WASHINGTON — The House Judiciary Committee opened a probe Wednesday into seven New York City officials over their alleged “refusal to cooperate” with the Trump administration’s immigration agenda due to so-called “sanctuary” policies.
Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement Chairman Tom McClintock (R-Calif.) fired off letters to all five of the Big Apple’s district attorneys, including Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg, Jr., as well as to NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch and Department of Corrections Commissioner Stanley Richards to demand records on enforcement.
The GOP lawmakers accused the city officials of abiding by policies that prioritize “criminal and illegal aliens over American citizens,” posing a threat to public safety.
“From July 1, 2022, through June 30, 2025, NYCDOC honored less than 4% of detainers that ICE lodged during that timeframe,” they wrote in their letter to Richards.
“During the same period, NYCDOC declined to honor detainers for nearly 1,000 criminal aliens.”
Since President Trump’s return to office, ICE agents have been clashing with protesters at detention facilities, courthouses and even hospitals while trying to carry out deportations of migrants.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani have spurred on opposition, the committee said — acknowledging that state and local laws prevent the NYPD from routine cooperation with ICE.
“For years, New York’s sanctuary laws have prevented NYPD from complying with most ICE detainers,” they wrote in the letter to Tisch.
“Instead, NYPD may only honor an ICE detainer if it is accompanied by a judicial warrant and is for a foreign national who is ‘convicted of a violent or serious crime’ or ‘is identified as a possible match in the terrorist screening database.’”
Reps. Jordan and McClintock pointed out that thousands of detainer requests lodged with the city at the start of 2025, the “majority were not honored” — and none had been honored during the Biden administration.
“When will our sanctuary city laws be amended to allow us to notify federal authorities regarding the deportation of non-citizens convicted of violent crimes? Failing to act enables individuals like Daniel Davon-Bonilla to continue victimizing women in our city,” then-NYPD Chief of Patrol John Chell asked on X in August 2024.
“He was arrested in April 2023 for sexually assaulting a woman in Brooklyn. The criminal justice system did its job—he was convicted, sentenced, and released in June 2024,” Chell added. “But after being released, he returned to the streets and violently assaulted another woman in Coney Island this past Sunday.”
Executive actions from Mamdani have further reduced local cops’ ability to coordinate with immigration agents.
Bragg also instructed prosecutors in his office to “seek dispositions that avoid immigration consequences for all misdemeanors, and all felonies for which non-carceral outcomes are the presumptive outcome,” Jordan and McClintock wrote in one of the letters.
In March, Bragg’s office entered into a plea agreement with a 31-year-old transgender migrant who sexually assaulted a 14-year-old boy in East Harlem last year — earning the ire of Department of Homeland Security officials who called it a “gross miscarriage of justice.”
“As a result of your office’s policies, the illegal alien, who the BidenHarris Administration released into the United States in 2023, will serve less than one year in jail for assaulting a teenager,” the Republicans said.
Staten Island District Attorney Michael McMahon, Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz, Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez, Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark were also faulted by the Judiciary panel leaders for giving preferential treatments to illegal immigrants through their policies.
In some cases, the prosecutors established special units or positions within their offices to protect the migrants, the GOPers added.
Each has been asked to hand over by June 10 documents and communications about their offices’ immigration-related policies with respect to ICE, the NYPD and the Department of Corrections, as well as relevant case information.
The Judiciary Republicans sent similar letters to officials in Boston and Denver, inquiring about their sanctuary policies.
Reps for the seven offices didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly attributed comments on X to NYPD Chief of Patrol Philip Rivera. They were, in fact, made by his predecessor, John Chell.
