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ICE subpoena puts a spotlight on the last emergency migrant shelter in NYC
By
Arya Sundaram
Published Nov 10, 2026 at 10:01 a.m. ET
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John Lamparski/Getty Images
By
Arya Sundaram
Published Nov 10, 2026 at 10:01 a.m. ET
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The Mamdani administration is “evaluating next steps” after a federal judge ruled City Hall must comply with a federal subpoena seeking information about certain residents of a South Bronx shelter for migrant men, according to spokesperson for the mayor.
Ivonne Rodriguez, spokesperson for Mayor Zohran Mamdani, had no further comment after U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan ruled the city must provide to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement the names and birthdates of any shelter residents who had “serious criminal histories.” That includes residents charged with any of eight crimes: murder, manslaughter, rape, robbery, assault, grand larceny, burglary or assault of a law enforcement officer.
An ICE official previously stated in a sworn affidavit that the agency is aware of 20 immigrant residents of the shelter who have entered the country illegally and 12 who had been charged with a “serious” criminal offense.
City attorneys have fought the subpoena, arguing the request would require the city to conduct an unduly broad and burdensome investigation to produce the information.
The Department of Homeland Security declined to comment on the matter, citing ongoing litigation.
The legal action focuses on the last emergency shelter for migrants in the city. During the peak of the “migrant crisis,” as former Mayor Eric Adams termed it, the city maintained more than 260 shelters, including in sprawling tent cities and hotels across the five boroughs and in upstate communities, to house an influx of more than 240,000 migrants and asylum seekers.
Over 1,400 single adult migrant men resided at the Bronx shelter as of the end of June, according to City Hall data provided to City Council. The Bronx shelter's population has slowly shrunk over the course of this year, down from 1,670 residents in February, according to the data. The shelter was originally designed to hold up to 2,200 residents.
As of the end of June, shelters across the city were housing 27,120 migrants and asylum seekers, the vast majority of whom are families with children, according to the City Council data. That’s down from a peak of nearly 68,000 in January 2024, according to city comptroller data.
The ruling comes amid a drop-off of in visits by federal immigration officers to city shelters, seeking access to and information about immigrant residents. Federal immigration officers visited city shelters six times in the second half of last year and four times in the first half of this year, according to quarterly city reports.
That follows a surge in such visits in the first six months of President Donald Trump’s second term, a trend first reported by Gothamist. The Gothamist analysis of those visits found that federal immigration officers were able to enter private areas of city shelters or obtain resident information without presenting judicial warrants at least five times earlier this year, raising questions about whether both federal officers and local shelter employees were following the law.
The Bronx shelter opened in February 2025. Soon after taking office Jan. 1, 2026, Mamdani announced plans to close the shelter by the end of the year.
While thousands of other migrants and asylum-seekers continue to reside in the city’s shelter system, the Bronx shelter is unique in that it’s the only shelter specifically designated for migrants and operating outside of the normal Department of Homeless Services system. That allows the city to operate outside the framework of laws governing city shelters, including restrictions on size. City law currently prohibits most shelters larger than 200 people.
The shelter is currently run by the mayor’s office of Housing Recovery Operations. It is the last official Humanitarian Emergency Response and Relief Center, generally large-scale migrant shelters first announced by former Mayor Eric Adams’ administration in September 2022.
The Bronx shelter has been plagued by concerns of bed bugs and poor food, as reported by local news outlets the City Reporter and Documented. Before opening, the shelter also garnered the ire of local residents and officials, who saw the placement of the shelter in their borough as further representation that the Bronx was unfairly shouldering the city’s undesirables.
Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson, who originally opposed the shelter, has also spoken out against the judge’s ruling requiring City Hall to hand over to ICE information about some of the shelter’s residents. In a social media post over the weekend, she wrote “HELL NO!”
Tagged
Asylum Seekers
Race And Justice Unit
bronx
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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