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ICE enters NYC shelters armed and without judicial warrants, reports show
By
Arya Sundaram
Published Dec 15, 2025
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Selcuk Acar/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
By
Arya Sundaram
Published Dec 15, 2025
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Federal immigration officers were able to enter private areas of New York City shelters or obtain resident information without presenting judicial warrants at least five times earlier this year, according to official incident reports written by shelter staff and obtained by Gothamist.
New York City’s sanctuary laws bar city staffers from authorizing federal immigration officers to enter private areas of city property, with a few exceptions, including if they are presented with a judicial warrant or if there are “exigent circumstances,” such as imminent danger.
Yet on two occasions, incident reports show, shelter employees allowed immigration officers to enter private areas of shelters and, in a third case, gave officers information about a former resident, all without verifying that the officers had a judicial warrant. In those cases, legal experts who reviewed the reports said staff violated the city’s sanctuary laws.
In the two remaining cases, federal immigration officers bypassed front desk staff and entered private areas of city shelters without presenting a judicial warrant or getting staff permission — actions that attorneys say could also violate constitutional protections against unreasonable searches and seizures.
The federal agents’ actions described in the reports show how the city’s sanctuary laws are being tested by federal officials, and that city employees may not consistently have followed the law.
The Department of Social Services, which runs the vast majority of the city’s shelters, said their staff never deliberately violated protocol or the law. Neha Sharma, a city Department of Social Services spokesperson, said “any rare, minor, and inadvertent lapses in protocol” were addressed by updating and distributing clearer guidance about how to respond to requests by federal immigration agents.
Sharma also said that federal officers never gained access to “protected” private client information, such as case files, application data or other legally sensitive records.
A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, did not respond to requests for comment.
The incidents come to light shortly after the city Department of Investigation, in two separate reports, found city jail and police officers violated the city sanctuary laws.
The incidents described in the reports took place between January and May amid a surge in visits by federal immigration officers to city shelters. Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers visited city shelters in search of migrants at least 23 times in that period, after making no appearances at the facilities in all of 2024, according to the incident reports. The documents, obtained through a public records request, include numerous redactions, including of shelter locations and staff names.
The reports show at least one person was arrested after immigration officers entered a shelter. On Feb. 20, seven federal agents — wearing facemasks, camouflage, bulletproof vests and carrying guns — entered a Brooklyn shelter and arrested a 30-year-old resident from Venezuela, according to an incident report and the man’s attorney, Molly Lauterback. Lauterback said her client was arrested for immigration reasons, and had no criminal history.
“The extreme show of force here — seven armed agents in facemasks — was to intimidate staff so they could arrest our client in contravention of city law,” Lauterback, an immigration attorney with Brooklyn Defender Services, said in a statement.
ACCESS TO PRIVATE AREAS AND INFO
These are our summaries of the incidents where shelter staff allowed federal officers to enter private areas or obtain private information, without verifying the officers had a judicial warrant, according to the reports:
- On Jan. 24, ICE agents entered a shelter claiming they had an arrest warrant, but they did not provide a copy to shelter staff, according to the incident report. Federal agents presented an electronic warrant, but staffers were unable to verify that it was a judicial warrant, according to Sharma. In that case, a security guard opened a door to a residential unit for the officers, and the officers reviewed a resident’s sign-in book, the report said. As the officers were leaving, a Department of Social Services official, via telephone, “informed the ICE officers that they did not have the right to enter the building without an arrest warrant.” Sharma said the staff in that incident complied with the city guidance in place at the time, which has since changed.
- During a Feb. 20 incident, one shelter resident was arrested. Federal agents presented an administrative warrant, not a judicial warrant, according to a Homeland Security document obtained by Gothamist. Administrative warrants are insufficient for city staff to allow federal agents to enter private areas of city property. In that case, the federal officers told Department of Social Services staff that they had a judicial warrant, which is why shelter staff allowed them to enter, according to Sharma, the Department of Social Services spokesperson. Because of this incident, the agency has implemented a more robust procedure to verify judicial warrants, Sharma added.
- On March 18, a shelter staffer responded to questions by a Homeland Security officer, telling the officer that a former resident, a woman, no longer lived at the shelter and that she wasn't seen with any man. The agents did not present a judicial warrant, according to Sharma. At the time, Sharma said the shelter staffer assumed that she wasn’t sharing any confidential information by stating that an individual was no longer living at the shelter. Since this episode, Sharma said the agency has reiterated to shelter staff that they should tell federal officers that they are not permitted to share any information without a judicial warrant.
The incidents in which federal immigration officers entered private areas without presenting a judicial warrant or securing staff permission:
- On Feb. 12, a group of 11 police and federal officers ignored a front desk worker’s requests to identify themselves, sign-in and provide a warrant, according to the incident report. Instead, they “proceeded past the front desk and went directly to the first floor … without answering (redacted) questions.” The officers then questioned a female resident and requested she provide identification, according to the report. Afterward, they left the shelter. The NYPD said they could not respond to a request for comment about the incident without knowing the shelter location, which was redacted from the report.
