NEW YORK CITY, NY – A nonprofit legal group based out of Washington, DC, is spreading the word to New York’s Finest that despite the likes of mandates and sanctuary policies purportedly forbidding officers from cooperating with federal immigration authorities, NYPD officers are well within their legal rights to directly contact Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
America First Legal tout themselves as “a nonprofit law firm founded to unapologetically and boldly defend the rights of everyday Americans,” emphasizing that among their priorities are efforts to “challenge unconstitutional mandates, expose the weaponization of government agencies, defend parents and children against ideological indoctrination in schools, demand strong and secure borders, and safeguard the integrity of our elections.”
Based upon a currently unreleased 35-page handbook obtained by Fox News reportedly created by America First Legal, it would appear the aforementioned nonprofit is spearheading an effort in New York City on their “strong and secure borders” mission via educating local police officers on their rights to engage with ICE despite any local policies and orders prohibiting such.
The unreleased booklet, aptly titled, “Law Enforcement Officer Immigration Cooperation Guide,” outlines how NYPD officers can freely share a subject’s immigration status with ICE, pointing to Section 1373 of Title 8 of the U.S. Code which expressly forbids local governments from prohibiting their employees or law enforcement officers from communicating with federal agencies like ICE.
Per the federal statute’s general section, it reads in part, “a Federal, State, or local government entity or official may not prohibit, or in any way restrict, any government entity or official from sending to, or receiving from, the Immigration and Naturalization Service information regarding the citizenship or immigration status, lawful or unlawful, of any individual.”
This past February, Mayor Zohran Mamdani signed an executive order furthering the sanctuary policies of the city, where restrictions on the NYPD were imposed which included a prohibition on information sharing with federal immigration authorities sans a judicial warrant. According to America First Legal, said restrictions imposed on the NYPD are essentially unenforceable when stacked against standing federal law.
America First Legal’s booklet informs officers they can contact ICE’s 24-hour Law Enforcement Support Center where only a name and date of birth would be needed to verify a subject’s immigration status, reiterating that officers can contact the hotline “regardless of any local directive telling you not to.”
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