DOJ Slams Hochul's Sanctuary Policies as 'Courts Act' Law Protects Criminal Migrants From ICE

A major federal-state conflict is unfolding as the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) challenges New York’s landmark Protect Our Courts Act signed into law by Governor Kathy Hochul. The DOJ is arguing it unlawfully limits the ability of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to detain undocumented migrants in and around state courthouses.

In its lawsuit, the DOJ charged that New York’s statute “poses intolerable obstacles to federal immigration enforcement and directly regulates and discriminates against the Federal Government, in contravention of the Supremacy Clause of the United States Constitution.” It added that New York “obstructs federal law enforcement and facilitates the evasion of federal law by dangerous criminals.”

The state argues that its law is justified because it protects the operations of its courts.

“No provision of the federal immigration laws evinces the necessary clear congressional intent to displace the State’s sovereign authority to protect the effective operations of its judicial system and its facilities from undue disruption,” state lawyers wrote. They emphasized that “the State’s common law privilege applies with full force to civil immigration arrests,” pointing to a historic doctrine limiting civil arrests in and around courthouses.

Hochul, while claiming to cooperate with federal efforts to remove violent non-citizen criminals, has publicly condemned ICE’s tactics when they involve families or happen in New York. In a statement responding to immigration raids, she said:

“I am outraged by this morning's ICE raids in Cato and Fulton, where more than 40 adults were seized – including parents of at least a dozen children at risk of returning from school to an empty house.”

She further stated: “I’ve made it clear: New York will work with the federal government to secure our borders and deport violent criminals, but we will never stand for masked ICE agents separating families and abandoning children. … Today’s raids will not make New York safer.”

At a congressional hearing, Hochul reiterated:

“What we don’t do is civil immigration enforcement. That’s the federal government’s job.”

The court battle exposes deeper tensions between New York’s sanctuary-style stance and the Trump administration’s hard-line immigration agenda.

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DOJ Slams Hochul's Sanctuary Policies as 'Courts Act' Law Protects Criminal Migrants From ICE