Gothamist
A non-profit newsroom, powered by WNYC.
Gothamist
Listen Live
News
NYC bill would allow individuals to sue for violations of sanctuary laws
By
Arya Sundaram
Published Dec 8, 2025
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
Never miss a story
Email address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .
Douglas Rissing/Getty Images
By
Arya Sundaram
Published Dec 8, 2025
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
We rely on your support to make local news available to all
Make your contribution now and help Gothamist thrive in 2026. Donate today
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Immigrants unlawfully detained by law enforcement and jail officers in violation of New York City’s sanctuary laws would be allowed to sue the city government under a City Council bill that received its first hearing on Monday.
The bill, called the New York City Trust Act, was introduced by Council Member Shahana Hanif of Brooklyn, who said the measure adds a necessary accountability mechanism, following several cases of city agencies violating the sanctuary laws.
Hanif pointed to recent Department of Investigation reports that found jail officers and police officers violated sanctuary city laws by unlawfully collaborating with federal immigration officers. Gothamist has also previously reported on emails showing city correction officers coordinating with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials, which Department of Correction leaders previously testified violated city policies.
The bill only applies to individuals held by the New York Police Department, the Department of Correction and the Department of Probation. It allows lawsuits by anyone detained in violation of the city's sanctuary laws or whose immigration detention resulted in part from unlawful city cooperation with federal immigration officers.
The city’s sanctuary laws broadly prohibit the use of city personnel and resources for federal immigration enforcement. Police and jail officers are also generally prohibited from transferring detainees into ICE custody except for when the individual has been convicted of a serious or violent crime and ICE has obtained a judicial warrant for their arrest.
“It would strengthen our existing sanctuary policy right now,” Hanif said in an interview before the hearing. “If there's an incident where local law enforcement aids ICE in detaining and deporting an individual, that individual doesn't have any recourse.”
Medha Venugopal, an attorney with the Center for Family Representation, told councilmembers she represented a woman who was taken into federal custody, and later released, after city child welfare workers unlawfully shared information about the client with ICE agents. Venugopal said she backed the legislation, though the measure, as written, wouldn’t apply in her client’s case.
“No agency should feel empowered to violate the law and there should be consequences when they do,” said Venugopal, reading a statement from her client, who was only identified in the hearing as “Jennifer.”
Deborah Lee, the head of the Legal Aid Society’s immigration practice, also testified in support of the New York City Trust Act. “This is critical because laws without remedies are hollow,” Lee said.
A year ago, the city agreed to pay up to $92.5 million to settle claims it unlawfully detained more than 20,000 undocumented immigrants beyond their scheduled release from city jails to transfer them into ICE custody. The acts occurred between 1997 and 2012, largely before the city’s sanctuary laws were in place. In a similar case, a Suffolk County jury awarded 700 immigrants $112 million.
The plaintiffs in those cases proceeded under causes of action based on false imprisonment and constitutional violations of due process, rather than any sanctuary protections.
Members of the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs, the Department of Correction and the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection were invited to testify at the hearing, according to the immigration committee chair, Alexa Aviles. But no City Hall officials appeared in their official capacity to testify at the hearing.
On the absence of City Hall officials, Aviles said at the hearing, “I’m so offended by this whole situation.”
Manuel Castro, the commissioner of the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs, testified in support of the bill, saying he was doing so in his personal capacity, adding that the Adams administration ultimately decides who testifies on the administration’s behalf. Aviles thanked Castro for appearing but condemned his work with Mayor Eric Adams.
“You have chosen to work with an administration that has thrown our communities under the bus time and time again,” Aviles said.
Castro did not respond in the moment to Aviles' criticism. There was no immediate comment from the mayor's office.
In written testimony submitted into the record, which was not attributed to any individual, the Department of Correction wrote that the agency “has concerns regarding the broad circumstances that may give rise to a claim” under the Trust Act.
Several other immigration-related bills were discussed at the hearing, including a measure that would entirely bar federal immigration authorities from setting up an office on Rikers Island for any purpose.
The City Council previously barred the city from allowing ICE to set up an office on Rikers Island but left an exception allowing the mayor to establish such an office "for purposes unrelated to the enforcement of civil immigration laws."
A federal judge in June blocked the Adams administration from setting up an ICE office on Rikers Island for criminal investigations.
Tagged
Race And Justice Unit
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.
Read more
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
MORE news
Dump truck driver hits and kills cyclist on 34th Street in Midtown, NYPD says
It's the latest in a string of hit-and-run deaths in the city in recent months.
By
Liam Quigley
Published Sep 28, 2026 at 4:15 p.m. ET
New ingredient mandated for Latin American kitchen, restaurant plates in NJ
The Garden State now requires that corn masa dough and flour made and sold in the state be fortified with folic acid.
By
Arya Sundaram
News
New ingredient mandated for Latin American kitchen, restaurant plates in NJ
The Garden State now requires that corn masa dough and flour made and sold in the state be fortified with folic acid.
By
Arya Sundaram
A Brooklyn jail cell filled with smoke. The emergency button failed, a lawyer said.
By
Samantha Max
Crews launch tunnel machines to dig first new Hudson River rail tunnels since 1910
By
Michael Sol Warren
NYC nor’easter dries up after weather service reports minor flooding
By
Ramsey Khalifeh
Never miss a story
Catch up on the most important headlines with a roundup of essential NYC stories, delivered to your inbox daily.
Sign upEmail address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .