Trump Administration Clashes with New York City Policy on Detaining Immigrants

In what could be an attempt to shame so-called sanctuary cities, the Trump administration put out the first of what it says will be weekly lists of cities that don't cooperate with detainers. These are requests by Immigration and Customs Enforcement for local police and jails to turn over unauthorized immigrants wanted in connection with crimes.

Monday's list says ICE requested four individuals in New York in February, but city authorities declined to cooperate. The agency claimed one person from Ecuador, who was at central booking in Brooklyn, and another from Mexico, who was at Rikers, were both convicted of crimes. The first was convicted of possessing obscene materials and the second was convicted of "dangerous drugs." The other two were charged with intimidation and assault, and were, respectively, an Indian national at central booking in Queens and a Mexican national at Rikers. No further information was provided.

However, each person had been originally arrested or convicted within the past two years. They then came into contact with law enforcement in February, triggering ICE to request that they be held for an additional 48 hours until they could be transferred to its own agents to face deportation charges.

New York City law mostly limits cooperation with ICE to cases where there's a warrant for someone convicted of a violent crime.

Nisha Agarwal, the city's Commissioner of Immigrant Affairs, issued a statement saying, "The notion that NYC has competing interest when it comes to public safety and immigrants fundamentally misunderstands the formula in a city like ours, where 40 percent of the residents are foreign born. Our top priority is safety, and that means we need every resident — regardless of immigration status — to feel comfortable interacting with law enforcement and reporting crimes."

She added that the city voluntarily responds to requests from federal immigration authorities, "when they're looking for an individual in our custody who is a serious threat to the safety of all New Yorkers, immigrant or otherwise."

The city also took issue with ICE for misrepresenting its policies in a section of the weekly list. And the agency mistakenly put Nassau County on a list of municipalities that do not cooperate with detainer requests.