A federal judge ruled Thursday in favor of New York City’s sanctuary policy, saying the federal government can’t force local authorities to assist in arresting and deporting illegal immigrants.
That leaves New York free to refuse to share information about residents — even people it arrests — and to refuse to offer space in its jails for ICE officers to try to scrutinize detainees for potential deportation targets, said Judge Ramon Reyes Jr., a Biden appointee to the court in Brooklyn.
“If states cannot remain free to control their agencies and employees to resist federal immigration enforcement, which is within states’ constitutional prerogatives, the Tenth Amendment anticommandeering doctrine means nothing,” the judge wrote.
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The ruling is the latest in a tidal wave of legal losses for the Justice Department as it challenges state and local sanctuary policies.
Similar lawsuits have failed against Minnesota, Colorado, Illinois, New Jersey and New York state, and the cities of Boston, Newark, New Jersey and Rochester, New York, and Washtenaw County in Michigan.
Judge Reyes said he agreed with those rulings.
The Trump administration has argued that state and local policies cannot frustrate federal enforcement priorities.
New York’s bar on helping U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement carry out civil immigration activities, such as restricting the circumstances where police can honor deportation “detainer” requests, conflicts with that national priority, the feds argue.
The city also bars information sharing for any non-city immigration enforcement purpose.
New York said non-cooperation isn’t the same as hindering.
Judge Reyes agreed with the city, saying its policies may be in tension with the federal priorities, but aren’t obstacles.
And even if they were, the Constitution prevents the feds from forcing the city to proactively cooperate. hands, he ruled.
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