Council leaders seek probe of possible NYPD sanctuary city violations

By Gwynne Hogan | THE CITY (Reposted by The Haitian Times)
Two City Council leaders are requesting a probe into whether the NYPD has been violating New York City’s sanctuary laws, which are supposed to bar local authorities from participating in federal immigration enforcement. 

In a letter sent Monday, Speaker Adrienne Adams and Oversight and Investigations Committee Chair Gale Brewer asked the Department of Investigation to look into several incidents this year where the lines between civil immigration enforcement and criminal investigations may have been blurred.

“We are concerned by recent reports that information provided to federal agencies by the NYPD is now being used in civil immigration proceedings in ways that may violate New York City’s laws and New Yorkers’ Constitutional rights,” the lawmakers wrote, adding that “these incidents appear to have resulted in multiple people being detained or sent to a prison in El Salvador without due process.”

The letter cites a report from THE CITY and Documented about 19-year-old Merwil Gutiérrez Flores, who the NYPD arrested and charged with gun possession in The Bronx but not prosecuted. Nonetheless, he ended up in FBI and then ICE custody, and was swiftly deported to CECOT, the notorious El Salvadoran prison.

The letter also mentions the NYPD providing Homeland Security Investigations with the sealed arrest record of Leqaa Kordia, who was arrested outside Columbia University during pro-Palestinian demonstrations in the spring. Federal officials told the NYPD they were investigating her for money laundering, which was why police officials said they shared the record. But Kordia was already in ICE custody when ICE made the request, and federal attorneys later used the NYPD document in its deportation case against her.

A spokesperson for Mayor Eric Adams — who had been facing federal corruption charges until the Trump administration dropped that case, and who’s vowed not to publicly criticize the president, which the letter-writers say has diminished public trust in his leadership — didn’t immediately return a request for comment on the letter.  The NYPD also did not immediately return a request for comment. 

Clodagh McGowan, a spokesperson for the DOI, said they received the letter and are reviewing it.

In April, the Council sued the Adams administration over an executive order allowing ICE to reopen an office on Rikers Island, which a judge has temporarily blocked from occurring. The mayor’s attorneys have said the lawsuit is a political ploy by someone seeking his job, as Speaker Adams, who’s term-limited out of office, is running for the Democratic mayoral nomination.  

While the NYPD regularly collaborates with federal agencies on criminal matters, it is barred from cooperating on civil immigration matters under a series of laws signed by former Mayor Bill de Blasio. 

But in an era where the Trump administration has made mass deportations a priority, with other federal agencies deputized for that effort, the Council members’ letter notes mounting concerns that the NYPD might be aiding in those efforts, “intentionally or unintentionally.”

The sanctuary city laws, they wrote, “are grounded in a  simple principle: when  immigrant communities  fear  cooperation  with  law  enforcement, everyone is less safe.” 

They added that “New Yorkers must trust that their own city government will not participate in their civil  rights being violated, and these recent episodes raise serious doubts that should be urgently  addressed.  Any violations of city laws by our own agencies  undermine the rule of law, public confidence, and public safety.

Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch has repeatedly said the NYPD does not collaborate with the federal government on civil immigration enforcement but defends collaboration on criminal matters as essential to keep New Yorkers safe. 

Asked last month at a Council hearing if she was considering changes to the NYPD’s relationship with federal agencies in light of the Trump administration’s deportation push, she had a blunt reply. 

“The short, straight answer to this is no,” she testified.

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