WASHINGTON — New data from the Department of Homeland Security show that New York municipalities declined more than 16,000 ICE requests to hold migrants suspected or convicted in cases involving more than 50,000 criminal charges during President Trump’s current term.
According to DHS, local jurisdictions across the Democratic-led state rejected 16,070 detainer requests since Trump returned to the White House less than two years ago. The cases involved migrants accused or convicted of crimes ranging from homicide and kidnapping to sexual assault.
“While sanctuary politicians continue to release dangerous criminals onto their streets, our brave law enforcement officers will continue to risk their lives to arrest these heinous criminals and make America safe again. Illegal aliens have no sanctuary in America,” DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin told The Post.
“We enforce these laws with no help from Mayor [Zohran] Mamdani and Governor [Kathy] Hochul,” Mullin added.
“The Trump administration is committed to protecting the American people in every city and every state, and we won’t let sanctuary politicians stand in our way,” he said.
An ICE detainer is a request to a state or local law-enforcement agency to keep a person in custody for up to 48 hours after that person would otherwise be released, giving federal immigration authorities time to assume custody.
New York allows local governments to establish their own policies, a system critics say has helped create so-called sanctuary jurisdictions, including New York City, where officials often decline to honor ICE detainers.
In August, Hochul signed the Local Cops, Local Crimes Act, which placed limits on certain forms of cooperation between state and local authorities and ICE in civil immigration matters.
Because of those restrictions, the Trump administration has labeled New York an entire “sanctuary state,” arguing that its policies hinder federal immigration enforcement.
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DHS said the rejected detainers were connected to 52,503 criminal charges or convictions involving migrants across New York since Trump took office, a figure the agency described as deeply concerning.
The offenses listed by DHS included 131 homicide cases, 132 kidnapping cases, 1,017 sexual offenses, 1,561 DUI charges, 1,631 burglaries, 1,776 robberies and 2,198 weapons violations.
The agency’s data also cited 9,502 assault charges and 4,324 cases involving dangerous drugs.
“Governor Hochul has been clear: New York State is not and never will be a sanctuary for violent criminals,” Alexia Nizhny, a spokeswoman for the governor, told The Post in response to the DHS figures.
“By law, New York State always notifies federal immigration enforcement of any non-citizen serving a State prison sentence,” Nizhny said in a statement.
She called any suggestion to the contrary “a blatant mischaracterization of the facts” intended to divert attention from what she described as the “cruelty and violence” involving Mullin’s ICE agents earlier in the week.
The governor’s office said approximately 2,000 people held in New York state facilities have been transferred to federal immigration authorities during the Trump administration.
The dispute over immigration enforcement intensified last week after ICE agents shot Oscar Belgal in the Bronx. Authorities said the incident occurred after Belgal allegedly drove his SUV toward federal officers.
Belgal’s 5-year-old child was in the back seat during the confrontation. ICE officials said Belgal ignored orders to leave the vehicle, struck two government cars and then accelerated toward the agents.
Belgal was shot in the neck and remains in federal custody.
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