Federal judge dismisses Trump lawsuit to end NYC sanctuary laws

John Annese and Colin Mixson, New York Daily News on Oct 15, 2026

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NEW YORK — A Brooklyn federal judge on Thursday dismissed a Trump administration lawsuit to end New York City’s sanctuary protections for undocumented immigrants.

The lawsuit, filed in July 2025, sought a “permanent injunction” to eliminate local laws that bar city resources from being used in immigration enforcement and prevent city agencies, like the Department of Correction and the New York Police Department, from honoring civil immigration detainers placed by federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and other federal agencies.

“This is a victory for New Yorkers and a rebuke to ICE’s deportation agenda,” Mamdani said in a statement. “The federal government came to court seeking to force New York City to turn its public servants into deportation agents and divert our resources toward carrying out ICE’s cruel agenda. Today, they lost.”

In his decision, District Judge Ramón Reyes wrote that there is no federal law requiring states to participate in federal immigration enforcement, and called the U.S. Government’s arguments that NYC sanctuary laws “impede” the fed’s ability to enforce immigration laws “nothing more than a backdoor around the Tenth Amendment.”

Moreover, Reyes wrote that the federal government had no standing in its case to commandeer New York City’s civil servants.

“Our local laws make New York City safer,” Mamdani said. “They allow us to focus our resources on protecting and serving our communities and ensuring that every New Yorker can turn to their city government without fear that asking for help will make them a target for deportation.”

The city’s sanctuary laws were passed under Mayor Bill de Blasio in 2014. They limit communications and cooperation between federal immigration enforcement agencies and local agencies, including law enforcement.

The lawsuit filed in Brooklyn Federal Court cited the shooting of an off-duty Customs and Border Patrol officer in Fort Washington Park and the arrest of two migrants who were in the country illegally. It contended that the city has “long been at the vanguard of interfering with enforcing this country’s immigration laws.”

The lawsuit was filed against the city, Mayor Eric Adams and former Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, as well as the NYPD and the Department of Correction. It claimed New York’s sanctuary protections are designed to obstruct the lawful enforcement of federal immigration law, and that the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution means that federal law preempts any laws passed by New York City.

When the lawsuit was filed, Murad Awawdeh, president of the New York Immigration Coalition, blasted the Trump administration’s efforts.

“Unfortunately, Donald Trump thinks that he and he alone can decide our country’s local laws – undermining the 10th Amendment,” Awawdeh said. “(This) lawsuit is frivolous at best, and an attack on New York’s ability to govern itself at worst. New York must reject Trump’s continued assaults to its constitutional right to pass local laws that serve our communities best. Mayor Adams must fight back against this federal overreach and defend the well-being of all New Yorkers.”

Judge Reyes’ dismissal comes just more than a week after ICE agents shot and wounded undocumented immigrant Oscar Belgal in the Bronx, sparking a heated confrontation between the feds and outraged citizens.