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Internal Memos Instruct New York City Government Employees to Block ICE Raids
As President Donald Trump repealed years of precedent strongly discouraging immigration raids in schools, houses of worship, hospitals and other “sensitive locations,” Mayor Eric Adams on Tuesday declined to explain how the city will respond if federal agents start showing up at city facilities.
But behind the scenes it’s a different story, with local government agency heads in the last few days distributing advisories instructing staff to block access to any non-local law enforcement, even if presented with a judicial warrant. City employees were ordered instead to contact city lawyers who must authorize access.
Staff at the Department of Citywide Administrative Services (DCAS), for example, got a universal “all staff reminder” Friday requiring them to contact the agency’s general counsel if any non-federal law enforcement agent — including from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Customs and Border Protection (CBP) or the FBI — show up demanding access to facilities managed by DCAS.
The advisory from DCAS Commissioner Louis Molina and General Counsel J. Carolina Chavez says that “DCAS employees cannot grant access without first getting authorization from the General Counsel’s Office,” then advises staff to get the agent’s name and badge number, the phone number of a supervisor and an explanation of the purpose of the visit.
DCAS staff must obtain a copy of the warrant or take a photo of it and provide that to general counsel, then “politely direct the officer to wait outside” while they await further guidance from agency lawyers. The DCAS advisory implies that administratively issued warrants will not be acceptable.
DCAS oversees dozens of city-owned and leased buildings and is in charge of maintaining state courts in the five boroughs. Under state law, the courts already require non-local law enforcement to present a judicial warrant to gain access to courthouses while performing immigration enforcement.
The only exception to the new DCAS directive relates to “exigent circumstances” in which non-local law enforcement say access to a city facility is required due to “hot pursuit of a suspect or imminent risk of death or physical harm.” In that case, DCAS staff is instructed to “not attempt to forcefully deny entry” but to notify the general counsel’s office “immediately.”
DCAS did not respond to a request for comment from THE CITY.
A sign directs people to the entrance of a Department of Homeless Services-run shelter. Credit: Ben Fractenberg/THE CITY The city’s Department of Education sent out a similar directive to principals earlier this month, linking long-standing DOE guidance with even stronger language: “DOE does not consent to non-local law enforcement accessing school facilities in any circumstances, and principals and other school personnel may not give consent.”
The directive requires educators to first consult with a “Senior Field Counsel” even if ICE agents present a judicial warrant. Even if there are “exigent circumstances, such as imminent risk of death or physical harm,” principals must still contact the Education Department counsel, the NYPD and school safety agents on site.
In a Jan. 2 email blast to nonprofit providers who run hundreds of city shelters and other facilities, whose clients include many recent immigrants, the city’s Department of Social Services Commissioner, Molly Park, reminded them of the department’s policy for handling visits by non-local authorities like those from ICE.
“Non-local law enforcement officials, including federal officers and agents, may not enter DHS or HRA facilities, including those operated by a DHS or HRA provider/vendor, without a warrant signed by a judge, except in exigent circumstances,” the email read.
“In the event non-local law enforcement present a warrant signed by a judge, and before granting entry, DHS and its providers/vendors should immediately notify the appropriate Program Administrator and the DSS General Counsel.”
‘We’re Going to Follow the Law’
Beneath the bureaucratic language, the local government officials’ new memoranda speak to a sudden, lurching shift in immigration enforcement, departing from more than a decade of precedent.
A 2011 Obama-era memorandum barred most immigration enforcement in “sensitive locations” like schools, hospitals and houses of worship. Former President Biden updated the guidelines in 2021, adding other locations like playgrounds, recreation centers, homeless shelters, funerals, gravesites and rallies, among others.
The internal guidance did not appear to change during Trump’s first four years in office. But this time around, Trump repealed the memo in one of his first actions as president, according to a Tuesday press release from his Department of Homeland Security. The move was widely expected following reporting from NBC last month that a change was in the works.
P.S. 157 in Bed-Stuy has taken over 100 migrant children staying at the Hall Street shelter, Feb. 14, 2024. Credit: Ben Fractenberg/THE CITY Despite a flurry of warnings from city agencies in recent weeks about the prospect of ICE raids, Adams continued to avoid answering specific questions during his once-a-week availability to reporters Tuesday about how the city will handle Trump’s promised mass-deportation campaign.
“We’re telling our team to follow the law. The law is clear. We’re going to follow the law,” Adams said.
The mayor has steadfastly withheld any criticism of Trump, who has implied he might offer a pardon to the mayor related to the federal bribery and campaign finance fraud charges he currently faces.
Adams met with Trump at Mar-a-Lago over the weekend, then accepted a last-minute invitation to Trump’s inauguration Monday, cancelling his previously planned appearances at New York City events commemorating Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday.
Adams declined multiple requests from reporters to give his opinion about Trump’s Monday executive orders pardoning some 1,500 people involved in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riots and attempt to end birthright citizenship.
In response to several questions about how the city will respond to Trump’s initiatives, the mayor said, “Our team has been trained and we’ve done some training sessions,” but refused to provide details.
Asked for additional comment, Adams spokesperson Liz Garcia shared a Dec. 30 email from his chief of staff, Camille Verlack, that reaffirmed “our leadership’s commitment to stand firmly by the values that have made New York City a thriving city of immigrants, regardless of immigration status.” The communication went on to describe the city’s sanctuary protections that bar city officials from participating in immigration enforcement actions.
But following Trump’s election, the mayor has expressed doubts about the sanctuary laws in question.
Longstanding city laws and executive orders bar city government agencies from cooperating with immigration enforcement and even inquiring about immigration status, with limited exceptions for people convicted of certain violent felonies.
In December, after the City Council reaffirmed its support to keep those laws in place, Adams floated the idea of also finding ways to cooperate with federal law enforcement when it comes to undocumented immigrants who have been charged with violent felonies.
Naveed Hasan, an elected parent-member of the city’s Panel for Education Policy, said that while he is grateful the Department of Education has made it clear internally how schools are supposed to act if ICE turns up at their doors, the mayor’s failure to do so was causing a lot of uneasiness among educators.
“This could be said strongly by a mayor if he didn’t have an issue around needing something from the current president,” he said. “The last administration, Mayor de Blasio, was a champion of New York City residents. So to not have that in City Hall right now is causing a lot of consternation and a lot of paranoia.”
Related
In a shocking turn of events, internal memos have surfaced revealing that New York City government employees have been instructed to actively block ICE raids within the city. This directive comes amidst growing tensions between federal immigration enforcement agencies and local governments.The memos, which were leaked to the media, instruct employees to refuse entry to ICE agents without a warrant and to report any ICE activity to city officials immediately. The goal of these memos is to protect undocumented immigrants living in New York City from deportation and to uphold the city’s status as a sanctuary city.
This move has sparked controversy and debate among city officials, with some applauding the decision to protect immigrant communities and others criticizing the potential legal ramifications of defying federal immigration authorities.
As the debate continues to unfold, it is clear that tensions between local and federal government regarding immigration enforcement are at an all-time high. Stay tuned for further developments on this story.
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- New York City government
- ICE raids
- Internal memos
- Government employees
- NYC immigration policies
- Workplace instructions
- Employee guidelines
- Immigration enforcement
- NYC government news
- Immigration crackdowns
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