A federal judge has ordered New York City to give ICE the names and birthdates of Bronx shelter residents with serious criminal histories, after the city fought the request for more than a year.
Story Highlights
- Judge Lewis A. Kaplan ruled that the city must comply with an ICE subpoena for records from a large Bronx shelter for men.
- The judge wrote that the city “has not shown that producing this list would be unduly burdensome.”
- A court-appointed special master will screen the list first, and only names tied to serious criminal histories will go to ICE.
- Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s office says it is “evaluating next steps,” and a possible appeal is under review.
- ICE says at least a dozen men at the shelter had been charged with crimes named in the subpoena, which range from murder and rape to burglary and assault of a law enforcement officer. They are accused, not convicted.
What The Judge Ordered
On Friday, November 6, U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan, a federal judge in Manhattan appointed by President Bill Clinton, ordered New York City to comply with a subpoena from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The subpoena seeks the names and birthdates of men living in a city-run shelter at 825 East 141st Street, on Bruckner Boulevard in the Mott Haven section of the Bronx. ICE says it wants the records to learn whether residents with serious criminal histories are in the country illegally and can be deported.
A subpoena is a legal demand for records. Congress lets immigration officers issue their own subpoenas during investigations, and when someone refuses, the government can ask a federal judge to enforce one. That is what happened here. In a 12-page order, Judge Kaplan found that the subpoena concerns a matter “material and relevant to the enforcement of the federal immigration laws.”
A Fight That Began In August 2025
ICE first asked for shelter records on August 6, 2025, when Eric Adams was still mayor. That first request covered two city-run shelters and sought the names and birthdates of all the men living there. The city refused, calling it “an improper fishing expedition lacking any legitimate investigative purpose.” ICE has issued four subpoenas since then, according to reports, and the dispute landed in federal court in December 2025.
Mamdani took office in January 2026 and kept up the fight. Along the way, ICE agreed to narrow its demand. Instead of every man’s name, it will receive only the names of residents with certain serious criminal histories. The crimes listed in the subpoena range from murder and rape to burglary and assault of a law enforcement officer.
Why The City’s Burden Argument Failed
The city argued that pulling the list together would be too heavy a load and that ICE had no real investigative purpose. Judge Kaplan disagreed on both points. “The City has not shown that producing this list would be unduly burdensome,” he wrote. He also found nothing in the record showing that ICE wanted the information for any reason other than enforcing immigration law against people with serious criminal histories, according to reports on the ruling.
The shelter has about 2,200 beds and serves single adult men, many of them migrants. The city’s own court papers put its population at 1,921 men in late December 2025. The judge’s finding removed one of the city’s main objections to producing the list for that one building.
How The Special Master Will Work
A special master is an independent person a judge appoints to handle a specific job in a case. Here, the city will hand its shelter list to the special master, not to ICE. The special master will check the names against the serious-crimes list and pass along only the residents who match. The two sides have two weeks to propose who will fill the role and how that person will be paid.
Under this setup, the names of residents without a qualifying criminal history do not go to federal agents. Some of the men whose names are passed along may have been charged but not convicted, and a criminal history alone does not make someone deportable. The order gives ICE names to investigate, not a list of people to remove.
What The City Says Next
Mamdani spokesperson Ivonne Rodriguez said the administration is “evaluating next steps.” New York Attorney General Letitia James’s office is reviewing a possible appeal, according to reports. No appeal had been filed as of Monday, November 9, according to reports.
Mamdani has made his position plain. In early November he said “our city will not assist in immigration enforcement” under its sanctuary laws, which limit how city agencies help federal immigration agents. The ruling does not strike down those laws, but the city must follow the court’s order unless a higher court steps in.
Sources:
thegatewaypundit.com, politico.com, wsj.com, nydailynews.com, nypost.com, washingtonexaminer.com
