U.S. District Judge Ramón E. Reyes Jr. threw out the Justice Department’s 2025 lawsuit against New York City, ruling the federal government lacked standing to challenge the city’s limits on honoring ICE detainers.
Reyes said the administration’s case was a “backdoor around the Tenth Amendment,” finding federal law does not preempt the city’s policies and does not require broader disclosures such as release dates or whereabouts.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani hailed the decision, saying the administration had tried to turn city workers into “deportation agents,” while former federal prosecutor Abhishek Kambli argued the ruling wrongly treated local obstruction as mere non-cooperation.
The dismissal adds to a string of losses for the Trump administration’s campaign against sanctuary jurisdictions, after similar cases involving Boston, Los Angeles and Minnesota were also rejected.