including detainers and administrative warrants, these provisions constitute unlawful direct regulation of the Federal Government,” the complaint says.
Weekend Shooting
The suit marks an escalation of tensions between federal and city policymakers over the city’s sanctuary policies in the wake of the shooting of a Custom Border Protection agent last Saturday.
The off-duty agent was wounded by an undocumented migrant the George Washington Bridge. A suspect—who federal officials say entered the US illegally in 2023 and was under a deportation order issued in November—was also wounded and taken to a hospital.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Monday said the administration would send additional immigration agents to New York in response to the shooting.
Mayor Eric Adams (D) said in response Tuesday he agreed the city’s sanctuary policies need to be “reexamined.”
The Justice Department last month sued Los Angeles over its policy, which restricts local law enforcement from assisting federal efforts to deport migrants, saying it helped spur riots during protests in the city. It’s also filed complaints challenging similar policies in Illinois, New Jersey, and the city of Rochester. A federal judge in San Francisco temporarily blocked the administration from enforcing Trump’s order against San Francisco and more than a dozen other local cities that sued.
The case is U.S. v. City of New York, E.D.N.Y., No. 1:25-cv-04084, complaint filed 7/24/25.