- During an April 16 incident, a group of four federal officers followed a maintenance worker into a shelter “without authorization,” according to the incident report. The officers ignored a staffer’s questions, and “proceeded directly to the elevator without providing any names or badge numbers,” the report said. The officers knocked on the door of a resident’s room and asked staffers questions about residents, the report said, but the staff members refused to answer.
The incident reports are written by shelter staff shortly after an incident takes place. They were obtained by Gothamist through a public records request to the city Department of Social Services. The reports do not include incidents that may have taken place at emergency shelters run by other agencies.
Some 31,600 immigrants live in New York City’s shelters, representing over a third of the city’s shelter population, according to data provided by City Hall. Most of those immigrant residents are asylum seekers who came to the U.S. in recent years, according to city officials.
In January 2024, during the height of a surge in migrants coming to the city, as many as 69,000 migrants lived in city shelters, according to City Hall data. That number has declined since early 2024, as fewer immigrants have crossed the U.S.-Mexico border.
Under the U.S. Constitution and longstanding court rulings, law enforcement agents are required to have a judicial warrant or an occupant’s permission when entering private areas. The city’s sanctuary laws generally bar the use of city personnel or resources for immigration enforcement, which under the U.S. Constitution is a federal responsibility. Local law, except in rare circumstances, also generally bars city employees from sharing an individual’s identifying information — such as a person’s name, partnership status or current or previous addresses — with federal immigration officers.
Peter Markowitz, an immigration law professor and clinic co-director at Cardozo School of Law who helped draft the city’s sanctuary laws, said the reports that describe shelter staff granting federal agents access to private areas and confidential information are concerning.
“ The frontline personnel who are charged with asserting the city's rights under these laws just seem ill prepared, at least in these incidents, and there are too many (incidents) to excuse here,” Markowitz said.
Markowitz also said the city should add additional security measures to prevent federal officers from entering shelters without the permission of shelter staff.
“ We have a core problem of a lawless agency here that seems unconstrained by law,” Markowitz, said of Homeland Security and ICE agents.
Talia Peleg, a CUNY immigration law professor and CUNY law school clinic director who viewed the incident reports, said the Feb. 20 arrest and other missteps by shelter workers point to the need for strengthening the city’s sanctuary laws.
“The law doesn't have sufficient teeth,” she said.
None of the 23 shelter visits by federal immigration officers appeared in required quarterly reports, compiled by the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs, which features all instances of state and federal law enforcement requests to city agencies to assist with immigration enforcement.
Elisielle Lopes, a spokesperson for the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs, said her office and the city Law Department make the final decision about what incidents are included in the report.
“While we cannot share details as to why an instance may or may not have been reported due to legal sensitivities, our report is in full compliance with the law,” Lopes said in a statement.
The city’s decision to not include the shelter visits in the report “raises concern” about lack of proper oversight of the city’s sanctuary laws, Peleg said.
Josh Goldfein, a staff attorney with the Legal Aid Society’s Homeless Rights Project, said any lapses by shelter staff may have stemmed from guidance — which he called “at best, confusing” — that the Adams administration issued in January and later updated.
Sharma, the Department of Social Services spokesperson, concurred, saying the agency’s investigation into the five incidents flagged by Gothamist found that the issue was “a systemic vulnerability caused by former operational guidance.”
In mid-January, the Adams administration distributed memos to shelter providers instructing staff to allow immigration officers entry "if, at any time, you feel reasonably threatened or fear for your safety or the safety of others around you.”
Following public outcry about those instructions, the city Law Department in February updated its sanctuary law guidance for city staff, creating a flowchart of what to do in interactions with “non-local law enforcement.” A City Hall spokesperson at the time said the administration was not revoking its prior guidance but rather offering additional detail, for clarity purposes. A copy of the updated flowchart is now posted near the front of shelters across the city, according to Sharma.
Goldfein said the new guidance issued in February has helped staff deny access to federal immigration agents lacking judicial warrants. Several of the incident reports show that shelter workers turned away federal officers seeking to conduct “welfare checks” on minors or making other inquiries about shelter residents.
“Credit goes to those staff who are actually at the front door,” Goldfein said. "Those are the people who are being asked to enforce this (sanctuary law), and they have delivered.”
Sharma said the agency conducted “comprehensive systemwide trainings” on sanctuary laws in February for program directors, social workers and security guards across more than 400 shelters.
Sharma added: “Even though rare, we take every lapse in protocol incredibly seriously and continue to conduct refresher trainings on a case-by-case basis and our lawyers are always on hand to assist staff with navigating any complicated scenarios.”
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Race And Justice Unit
housing
immigration
new york city
Arya Sundaram
Arya is a reporter covering race and justice. Got a tip? Email: [email protected] or reach Arya on Signal at 512-650-8767.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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