A federal judge has delivered a clear defeat to New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s sanctuary-city obstruction, ordering his administration to turn over identifying information on certain male residents of a city-run Bronx homeless shelter to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
In a ruling issued Friday, November 6, U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan, a Bill Clinton appointee, sided with federal immigration authorities in their months-long battle with New York City over records involving residents of the Bruckner Boulevard homeless shelter in Mott Haven.
The decision clears the way for ICE to obtain the names and dates of birth of certain male shelter residents with serious criminal histories, subject to screening by a court-appointed special master.
According to the New York Post, the city repeatedly fought requests from ICE for identifying information about people living inside the sprawling migrant facility.
But Kaplan rejected the city’s arguments that the subpoena was excessively burdensome or an improper attempt to circumvent New York’s sanctuary policies.
In his November 6 memorandum opinion, Kaplan wrote that the city “has not shown that producing this list would be unduly burdensome” and that the records are “material and relevant to the enforcement of the federal immigration laws.”
He rejected the city’s claims of an improper “fishing expedition” and speculation that ICE was mainly trying to undermine local sanctuary policies, stating that nothing in the record showed the agency sought the information for any reason other than enforcing immigration law against those with serious criminal histories.
The parties have two weeks to submit a proposed order on the special master’s appointment and compensation.
The Bruckner facility is a converted South Bronx warehouse/storage building with roughly 2,000–2,200 beds. It has served as the city’s last major emergency migrant housing site for asylum-seeking men, many transferred from the troubled Randall’s Island tent complex.
ICE has documented that approximately 100 people received immigration mail there, at least 20 had entered illegally and listed the address, and at least a dozen had been charged with one of the specified serious crimes.
The agency’s investigation focuses on whether unlawfully present individuals with criminal histories are housed there and may be subject to removal.
This is not ICE’s first attempt. Federal officials issued multiple subpoenas beginning in August 2025 (at least four), initially seeking broader resident data from city shelters.
The city repeatedly refused, calling earlier requests an “improper fishing expedition lacking any legitimate investigative purpose” and arguing they would circumvent sanctuary rules that limit local cooperation with federal immigration enforcement.
Kaplan’s order effectively ends that resistance for this facility under the narrowed, special-master process.
Mamdani spokesperson Ivonne Rodriguez said the administration is “evaluating next steps,” and New York Attorney General Letitia James indicated she is reviewing the possibility of an appeal, according to Politico.
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