US Sues New York to Make Immigration Arrests at Courthouses (2)

The US Department of Justice filed a lawsuit in federal court seeking to overturn New York laws and policies that prevent federal agents from arresting immigrants at or near New York courthouses.

This is the “latest lawsuit in a series of sanctuary city litigation,” US Attorney General Pamela Bondi said in a Justice Department news release. The suit “underscores the Department of Justice’s commitment to keeping Americans safe and aggressively enforcing the law,” she said.

The suit is part of the Trump administration’s plan to fight illegal immigration by shutting down sanctuary cities. In May it sued Newark, Jersey City, Paterson, and Hoboken, N.J., claiming that their policies protecting immigrants are unlawful. “While states and local governments are free to stand aside as the United States performs this important work, they cannot stand in the way,” the complaint filed in that case said.

The suit here comes just days after a Los Angeles protest over ICE raids was met with National Guard troops. California Governor Gavin Newsom cited a “serious breach of state sovereignty” and sued the Trump administration on June 9 over the deployment.

New York issued a prohibition through its Protect Our Courts Act, blocking civil immigration arrests and shielding aliens while they attend, or travel to and from New York court proceedings, the complaint filed Thursday in the US District Court for the Northern District of New York says.

Additionally, one of the state’s separate executive orders, which also prohibits state employees from sharing information with federal agents, is too broad—it covers too many people and too many places—it hinders President Donald Trump’s immigration policies, and it discriminates against federal agents, the complaint says.

“The Protect Our Courts Act ensures every New Yorker can access our courts and pursue justice without fear, because due process means nothing if people are too afraid to appear in court,” a spokesperson for New York Attorney General Letitia A. James told Bloomberg Law.

Arresting immigrants at or near courthouses makes sense, because it “reduces the risk of flight and safety risks to the public, law enforcement officers, and targets themselves,” the complaint says. Criminal warrants are often executed in courthouses for these very reasons and immigration enforcement should be allowed there as well, it says.

New York is obstructing federal law enforcement and facilitating “the evasion of federal law by dangerous criminals, notwithstanding federal agents’ statutory mandate to detain and remove illegal aliens,” the complaint says.

Because the federal government has exclusive jurisdiction to remove undocumented immigrants, New York’s regulations are invalid under the supremacy clause of the US Constitution, the complaint says.

The case is US v. New York, N.D.N.Y., No. 1:25-cv-00744, complaint filed 6/12/25.