Thank you, Chair Encarnación and members of the committee for holding this hearing today. My name is Isabel Ortega-Romero, and I am here representing Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso.
New York City is home to 3.1 million immigrants (38% of the City’s population).1 This city was and continues to be built by immigrants of all backgrounds and cultures. Immigrants comprise 43% of the city’s workforce, and in 2024 alone, immigrant New Yorkers paid $74.8 billion in taxes ($43.5 billion federal, $31.3 billion state and local) and represented $160.5 billion in spending power.2 However, immigrants are far more than the labor they provide; they are our neighbors, community members, friends, and family. In recent months, federal immigration enforcement has aggressively escalated, putting these New Yorkers and their families at risk.
The EO 13 Report Audit states that New York City has experienced a 71% increase in ICE enforcement between January 20, 2025 and March 10, 2026, with a total of 5,567 arrests during that period.3 ICE arrested more people this July than in any other month during President Trump’s second term (approximately 50,000 arrests nationwide and 804 arrests in New York City).4
New York City is a sanctuary city, yet its people are living in fear. Fear of leaving their homes, fear of walking their children to school, fear that stepping out to go to work might end up in indefinite separation from their loved ones. Sanctuary city laws are only as strong as their enforcement, which means City government has a duty to hold its agencies accountable for any violations.
Recently, the administration conducted an audit of City agencies to evaluate compliance with sanctuary city laws and assess their interactions with federal immigration enforcement.
1 https://cmsny.org/publications/data-briefing-on-new-york-city-immigrants/
2 https://comptroller.nyc.gov/reports/facts-not-fear-how-welcoming-immigrants-benefits-new-york-city;
https://www.nyc.gov/assets/immigrants/downloads/pdf/MOIA-2021-Report.pdf; map.immigrationcouncil.org;
https://comptroller.nyc.gov/newsroom/mythbusting-amid-rising-anti-immigrant-rhetoric-comptroller-lander-unveils-fact-sheet-on-how-immigrants-benefit-new-york-city/
4 https://www.thecityreporter.nyc/2026/08/28/ice-arrests-peak-july-children-no-criminal-record/
Ultimately, the audit revealed that many City agencies were not in compliance with the law. For example, a Department of Correction investigator shared private information with HSI regarding a detainee’s immigration status and helped ICE track their release, which led to the detainee’s arrest upon release from Rikers. This exceeded the scope of NYC Admin. Code § 9-131, which limits DOC from conducting general immigration enforcement and sharing non-public inmate information with ICE unless certain exceptions apply.
In December of 2025, an NYPD officer honored an HSI request for civil immigration enforcement. This was in direct violation of N.Y.C. Admin. Code § 14-154, which prohibits NYPD from aiding HSI in conducting civil immigration enforcement unless there is a judicial warrant and the person has been convicted of a violent or serious crime. In other instances, federal agents entered shelters under the guise of conducting wellness checks on children, posing as FDNY officers, detaining shelter clients, and at times pushing past shelter staff.
We commend the mayor for conducting this audit and agree with its recommendations, including providing more training for staff regarding sanctuary city laws and agency-specific guidelines, conducting more frequent agency audits, requiring reporting of detainer requests and federal immigration interactions on a quarterly basis, and requiring NYPD and DOC email audits. However, the only way to really ensure compliance is through serious enforcement of the law and the institution of penalties for agencies that repeatedly fail to follow it. Deliberate or accidental negligence is unacceptable when the result is the same: unlawful detention of New Yorkers. Complicity with federal enforcement terrorizing our neighbors erodes trust in City government
For these reasons, we recommend the following:
- Form an independent commission to audit, monitor, and enforce compliance with sanctuary city laws and agency-specific guidelines. This commission would hold City agencies accountable for violations and conduct quarterly audits to thoroughly examine instances of non-compliance and misconduct. New Yorkers deserve to know whether their municipal agencies are undermining the protections they elected their representatives to establish.
- Draft legislation creating penalties for violations of sanctuary city laws. Recommendations are not enough to ensure that agencies will abide by the law. City Council should establish mandatory disciplinary action; fines; procedure for removing officers, employees, and agency leadership; and other enforcement mechanisms for repeat violations.
The intent of these recommendations is not to punish City agencies, but to ensure that they abide by city law designed to protect the safety and rights of all New Yorkers regardless of national origin. In a city of immigrants, a beacon of freedom and opportunity, failure to protect New Yorkers’ rights, whether deliberate or accidental, is inexcusable. We can only fight a tyrannical government that constantly violates the law by ensuring that our local laws are respected and abided by both local and federal government agencies.
Lastly, Borough President Reynoso strongly supports Resolution 626, which requires the Secretary of Homeland Security to designate Haiti for Temporary Protected Status. In a city with approximately 116,000 Haitian residents (5,400 of whom are TPS holders) it is inconceivable that the federal government would leave thousands of people without legal status. We hope that S.4814 passes, so that our Haitian community can access healthcare, education, and employment without fear of legal uncertainty.
Thank you again for holding this hearing today. We look forward to continuing to work alongside you in ensuring that City government advances justice, promotes public trust, and honors the legal protections meant to prevent unlawful persecution of New Yorkers who call this city home.
