New York City, New York: Federal Judge Orders City to Comply With ICE Subpoena for Bronx Shelter Records

A federal judge in New York has ordered the city to comply with an ICE subpoena for records from a Bronx homeless shelter, rejecting the Mamdani administration's argument that the demand was political. US District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan issued the 12 page order on Friday, November 6, granting the federal prosecutors' petition to enforce the October 2025 subpoena from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

What the order requires

The subpoena seeks the names and birth dates of men living at the Bruckner shelter at 825 East 141st Street in the South Bronx. ICE does not get the full roster. The agency agreed to a court-appointed special master, who will review the records and pass along only the names of residents charged with any of eight offenses, from murder and rape to burglary and assault of a law enforcement officer.

Kaplan cited sworn statements from a supervisor in ICE's Homeland Security Investigations division. The agency said it knew of about 100 people receiving immigration mail at the shelter, at least 20 who had entered the country illegally and listed the shelter as home, and 12 who listed it and had been charged with one of the eight offenses.

A demand that shrank over a year

The fight began in August 2025, when ICE sought the names and birth dates of every man at two city shelters. The city called the request an improper fishing expedition, and the agency narrowed its demand three times over the next two months until it covered only the Bruckner shelter. City lawyers also argued that ICE was using its subpoena power to undermine New York's sanctuary laws, which limit local cooperation with federal immigration enforcement.

Kaplan found no support in the record for the claim of political motive. He concluded that the subpoena concerns a matter "material and relevant to the enforcement of the federal immigration laws," and he noted that judges play a narrow role in such disputes and must defer to an agency's view of what is relevant unless it is plainly wrong.

What happens next

Kaplan gave the city and the federal government 14 days to submit a proposed order appointing the special master and setting how that official will be paid. As of Friday, City Hall had not decided whether to appeal. Ivonne Rodriguez, a spokeswoman for Mayor Zohran Mamdani, said the administration is weighing its next steps. New York Attorney General Letitia James said her office is reviewing the possibility of an appeal. Murad Awawdeh, who leads the New York Immigration Coalition, urged an appeal and called ICE's original demand "a dragnet, not an investigation."

For the men at the Bruckner shelter, the ruling means a court-appointed reviewer will now go through the shelter's records and decide which names, if any, move to federal immigration agents under the eight offense test the judge approved.